Silence
Non-Series
Thomas Perry
Harcourt (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 0-15-101289-X (015101289X)
ISBN-13: 978-0-15-101289-3 (9780151012893)
Publication Date: July 2007
List Price: $25.00
Synopsis (from
the publisher): Six years ago, Jack Till helped Wendy Harper disappear.
But now her ex-boyfriend and former business partner, Eric Fuller, is
being framed for her presumed murder in an effort to smoke her out, and
Till must find her before tango-dancing assassins Paul and Sylvie
Turner do.
The Turners are merely hired to do a job, though, and prefer to remain
anonymous. When they find that a middleman has let the true employer
know their identities, finishing the job is no longer enough. Their fee
just went up. And now they must double-cross the man who wants Wendy
dead before he can double-cross them—if their jealousy and
cold-blooded calculations don’t result in a fatal
lovers’ quarrel first.
Review:
In Thomas Perry’s new thriller, Silence, Wendy
Harper and her ex-boyfriend/best friend, Eric Fuller are the owners of
an upscale restaurant in Los Angeles where Wendy is the manager and
Eric is the prize-winning chef. On her way home from the restaurant one
night she is accosted at her front door, beaten with a baseball bat to
her legs and body and fists to her face. Her attackers leave her for
dead. She survives, however, and when she recovers she hires private
investigator Jack Till to help her run away. Jack, who had retired
recently from the police force, suggested that she contact the police,
but she is so afraid that another attempt on her life, or maybe
someone she loved, would be made again.
Finally Jack agrees. He tells her all she must do and must not do to be
successful. She must change her identity and go to a place where no one
would think she would possibly go. She could tell no one, not even him,
what her plans are. She leaves and was not heard from
again …until Eric is framed for her murder.
Even though there is no body and scant evidence, Eric is arrested. Jack
sets
out on his journey to find Wendy so Eric could be cleared. But what
Jack did not
know was that the men who wanted her dead six years ago still want her
dead. These men hire married Tango-loving assassins Sylvie and Paul
Turner to finish the job for them. Meanwhile, Jack enlists the help of
his police buddies, and uses
every tactic and method he knows to try to find her before the
assassins do. Sylvie and Paul track down Jack and follow him wherever
he goes, killing anyone and everyone who gets in their way.
Although Silence
is a fairly long book, Perry keeps the plot moving along at a very fast
pace. The reader's interest is piqued on nearly every page when new
characters are introduced,
some of which are vital to the story, and others who are merely
incidental. Though the story follows both Jack's and the Turner's
pursuit of Wendy, it is the latter that is somewhat more interesting,
with Perry tempering the suspense with bits of tongue-in-cheek humor.
Certainly one of the best mysteries to be published this summer, Silence will keep
the reader enthralled to the very end.
Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Silence and to Harcourt for providing a copy of the book for this review.
Review Copyright © 2007 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.
Omnimystery keywords for Silence ...
Location(s) referenced: Los Angeles.
