As a stand-alone thriller novel, A SMALL TOWN deserves a place on the plateau of highly recommended reads.

An ingeniously clever and calculated break-0ut of the entire prison population results in convicts invading the nearby small town and wrecking havoc. The small police department is enmeshed in protecting its citizens from the armed mob that is trashing it while the twelve perpetrators of the break-out manage to escape, leave town and evade FBI efforts to track them down.

Two years later a strong female protagonist, a member of the local police, gets carte blanche from city council to find the twelve and act as judge, jury and executioneer by enacting revenge.

Strong writing, compelling characters, smart detection methods, and final results - - this is a guide to how to write a compelling thriller.
It ends with main character Leah Hawkins seeming to retire and settle down to family life, a satisfactory conclusion for her. Would I be selfish to urge Perry to feature her again in another novel? One can hope.

Leah Hawkins a lieutenant in the town of Weldonville , Co is on leave. Leah has a mission , to track and return to prison twelve inmates who ransacked her town killing several residents and fled into the night. It is a story that starts on a predictable path but soon twists in directions you won’t see coming. Well crafted.

A Small Town by Thomas Perry is a great detective story with police chief Leah hunting down 12 prison-break murderers. As she searches the country for revenge for the town and the law-enforcement system the suspense builds. I enjoyed the mystery and the surprise ending.

Great thriller which I could not put down. Brilliant characters, and twists and turns. Highly recommend to others!

An amazing story of tragedy in a small town and one police officer's revenge. Definitely unique and thrilling. Well written and wonderful storyline.

“A Small Town”,by Thomas Perry, tells the tale of twelve most violent prison inmates break out of prison whilst killing all the prison guards and then destroying the local small town. For those that like the prison break genre this story is for y’all! Tis not my cup-of-tee. My evaluation would not be relevant due to my lack of interest in the storyline. Thus I shall give it an “average “ score since I did not complete the novel.

Thank you for the chance to review this galley prior to publication. Please refer to my goodreads profile for a full review.

The premise of this book is so good. Twelve prisoners orchestrate a plan and escape from prison. They decimate the small town of Weldonville where they start fires, rape, and kill. Two years after the prison break, police officer, Leah Hawkins vows to capture the 12 prisoners.

Like I said...the premise was soooo good. It was the plot, that was so unbelievable. It was too much. I had to keep rolling my eyes. 5 stars for the premise, 2 stars for the story, 3 stars overall.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of the book for my honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. This book had a good synopsis, but this book was all over the place. I thought there was a lot to decipher and it wasn't always clear.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of A Small Town by Thomas Perry.

Unfortunately, this is a DNF for me. I made it about 30% of the way and just completely lost interest. I feel like you have to walk a really fine line when telling a female police vigilante story, and that balance just wasn't struck. I just couldn't get myself invested in this one.

Expected more of a mystery/thriller vibe. Just wasn't what I expected from the given description. I was left quite bored with many parts of the story.

Can a small town next to a federal prison really feel it is safe? It did until 12 prisoners masterminded an escape that involved the whole prison and almost destroyed the entire town in the aftermath. It's been two years and none of the twelve have been captured by the FBI. Leah, a native of the town and chief of police has requested a leave of absence to conduct her own search. But the town disagreed and authorize a year long "learning experience" fully funded to investigate the latest in law enforcement techniques and equipment. But everyone knew what her true mission would be - to restore the faith and trust of the town.

As always Perry delivers an engrossing narrative. The aftermath of a mass prison break and its effect on people's lives in the nearby town gives us engaging snapshots of the how a disaster changes things. I also loved the hunt for the villains and their stories.

That said there were two things that didn't quite make it to five stars, even though I loved reading it. The first was when I did some research looking to what actually happened in mass prison breaks, and couldn't find anything. This may have been a failure of my research, but hundreds of prisoners terrorizing a small town doesn't seem to have ever happened.

The second (SPOILER) issue was the lead bad guy's origin in a super rich family and what it allowed him to do and some of the resources he supposedly had.

Still a great read and recommended, just needed some suspension of disbelief.

This book right here---had ME from the synopsis! I mean, how many movies have I seen with prison breakouts...quite a few, however, I have not read about one!!! :) This is the second book I’ve read by this author and I really like his writing style! I love how he can be detailed but not like a procedural textbook---if you know what I mean?!?

Ok, the prison break, is AUDACIOUS, to say the least!!! The “OG 12” (what I coined them) break out but they also release their fellow inmates at the same time. Oh BOY---major meyham occur (i.e. rape, murder, burning of homes, etc.) on this small town! Well, an intense search for the OG 12 is still comemcening after two years. After an uneventful search, the mayor calls in; local cop, Leah Hawkins. She is placed on sabbatical to learn advance police procedures. But Leah is like---HELL to the NO!! She is really going to track the OG12 down and kill them one-by-one!!! Leah is most definitely on her vigilante podium!?!

I must say, I REALLY enjoyed this book! Badass female main character??? What the heck couldn’t I like about it!!! I gave this book a 5 out of 5 stars. It was worth the weekend I spent reading it!!! Thank you Netgalley for the ARC, in return for my honest review.

