Fidelity

Perry's suspense puts a new spin on a familiar plot. Centered on the death of Phil Kramer, the story is told from the viewpoints of Kramer's widow, Emily, and the hit man hired to kill him, Jerry Hobart. After Phil's death, Emily is left penniless and asking tough questions about the man she married. Jerry discovers secrets--and the possibility of really big money--when he's rehired to kill Emily. Despite the interesting characters in the novel, narrator Michael Kramer makes little attempt to give each a unique voice. In fact, there's almost no shift in tone in Kramer's delivery at any point--he reads in a noticeable monotone voice that is more likely to put listeners to sleep than to engage them. L.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

April 7, 2008
Bestseller Perry (Silence
) explores the psychology of identity through his characters' hidden lives in this solid crime thriller. After L.A. PI Phil Kramer is shot dead as he's getting into his car one night on a quiet street, his wife, Emily, and his staff set out to find whodunit and why. As they dig, Emily discovers Phil had many secrets. Meanwhile, Jerry Hobart, the hired gun, is ordered to kill Emily. Suspicious of his client's motives, Jerry starts investigating his client, who, the reader learns, is Ted Forrest, a wealthy playboy with a secret life. Perry initially shifts between Emily and Jerry's points-of-view as each probes different aspects of the same crime to zero in on Ted's motives. As Ted starts dominating the narrative, the pacing, usually one of Perry's strongest suits, slows, weighed down with too many characters and subplots. Still, Perry intrigues as always with spare, intelligent prose.

April 28, 2008
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).

September 1, 2008
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).

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