Bruce Von Stiers

Thomas Perry is a top notch crime fiction novelist. His books include The Butcher’s Boy, Metzger’s Dog and Death Benefits. His latest effort is called Pursuit. It was published by Random House.

Daniel Milliken is in Louisville for a conference. He is a criminology professor who gets consulted on cases nationwide. Daniel is asked to look over a crime scene. Everyone in a restaurant has been murdered, from the guests to the staff. Milliken determines that this was not a random killing and one man was the specific target. A short time later the man’s father tries to hire Milliken to find out who was responsible. Reluctantly, Milliken refers the father to Roy Prescott. It seems that Prescott is a hunter who tracks down monsters that the cops can’t find or get to.

Prescott figures out that the killer is a sociopath, not caring much about life or death. After trying to flush him out, the killer kills two people just to prove to Prescott he can do it. The killer thinks that he has Prescott on the ropes, but he bounces right back.

Prescott and the killer, whose name is Varney, move all around the country in a cat and mouse game. Just when Prescott is about to spring the trap, Varney escapes and kills a couple of more people. Pretty soon the body count starts getting pretty high.

Thomas Perry shows with Pursuit why I, and other reviewers, consider him to be one of the best crime fiction writers. The story keeps bouncing you between Prescott and Varney so you get a good feel of what each character is thinking and doing. The psychological drama that is playing out provides a great backdrop for a race to see who will die first. Will Varney walk away with all the marbles or will Prescott bring him down? The action is good and the story line all too likely in this age we live in.