Thomas Perry is back with “Hero”, the latest standalone suspense novel that looks at how we build people up only to tear them down when convenient.

Justine Poole is the titular hero of the story, a high-end bodyguard for the rich and famous working for a private security firm. When she pitches in to help her coworkers who are protecting an older Hollywood couple in Beverly Hills, she ends up in a shootout with the five armed intruders, killing two in the process while the other three are arrested. Praised as a hero by the media, she is now the target of the man behind the break-ins, the crime boss who needs to show that a single young woman can’t take down his gangs. He hires Leo Sealy, a contract hitman, to finish her off. And so begins the cat and mouse game.

This book really is about the chase, how Justine is always trying to stay one step ahead of Leo while everyone else (the media, the police, and the criminals) are looking for her for their own reasons. One would think that it would be easy to hide from a single pursuer, but Justine soon finds out that it’s not what it seems.

The suspense is well done, sometimes too well done in that it seems pretty impossible (or a heck of a coincidence) to see how Leo is able to track his prey. And the ending comes up very quickly and is a bit anti-climactic. But when it comes to writing about hiding and pursuing, there is no one better then Mr. Perry.

I requested and received a free advanced electronic copy from Penzler Publishers, Mysterious Press via NetGalley. Thank you!

Interesting premise and story. Some tight writing and compelling characters that made this and engaging read.

I really appreciate the free copy for review!!

Justine is working as a bodyguard for an elite security firm who handle high profile clients when as part of her job she ends up shooting and killing 2 intruders with 3 others being caught by police. The gang is not your ordinary gang, they are an organized crew run by a man who can’t let her actions stand. He sends an assassin after her. Now Justine has been fired from the agency and she is on her own, trying to stay one step ahead of the assassin. The suspense in this book starts from the first page and never lets up. It is definitely an edge of your seat thriller. Thank you to net galley for an advanced readers copy.

<b>Relentless</b>
<i>Review of the upcoming Mysterious Press hardcover/audiobook/eBook (January 16, 2024) via the Net Galley Kindle ARC (downloaded November 3, 2023).</i>

Thomas Perry is the master of the ‘hunt and hide’ / ‘pursuit and evade’ sub-genre of suspense thrillers. He crafts his books to show two points of view, the pursuer and the runner. He varies the process with the pursuer as the villain or the hero. It is a cat and mouse game where sometimes the mouse turns the tables on the cat.

The ‘hero’ in this book is personal security guard Justine Poole who has risen in the ranks and esteem of her co-workers from what was initially an office job. Through training and mentorship she is now one of their elite bodyguards. The agency is working personal security for high-profile clients in an effort to prevent ‘follow home’ assaults and robberies. In one such protection mission, she exchanges gunfire with a carload of criminals who had followed home a Hollywood producer & his wife from a gala event. Two of the criminals are shot dead by Poole.

The crime lord behind the various robbery gangs decides that an example must be made of Poole in order to ensure the loyalty of his underlings. A relentless hitman named Leo Sealy is tasked with the job for a fee of $100,000. It does not take very long for Poole to realize she is being hunted, but not all her supposed allies will step up for her protection. The media is even being manipulated to turn on her. She is uncertain as to whom to turn to and to trust. Meanwhile Sealy is closing in and will not stop regardless of whatever innocents might get in the way.

<i>Hero</i> is a compelling read which you will find hard to put down. The methodical steps taken by both hunter and pursued are laid out in exacting details which draw you in to the action without pause. This is one highly recommended suspense thriller!

My thanks to publisher Mysterious Press and Net Galley for the opportunity to read this preview ARC, in exchange for which I provide this honest review.

Justine Poole is a bodyguard, working for a big name security firm. One night, she foils a push-in robbery of an elderly couple and kills two of the intruders. The next night, her boss is murdered and it becomes clear someone is coming after Justine. There is a crime boss behind the push-in robberies and he wants to make a statement regarding the deaths of his two henchmen and the assassin he sends out does not care how many innocent civilians get in the way of killing Justine. It is a long battle of wits between two adversaries who know what they are doing. Very edge of the seat writing, as usual for Thomas Perry.

Hero by Thomas Perry- Justine Poole is a private security expert. She helps keep high-profile clients and there fortunes safe. After a string of difficult attacks where she is triumphant, the press mark her as a “Hero”. This infuriates the Mob boss, whose men were at each offence. He decides to go to war with Justine, and thus a game of death begins. Perry is at his usual best and the stakes couldn’t be any higher for Justine. Thanks to NetGalley for this exciting read.

I am never disappointed with a Thomas Perry book and his newest novel, HERO, is no exception! The cat and mouse plot is very interesting and unique. The round and dynamic characters propel the plot forward at a fast pace, culminating with a suspenseful climax and satisfying denouement. My one complaint is that the resolution ended too quickly- I didn’t want the story to end!

Mr. Perry excels in writer’s craft; he is a master storyteller, and my go-to author for an enjoyable reading experience! I would recommend any of his novels! I recommend Hero to readers who like a clever plot with numerous cat and mouse scenarios and twists, and an engaging, likable and strong female main character. The suspense is subtle but the intrigue is in seeing how the protagonist and antagonist outwit each other!

My thanks to NetGalley, Mysterious Press and Thomas Perry for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of HERO. The opinions expressed are my own.

Perry is consistently brilliant in his depiction of character and always has clever plots. Hero was perhaps not his best work (the ending was entirely too abrupt) but a solid and enjoyable read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for my review after reading. In true Thomas Perry style, this featured a strong lead character and a gripping story. Full of twists and intrigue that kept me reading to see how it all played out.

