Silence
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

Edgar-winner Perry (Pursuit) delivers another intelligent, literate thriller. Jack Till, a retired LAPD detective turned PI, has settled into a somewhat monastic existence, at the center of which is his 21-year-old daughter, Holly, who has Down syndrome. Six years earlier, Till helped restaurateur Wendy Harper escape from would-be assailants. Showing her the techniques the police use to track down fugitives, Till taught the woman to assume a new identity and begin a new life. When Harper disappeared, many assumed she was murdered. Now, years later, someone is trying to frame Eric Fuller, Harper's business partner and sometime boyfriend, for her murder. The only way for Till to prove Fuller's innocence is to produce Harper in the flesh, but first he has to find her and persuade her to come back while evading assassins Paul and Sylvie Turner, who have been hired to kill Harper when she resurfaces. As always, Perry excels at the procedural details, keeps up the pace throughout and will have readers guessing until the end. Author tour. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

When an innocent man is accused of killing his long-missing ex-girlfriend, P.I. and ex-cop Jack Till steps forward to find the now-presumed-dead Wendy Harper. Till is the logical choice to search for Wendy, as he's the man who helped her disappear six years earlier to escape from someone who had wanted her dead. His job is to track Wendy down before she's found by a couple of killers hired by the same person who had tried to murder her the first time. Although the pace is almost leisurely, there's plenty of action and the characters are nicely developed, including the hired killers. It's this character development, along with realistic dialog, that make Perry's latest better than most suspense novels. No matter how much happens or how quickly events unfold, it's ultimately Till and Harper who carry this novel, and the reader will be all the much happier for that. Recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 3/1/07.]-Craig Shufelt, Fort McMurray P.L., Alta. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Finally, a tale that answers the unwelcome question: Is it possible for suspense master Perry (Nightlife, 2006, etc.) to write a routine thriller? Following the suspicious disappearance of one of restaurateur Wendy Harper's waitresses six years ago, a brush with an assailant's baseball bat persuaded her that it was time to do some disappearing of her own. Now recently discovered evidence has implicated her ex-partner/ex-fianc Eric Fuller in her murder, and the only way to clear him is to get her to come forward. It's obvious to everyone but the LAPD and the prosecutor that the evidence is a plant specifically designed to flush her out of hiding. But Jack Till, the ex-cop private eye who helped her vanish, feels he has no choice but to hunt her down and bring her back. So far so breathless, and Perry's first set piece, which brings husband-and-wife hit team Paul and Sylvie Turner to Las Vegas in search of their target, is a beaut. But then things start to go wrong--not for Jack or Wendy, but for readers in search of thrills. The assassins waste their energy in conjugal spats ("Let's kill them now and rent a room"). Perry, whose control of pace is usually unequaled, begins to clutter the story with so many flashbacks providing unnecessary information about his leads that you wonder if you're going to hear about the car-rental agent's childhood. As both Jack and the killers close in on Wendy, the suspense wanes instead of building. After spending half his story ignoring the question of why someone still wants Wendy dead after six years, the obliging author crosses every T of the mastermind's identity and motivation, utterly demystifying him in the process. As they approach the finish line, the killers are more bedeviled than the heroes. Wait till next year, when the normally reliable Perry is bound to come up trumps again. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Jack Till must now find the woman he helped disappear six years ago before a tango-dancing assassin couple do. Edgar and Gumshoe Award winner Perry lives in Southern California. Six-city author appearances. Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

When an innocent man is accused of killing his long-missing ex-girlfriend, P.I. and ex-cop Jack Till steps forward to find the now-presumed-dead Wendy Harper. Till is the logical choice to search for Wendy, as he's the man who helped her disappear six years earlier to escape from someone who had wanted her dead. His job is to track Wendy down before she's found by a couple of killers hired by the same person who had tried to murder her the first time. Although the pace is almost leisurely, there's plenty of action and the characters are nicely developed, including the hired killers. It's this character development, along with realistic dialog, that make Perry's latest better than most suspense novels. No matter how much happens or how quickly events unfold, it's ultimately Till and Harper who carry this novel, and the reader will be all the much happier for that. Recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 3/1/07.]—Craig Shufelt, Fort McMurray P.L., Alta.

Edgar-winner Perry (Pursuit ) delivers another intelligent, literate thriller. Jack Till, a retired LAPD detective turned PI, has settled into a somewhat monastic existence, at the center of which is his 21-year-old daughter, Holly, who has Down syndrome. Six years earlier, Till helped restaurateur Wendy Harper escape from would-be assailants. Showing her the techniques the police use to track down fugitives, Till taught the woman to assume a new identity and begin a new life. When Harper disappeared, many assumed she was murdered. Now, years later, someone is trying to frame Eric Fuller, Harper's business partner and sometime boyfriend, for her murder. The only way for Till to prove Fuller's innocence is to produce Harper in the flesh, but first he has to find her and persuade her to come back while evading assassins Paul and Sylvie Turner, who have been hired to kill Harper when she resurfaces. As always, Perry excels at the procedural details, keeps up the pace throughout and will have readers guessing until the end. Author tour. (July)