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Overview
Murder, money, and marriage pack a triple treat in this absorbing, character-driven crime novel from Thomas Perry.
When Los Angeles P.I. Phil Kramer is shot dead on a deserted suburban street in the middle of the night, his wife, Emily, is left with an emptied bank account and a lot of questions. How could Phil leave her penniless? What was he going to do with the money? And, most of all, who was the man she thought she married? Meanwhile, Jerry Hobart has some questions of his own. It’s none of his business why he was hired to kill Phil Kramer. But now that he’s been ordered to take out Kramer’s widow, he senses a deeper secret at work—and maybe a bigger payoff from Ted Forrest, the mysterious wealthy man behind the hit.
Synopsis
The award-winning author of the New York Times bestseller Nightlife delivers another riveting thriller, in which a widow and the assassin who killed her husband must determine where their true loyalties lie.
The New York Times - Janet Maslin
Fidelity…does what it needs to. It rivets attention, races fast and displays distinctive Perry hallmarks, especially in its standoffs. His characters are uncannily good at sizing one another up and anticipating what the next moves will be. Though he briefly equates Hobart's tactics to the ways a coyote slinks through a neighborhood, Mr. Perry need not even articulate this. It s always built into his storytelling, and it's already on the page.
Editorials
Janet Maslin
Fidelity…does what it needs to. It rivets attention, races fast and displays distinctive Perry hallmarks, especially in its standoffs. His characters are uncannily good at sizing one another up and anticipating what the next moves will be. Though he briefly equates Hobart's tactics to the ways a coyote slinks through a neighborhood, Mr. Perry need not even articulate this. It’s always built into his storytelling, and it's already on the page.—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Perry's tale of murder and love in various forms-genuine, unrequited, illicit and perverse-begins with the killing of a philandering private eye, then concentrates on the effect of the death on his adoring wife, the oddly conflicted paid assassin, and his employer, a wealthy, insane child molester. As the focus hops from one to the other, Michael Kramer marks the changes with subtle delivery shifts. He picks a higher pitch for the widow, a cautious but determined approach for the hit man, and a smooth, almost velvety vocal for the smug, arrogant pedophile. Perry is that rare combination of storyteller and stylist and Kramer matches him with an unforced, well-modulated, smartly paced rendition that lulls listeners along until, suddenly, a glass door is shattered and guns are firing. A Harcourt hardcover (Reviews, Apr.7).Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Library Journal
In this high-energy thriller, Emily Kramer tries to find out why her husband, Phil, was shot dead and discovers he'd been keeping secrets from her. Jerry Hobart completed his contract killing of Phil Kramer, but now his employer wants Phil's wife dead as well; Jerry decides he can instead make more money finding out what his employer is hiding. And rich, successful Ted Forrest likes young women-reallyyoung women. This predisposition got him into trouble once before, and he's not going to let it happen again. A virtue of Edgar Award winner Perry's (Silence) novel is that the bad guy draws you in. You can't dismiss Jerry as simply evil-he kills ruthlessly but not needlessly; his heart aches for a lost past, and he admires the woman he's paid to kill. A spunky but believable heroine, an emotionally conflicted killer, a plot whose twists you will not anticipate-what more could a reader want from a piece of escapist fiction? Fidelityis a winner. But, then, Perry has never written a bad novel in his life. Recommended for all public libraries.
—David Keymer