The Boyfriend: A Novel

Few authors have Perry's gift for giving voice to such disparate characters, but all of them - good guys and bad guys - have a deliberate and relentless professionalism about them. "The Boyfriend" is a chess game between two professionals, and as always, Perry has nailed it. I am a bottom feeder in Amazon Kindle books but will spring for the occasional favorite author - Sandford, Block, Perry, et al. Reading this book reminds me that good authors are craftsmen, writers who take their time (much like Perry's protagonist and antagonist in this novel) and polish every word, making certain that the dialogue and plot are seamless, that the characters ring true. Perry never disappoints. I have recently been reminded of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "willing suspension of disbelief," a critical principle that is increasingly bent and ignored by many contemporary authors and filmmakers. Perry, any great writer, always gets me to happily - not just willingly - suspend my skepticism and thoroughly immerse myself in whatever world he has created. For a good test of this principle and Perry's talent read "The Island," one of Perry's completely outrageous and implausible books that somehow manages to work perfectly. Slightly more plausible but equally compelling is the Jane Whitefield series. I apologize for this digression, but suffice to say that "The Boyfriend" is a terrific page-turner from an amazingly skillful and wonderfully inventive and entertaining author.

I am a HUGE fan of Thomas Perry's Jane Whitefield novels, and gobble them down in one or two sittings when I get one. So noticing that only one of the Jane Whitefield novels were available on Kindle, I decided to try a Jack Till book. I am pleased to say that this one did not disappoint. I really like the way Mr Perry constructs his characters and their "expertise". I wouldn't normally be interested in guns or how snipers use them, but I was in this one. The plot is tight and exciting, and the characters are complicated and interesting. One aspect of Perry's crime work, is that when he adds a truly evil character, it is mesmerizing, and you are always barracking for the character to meet some swift end before he catches up and does another vile deed. If you are looking for an entertaining and gripping read....get your hands off that John Grisham junk and pick up a Thomas Perry book.-You won't be sorry

Thomas Perry has been a best-selling author since his debut novel, “The Butcher’s Boy” was published in 1983 and won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the “Best First Novel.” He has been a laborer, maintenance man, commercial fisherman, and weapons mechanic. And, he has a doctorate degree in English Literature from University of Rochester. Most of his books are stand-alone novels. However, he also authored the critically acclaimed Jane Whitefield series, beginning with “Vanishing Act” about a woman of Native American heritage who assists people who need to run away and disappear. “The Boyfriend” (2013, 298 pages in softcover format) is one of his works that features Jack Till, retired cop who is a private investigator. He is also a single father who has a daughter with Down Syndrome, now a young woman who works in a flower shop. Although he is devoted to her, his cases usually take him to various parts of the country, but he phones her every day for a little father/daughter time together. He’s the kind of guy who is thoughtful and compassionate, so you can’t help but like him. Yet, he doesn’t hesitate to skirt the rulebook and pull the trigger when necessary. In this fast-paced novel, Till is tasked with finding Joey Moreland, a professional assassin who is also a serial killer of call-in prostitutes. Moreland is young, handsome, and skilled at quickly winning the affections of “working girls.” When he is working on accomplishing another assassination, he always manages to live with a call-in prostitute until he completes his goal. Then, he surreptitiously places a gun to the back of her head and kills her. It’s a neat plan. The “girls” are easy to find via newspaper advertisements and the Internet. He lives with them anonymously, doesn’t need to check into a hotel, leaves no paper trail. But his plan has a flaw. He always choses young women who are very light skinned with strawberry-blonde hair. When he kills Catherine Hamilton (alias Tamara Saunders), the victim’s parents hire Till because the police have passed over the case as just another dead prostitute. In searching files of prostitutes who were killed in the same manner throughout the country, Till notices that four or more were strawberry blondes. In digging out their cases files, he discovers that they look too much alike to be coincidental. And that puts him on Moreland’s trail with the goal of stopping the next assassination and the killing of the next prostitute. However, Moreland is too much the professional killing machine to be trapped. So, his next kill is not accomplished “up close and personal” as has been his modus operandi. Instead, it is accomplished from a mile away with a high-powered 50 caliber rifle. Although this takes Till by surprise, he’s not fooled, and this sets off a chase across states and a deadly contest between ex-cop and master criminal. ...Jim Glynn

Jack Till is retained by heartbroken parents grieving the murder of their daughter by person or persons unknown. Till starts digging, and uncovers a sporadic unpredictable series of murders targeting similar young women. The darkness is chilling.

