I was eager to read Thomas Perry’s Hero, a standalone thriller featuring a cat and mouse game as a killer hunts a private security agent. With no character development, though, it was just an ordinary cat and mouse chase for over three hundred pages.
Justine Poole drifted into a job at Spengler-Nash Security while she was in college, and in her mid-twenties, she just stayed. She’s a private security agent protecting celebrities and the wealthy in Los Angeles. One night, though, she helps her boss in protecting a couple that represents old Hollywood, and the job goes wrong. Five men follow the couple to their house, but Justine is already on the property, and she shoots and kills two of them before the police catch and arrest the other three. At first, Justine is a hero, and the media wants her name, and they want to splash her all over the news.
Ben Spengler, Justine’s boss, is smart enough to know she’s a target. Maybe she’s a hero today, but the media and people are fickle, and they can turn on her. Tomorrow, she could be a killer.
Mr. Conger is betting on that. He’s angry that a woman, a private security agent, killed two of his men, and sent three more to jail. He hires a killer to find Justine and eliminate her. But, the man will learn it’s not so easy to find a woman in LA, a woman who is watchful and aware that she’s a target. As he stalks her, Justine does everything she can to stay alive.
If you enjoy two dangerous people matching wits as one tries to kill the other, you might enjoy Hero. Myself, I prefer a story with well-developed characters rather than a game of whack-a-mole.
Thomas Perry’s website is https://www.thomasperryauthor.com/
Hero by Thomas Perry. Mysterious Press/Penzler Publishers, 2024. ISBN 9781613164778 (hardcover), 336p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley through NetGalley to review for a journal.
Thanks, Lesa. I was glad to read the review as I was uncertain – but skeptical – about reading this one. I’ve liked some of Perry’s books a lot – the Butcher Boy series for one, Metzger’s Dog and The Old Man for others – but I’ve had trouble with others. Now I can feel confident in skipping this one.
You’re welcome, Jeff. As long as it only confirmed your first impressions. I don’t want my opinion to make someone avoid a book they might enjoy.
I am currently annoying non fiction as I seem to do early in the year. Currently it is NYT book critic Dwight Garner’s memoir of sorts, THE UPSTAIRS DELICATESSEN: ON EATING, READING, READING ABOUT EATING, and EATING WHILE READING.
enjoying, not annoying
Don’t know where that came from.
Oh, I can’t wait to hear what you think of that book. It sounds interesting.
I generally like Thomas Perry, but, like Jeff, have had trouble with some of them. With all the great books to read, including many in Perry’s own output, I feel OK passing over this one.
This one just wasn’t for me, David. Don’t let my opinion sway you if you intended to read it. But, there are other books to read!
Hi, appreciate the commentary.
I’d just binged the Butcher’s Boy series audiobooks, and have much respect for Perry’s talent, but I realized about 1/4 the way into this one (Hero) my mood was gradually declining.
I realized it was because I was being forced to spend time with a sociopathic antagonist that I flatly don’t like/enjoy watching.
The BB series works so well, I think, because you’re invested in the success of both the main characters.
I couldn’t stand to follow this “cat” Leo in all the minutiae of his attempt to hunt the “mouse” Justine.
Moving on to more enjoyable use of my time!