This is the first Thomas Perry book that I have read and I know for sure I will be looking up some of his other titles after this. When a well-planned prison escape devastates a small town, survivors struggle to come to terms with it all. Almost all prisoners are caught with the exception of 12....who were the instigators of the break. After two years, small town police chief Leah Hawkins, with the support of the town council, takes off to go after these 12 escapees, and deliver her own type of pay-back justice. She has worked hard over the two years in preparing both physically and mentally for just this opportunity. The storyline is developed and explained through flashbacks. Leah is a strong female lead for this book and of course there are some things that happen that are downright luck, but overall her job and journey of revenge make for a good, at times heart-stopping read. I received an ARC of this book from NetGAlley and publisher in return for an honest review, which this has been. #NetGalley #ASmallTown

Thomas Perry is one of my husband’s favorite authors, so I am relying heavily on his opinion as I rate A Small Town, which came to us thanks to Grove Atlantic / Mysterious Press and NetGalley in exchange for my (our?) honest review.

The small town referenced in the title is recovering after being pretty much destroyed by a dozen escapees from a nearby prison. They orchestrated the prison break that allowed a thousand prisoners to go on a rampage, raping and murdering – and then the twelve who planned it all escape. Leah Hawkins, a six-foot tall blonde who is the town’s police chief, ostensibly goes on a sabbatical two years later for some advanced training. In reality, she is tracking the twelve to various locales, including New York, California, Florida, and some hideout deep in the Ozarks.

There’s plenty of violence, along with some hard-to-believe plot twists and a gratuitous sex scene that didn’t really bother me, but seemed sort of superfluous. I found it to be subpar for a Thomas Perry book, but then I am not a fan of vigilante justice meted out by a superwoman. Apparently my husband is: he loved it. I give it three stars.

Small Town is an intriguing tale of a small town that becomes a victim of a well choreographed prison break, in which hundreds or dangerous felons overtake the federal prison and escape into the surrounding area wreaking havoc. Most inmates were rounded up and returned to the prison. All but 12. The 12 men, who were considered the main conspirators of the prison break remain free. Hundreds of people died as a result of the violent actions of these 12 men, and 2 years later Chief Leah Hawkins has decided to handle the 12 men once for all with her own brand of vigilante justice. With a secret back door funding provided by the city council, Leah embarks on a journey to track down the 12 and even the score once and for all. One by one, Leah systematically hunts down the 12 men and has them executed. The story is strongest for me in the first half of this story as Events of the horrific night of July 19th are recounted and Leah executes a systematic manhunt. The last third of the book while it does wrap up the storyline wasn’t as strong as the first 2/3 of the book. Overall, the book is a fun read and should appeal to fans of this author. Review posted to Goodreads, LibraryThing, and Amazon

What an interesting story! I have never read a book quite like this. 12 inmates break out of a high security prison and wreak havoc on a small town. Two years later those 12 inmates are being hunted down. I cannot say much more without giving too much away. This story was well written, and was very detailed in explaining how and why things happened. The writing is very straight forward and there is not a lot of extra unneeded space filling descriptions. I highly recommend this book! **I was provided this book by NetGalley in exchange for my honest review**

“A Small Town” by Thomas Perry opens with a tragedy of epic proportions. On July 19, there was a disturbance on cellblock C of Weldonville Federal Penitentiary in Colorado. The prison break had been designed so multiple inmates executed every step accurately and methodically, like a well-designed piece of machinery. Twelve hundred inmates left prison that night; ninety-seven people were murdered including eight officers. For Weldonville, there were two times: the time before and the time after.
Detective Lieutenant Leah Hawkins mourned the loss of the city and the people she knew and loved. Two years later the FBI had still not found the twelve who engineered the massacre, and Hawkins was determined to change that. This task would be the ultimate test of her skills. She practiced; she trained; she studied; she equipped herself for the task. She had been a great homicide cop, and she did not need anyone’s help to commit a few murders.
Every aspect of her plan was comprehensive and meticulous. She was focused, systematic, and sometimes simply lucky. She took her time, a lot of time; after all, she had all the time she needed, but time was running out for the twelve. The twelve had not forgotten either; they were, after all, dishonest and vicious men. They would not let Hawkins just run through her list without complications.
“A Small Town” is full of tragedy, persistence, determination, and many lucky coincidences. Flash backs fill in chilling details of the escape, expanding the actions and roles of prisoners, police, civilians, bystander, and relatives. “A Small Town” is easy to read with a compelling plot. Hawkins is a likeable character despite her operation, and her mission has a surprising and satisfying end. I received a review copy of “A Small Town” from Thomas Perry and Mysterious Press. It was easy to suspend reality during parts of Hawkins’ quest, and I found it fascinating and enjoyable to read.

Following a violent prison break, the small, nearby town of Weldonville, Colorado is nearly decimated by a brutal attack by the escapees in retribution for hosting the prison. Two years later, a trio of town officials, including their female police chief, set out to track down the twelve inmates who masterminded the escape.

As the subtitle implies, this book is about crime. It’s not really a mystery (we know who “did it”) or a thriller (not exactly edge-of-your-seat suspense.) The story is laid out in a straight-forward, unemotional manner which provided quite a contrast with the action. At times though, it came across as flat. As I remember other books by this author, this is somewhat characteristic of his style only this time around it seems even more matter of fact considering the level of violence.

I found <i>A Small town</i> to be a satisfying read in that it had an interesting plot, albeit implausible at times, with a different approach than most. As a big fan of Perry’s Jane Whitefield, I thought Leah Hawkins, and a few of the other main characters from Weldonville, needed a lot more development to sustain a potential series of her own.