This Jack Till story is a serious thriller. He's got an incredibly worthy opponent and as we headed to the climax, I was quite invested in how this saga would end. There are one or two things I am not crazy about in Perry's writing outside of the Butcher Boy series, mostly to do with the way he writes women, but I know that going in, and as such it's on me. I am more of an espionage reader, but the long burn of this book has the suspense that I seek. Worth a read!

This is a well-crafted but mechanical and mostly heartless book without real characters. And creating terrific characters used to be what Perry did best. I have read and reread every single one of Perry's books and bought this without waiting for a review. Some of them (Metzger's Dog, Sleeping Dogs) are masterpieces, and most of them are top-notch reads. But this one makes the grade strictly on technique. The muse is not singing. When it comes to technique, it's hard to beat Thomas Perry. His wordsmithing is smooth and tight, and his plots run like clockwork. If you are obsessed with police procedurals, this is your cup of tea. It's like reading "Idiots Guide for Private Detectives," only better written. But if you're looking for heartfelt characters, forget about it. In his early books, you couldn't even find a bad guy. The good guys tended to be pretty bad and the bad guys tended to be foolish and there was a wonderful reality to a world that was not black and white. It was his genius to humanize all the players. This is flatland and flatline. The bad guy is a stereotypical puppet who never shows a spark of real humanity. Jack Till is almost as stereotypical. He's ultra-competent, all-knowing, financially secure, never really makes a mistake. The women characters are the worst part -- mannikins, sex toys, and cannon-fodder -- the bad guy can hardly tell them apart (sadly, neither can the reader). Maybe that's clever, but it's also boring, distasteful, and insulting. Till's Down Syndrome daughter is too good to be true and hardly more real. She's tidy, independent, financially secure, has a boyfriend, and no problems (since the Downs Syndrome doesn't seem to cause any problems for her). Can the author really be the same man who created the women in Sleeping Dogs, the tenancious and knowable agent Elizabeth Waring, the assassin's constantly surprising and endearing kinky girlfriend? Jane Whitfield? It reads like a factory book. You know "famous writer and..." I won't be pre-ordering the next title.

I stayed up all night reading this book. Perry introduced this character in a previous book. He was both charming, smart, impressive and likeable. He gets even more likeable with this book. I've always enjoyed Thomas Perry's books but he really hit it out of the park with this one. More twists and turns than a road race with characters that capture your imagination this is truly one of the best books I've read in ages. Tried to put it down to go to bed but couldn't stop my mind from wondering what would happen next; how would he catch the Boyfriend; would Holly get her way...wonderful read. We could use more of this type of work in the literary world and less of the whining character studies. Awesome!

I love Thomas Perry. His prose is clear, he can create eminently believable characters and his mind twists and turns. This book was okay, but not one of his best, although it had the core of a good story. I just feel the editing--or perhaps the current beliefs of the publishing industry about readers and short attention spans--had an adverse affect on it. It needed to be longer, so that all the characters could be just that much more fleshed out. Still glad I read it, but...

As anticipated, I loved this book. As far as I'm concerned Thomas Perry has never written a bad book. If you like thrilling chase stories you will love this. I thoroughly recommend.

Good character developement

'The Boyfriend' by Thomas Perry turned out to be a good,solid read.The book had me from the first couple of pages. While the plot doesnt run at lightning speed,it did keep a brisk pace.The story was straight and to the point,no twists or turns,or surprise endings.Actually I found the ending rather abrupt.Sometimes I find that disconcerting,I'm more of an epilogue type of person.You have the main character,Jack Till. The standard retired cop turned PI type.After being hired by a victims parents,Till embarks on a search for the boyfriend.Who turns out to be a contract killer,just doing his thing.Perry's style reminds me of the old detective novels,but more refined.His writing is descriptive without belaboring the point.He just serves his story up on a plate and lets the reader decide if they like it or not.Perry knows how to write and how to spin a story. The novel kept my interest pretty much the whole time. There was one point that I thought`get on with it' but you cant have everything. I thought this was an entertaining novel, maybe one of Perry's better novels.

This was listed as a good book in the Sunday Mail and so I purchased it for holiday reading. Its about a Private Eye trying to catch a killer, but always seems to be one step behind, until he takes a risk and is one step in front. Excellent writing and storyline. Will definitely read other books by this author.

Another fantastic story from Thomas Perry!