Pg. 69: Thomas Perry's "Silence"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Thomas Perry's Silence.

About the novel, 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.

With masterful plotting and unnerving psychological insight, Perry delivers another mesmerizing thrill ride.

Among the early praise for Silence:

"Silence moves suspensefully from near miss to near miss.... Longer than usual for its genre, Silence takes the richly methodical approach that works so well for Mr. Perry and remains steadily surprising."
--Janet Maslin, New York Times

"Perry is the grand poobah of the running-away narrative ... and he's at the top of his cat-and-mouse game in Silence.... [Perry's] complex characters, including a pair of insanely appealing villains, are all the more attractive for being so devious and untrustworthy."
--Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

"Edgar-winner Perry (Pursuit) delivers another intelligent, literate thriller.... As always, Perry excels at the procedural details, keeps up the pace throughout and will have readers guessing until the end."
--Publishers Weekly

"Although the pace is almost leisurely, there's plenty of action and the characters are nicely developed, including the hired killers. It's this character development, along with realistic dialog, that make Perry's latest better than most suspense novels.... Recommended."
--Library Journal

"Silence is ingenious, a runaway train-paced thriller from the devilish Thomas Perry."
--George Pelecanos, author of The Night Gardener

"An ingeniously plotted and tightly written novel of taut psychological suspense.... Catnip for true fans of the mystery/suspense genre."
--Nelson DeMille

"Thomas Perry is, quite simply, brilliant. And as each book comes out he becomes more so. Silence is a case in point. Don't miss it."
--Robert B. Parker

Read more about Silence, including an excerpt, at the publisher's website.

Thomas Perry is the author of the Jane Whitefield series as well as the bestselling novels Nightlife, Death Benefits, and Pursuit, the first recipient of the Gumshoe Award for Best Novel. He won an Edgar Award for The Butcher’s Boy, and Metzger’s Dog was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

In March he put Nightlife to the Page 99 Test.

The Page 69 Test: Silence.

--Marshal Zeringue