Do you need some really entertaining reading – escape reading, in more ways than one? Bob Moyer offers a review of a book he thinks you’ll find a good distraction in these troubled times.
Reviewed by Robert P. Moyer
HERO. By Thomas Perry. Mysterious Press. 277 pages. $27.95
$27.95
Thomas Perry gives the reader not only a page-turning chase of a novel, but also a snappy checklist for these foreboding days of political insecurity. He provides so many hints for safety in potentially dangerous situations. Say you’re on your way to a transgender support group, and you’re being trailed by strange folks in red hats with white lettering. Stop like the Hero does, and video everything behind you to get a record of what they look like. Or, say you’re headed to New Zealand and the Americans Stay Still (ASS) are tracking you in the airport. Just duck down behind a giant suitcase and pretend you are tying your shoe. It works for the Hero.
She’s Justine Poole, an agent for a security firm that protects stars and rich people. On duty one night, she shoots two robbers trying to break into a house. GIRL SHOOTS ROBBERS hits the headlines, and the crime boss who contracted with the robbers hits the roof. It makes him look bad, and he orders a hit on her. At the same time her notoriety costs her her job, and her access to weapons. The chase is on.
Perry puts together the most amazing twists and turns to his plots. Plaudits galore to him for keeping us enthralled for nearly 300 pages even though we know she’s going to make it. That conclusion is another Perry phenomenon, as the hunter becomes the hunted. It’s his trademark, and he does it in a tidy and timely fashion. The book reads shorter than it is and leaves both the Hero and the reader happy.