Death Benefits
Thomas Perry
Fiction | Random House | Hardcover | January 2001 | $24.95
| 0-679-45305-9
When gruff and intimidating security consultant Max Stillman appears
without warning in the San Francisco office of McClaren Life and
Casualty and begins asking questions and scrutinizing files, the
employees can't help wondering just which of them he's been hired
to investigate. The first to find out is young data analyst John
Walker when Stillman's mysterious investigation leads out of town,
he announces he's taking Walker with him.
Walker
has been picked because a colleague with whom he once had a love
affair has disappeared after paying a very large death benefit
to an impostor. Since Walker knew her intimately, Stillman believes
he's likely to be useful in finding and convicting her. But because
he knows her so well, Walker is convinced that she is innocent,
and that he must join the pursuit so that he can defend her. These
conflicting purposes unite Walker and Stillman in an urgent search
that propels them across the country and into unexpected dangers.
The trail ends in a deceptively peaceful corner of the New Hampshire
countryside, where they find themselves trapped by a deadly conspiracy
that's much bigger, older, and more evil than they could ever
have imagined.
Martin
Cruz Smith declared a previous Perry novel as beautifully crafted
as a good automatic weapon. In Death Benefits, Perry gives us
another stunning suspense story with writing that is, as the Los
Angeles Times said, as sharp as a sushi knife.
"Perry's
writing is as sharp as a sushi knife."-
Los Angeles Times, about Blood Money
"As
beautifully crafted as a good automatic weapon."- Martin Cruz Smith, about Sleeping Dogs
"Perry
is a master of nail-biting suspense."-Los Angeles Times, about The Face-Changers
"Dazzles
like a house of mirrors."- Martha Grimes, about Shadow Woman
"Thomas
Perry just keeps getting better." -Tony Hillerman, about Sleeping Dogs
"The
momentum never flags, and the suspense constantly builds."-
Booklist, about The Face-Changers
Thomas Perry won an Edgar for The Butcher's Boy, and Metzger's
Dog was one of The New York Times' Notable Books of the Year.
His other books include The Face-Changers, Shadow Woman, Dance
for the Dead, and Vanishing Act. He lives in Southern California
with his wife and two daughters.