Nightlife

Portland, Oregon homicide detective Catherine Hobbes finds herself in a deadly contest with an unpredictable adversary capable of changing her appearance and identity at will. Catherine must use everything she knows, as a homicide detective and as a woman, to stop a murderer who kills on impulse and with ease, and who becomes more efficient and elusive with each crime.

Janet Maslin

It takes a little while to realize how successful Nightlife will be, because the book's early chapters brim with all-but-extraneous male characters. Mr. Perry brings on a gangster, a fall guy whose pistol shoots 10 bullets ("11 was a bad number for Steve Rao") and an obligatory leading man: charming, gambling, flirting private eye Joe Pitt, who takes a shine to Catherine. But these secondary figures never divert energy from the book's true battle of wits between smart, intuitive women. Once Tanya has started to kill and then to repeatedly change identities, Catherine must start learning how to read Tanya's mind.

THOMAS PERRY is the author of the Jane Whitefield series as well as the best-selling novels Nightlife, Death Benefits, and Pursuit, the first recipient of the Gumshoe Award for Best Novel. He won the Edgar Award for The Butcher's Boy, and Metzger's Dog was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He lives in Southern California.