Review: "Hero" by Thomas Perry

 

Hero
by Thomas Perry
Mysterious Press, 2024

 

Hero, Thomas Perry’s latest thriller, is a shotgun blast from the first page to the last. Justine Poole is a security agent for Los Angeles’ most prestigious security firm, Spengler-Nash. The agency specializes in security for celebrities and wealthy businesspeople. When Justine stops a criminal gang from kidnapping a geriatric Hollywood producer and his wife, she gets the full media treatment. She is hailed as a hero for a couple news-cycles, but then she is vilified as a vigilante. Worse, Justine gets on the wrong side of the crime boss, Mr. Conger, that ordered the kidnapping. Conger wants Justine dead as a show of power to both his friends and enemies.
     With a high-dollar hitman, Leo Sealy, on her trail, her friends out-of-reach, and the police looking for her, Justine finds herself alone. So she does the only thing she can do—run and hide. She finds help from an unwitting investigative journalist, Joe Alston, but this is little comfort since Justine can’t shake Sealy and it will take more than luck to escape with her life.
     Thomas Perry is (from my house anyway) the preeminent thriller writer working today. His chase scenes, which are a large part of all his novels, are believable, exciting, and breathless without ever feeling rushed or underdeveloped. And Hero is no exception. The race begins when Justine pulls the trigger on the kidnappers and doesn’t end until the last page. The details of the high-end security industry are intriguing—identifying targets, creating escape routes, etc. The character development is skimpier than Perry’s usual, including that of Justine Poole, but Hero is a marvelous piece of escapist fiction anyway.

Click here for the Kindle edition and here for the paperback at Amazon.