I always enjoy Thomas Perry books, and this latest one did not disappoint at all. Justine Poole is a great character, strong and smart. I was intrigued by some of the questions she thought to ask herself, and some of the ways she handled certain situations. The plot was exciting, and flowed smoothly from start to finish. Basically, this was a battle of the whits, Justine against an unknown assassin. Highly recommend.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I have been a great fan of Thomas Perry since the Jane Whitefield series (Vanishing Act – 1994). Jane Whitefield “disappears” people, especially women who needed to hide. Perry is proficient at the fun subgenre of mysteries wherein the protagonist must run and hide from danger. But as phone /computer technology and the advent of street cameras entered our world and literature, Perry had to find other ways to give his characters to hide besides Jane Whitefield’s let’s-make-our-own-passport type of ideas. In Hero, Perry again has a woman who is trying to hide. This time from bad guys who want revenge for her killing a couple of their men.

Justine Poole is a body guard and a damn good one. When her job requires her to kill during a home invasion, she becomes a hero in LA papers. But soon after she must go into hiding without leaving LA since the police require her to stay put for their investigation. Easier said than done given the easy way to monitor people with technology these days.

Perry also wrote The Old Man, the Hulu series about an old man who has been in hiding for many years off the grid. Hero is another exciting story by Perry, who has become an expert in this area of “disappearing.” I liked the resourcefulness of Justine, and how she outfoxed the qualified assassin who comes after her. Another winner from Thomas Perry. My rating 4 of 5.

This ARC title was provided by Netgalley.com at no cost, and I am providing an unbiased review. Hero will be published on January 16, 2024.

I was eager to read Thomas Perry’s Hero, a standalone thriller featuring a cat and mouse game as a killer hunts a private security agent. With no character development, though, it was just an ordinary cat and mouse chase for over three hundred pages.

Justine Poole drifted into a job at Spengler-Nash Security while she was in college, and in her mid-twenties, she just stayed. She’s a private security agent protecting celebrities and the wealthy in Los Angeles. One night, though, she helps her boss in protecting a couple that represents old Hollywood, and the job goes wrong. Five men follow the couple to their house, but Justine is already on the property, and she shoots and kills two of them before the police catch and arrest the other three. At first, Justine is a hero, and the media wants her name, and they want to splash her all over the news.

Ben Spengler, Justine’s boss, is smart enough to know she’s a target. Maybe she’s a hero today, but the media and people are fickle, and they can turn on her. Tomorrow, she could be a killer.

Mr. Conger is betting on that. He’s angry that a woman, a private security agent, killed two of his men, and sent three more to jail. He hires a killer to find Justine and eliminate her. But, the man will learn it’s not so easy to find a woman in LA, a woman who is watchful and aware that she’s a target. As he stalks her, Justine does everything she can to stay alive.

If you enjoy two dangerous people matching wits as one tries to kill the other, you might enjoy Hero. Myself, I prefer a story with well-developed characters rather than a game of whack-a-mole.

Big fan of Thomas Perry - and this book continued that trend. I was SO WORRIED about Justine Poole! I kept checking the percentage on my Kindle to see how we were going to wrap up this story. Honestly was on the edge of my seat because the action was amazing - taut, smart, not far fetched and interesting!

This topic made me really stop and think about the topic of shootings and defense and the perception of the reality of that.

Would absolutely recommend because it help my interest from start to finish and kept me turning the pages. Thomas Perry is a great storyteller and the story flowed the whole time. Loved it.

If there is one thing that Thomas Perry is really really good at is writing strong female characters.

Justine Poole is a LA Security guard. She gets called to a home by her boss as the couple that he is working with is being followed home. LA has had a series of robberies where the bad guys follow people home from a night out and that's what her boss thinks is happening. Justine gets there and a gun fight breaks out. She shoots 2 of the robbers.

The man who hired the robbers wants revenge as it hurts his reputation. After a very sad loss, Justine is cut loose from her company. She realizes she's being followed. The main part of the book is her figuring out who is following her and avoiding him. This is the meat of the book and I love how Mr. Perry writes her. She is so smart and resiliant.

Great ending,great book.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is my first Thomas Perry novel and I really enjoyed his writing style. I liked that Leo Sealy's character was just as developed as Justine's, even though he was evil and you dont want to root for him. The cat and mouse game of Sealy chasing Justine was very engaging and kept me turning the pages.

I will definitely check out other books in Perry's quite extensive catalog.

“Hero” by Thomas Perry is a stand alone fast paced thriller about a female body guard who becomes a celebrity by protecting her famous & wealthy clients. She becomes the target of a professional killer because of “the job gone wrong” and we become engrossed in the cat and mouse chase that follows. Interesting and original storyline, but for me a bit slow in the middle.

Thank you NetGalley, Penzler Publishers, and the author for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

3.75 Stars 🌟

I'm usually a fan of Mr. Perry and was excited to be awarded this ARC that is apparently a stand alone novel. Unfortunately, this was not a favorite.

The story revolves around a female MC who is a security consultant in Los Angeles. One of their cases leads to an assassin being hired to "get rid of her" and the story starts from there. First of all, the lead up case that initially leads to the threat seemed to be a bit of a stretch- or at least it felt like a stretch to have that type of a ramification. She intervenes and kills two gang members in the course of an attempted carjacking and the remaining three others are arrested. The main criminal behind the gang action apparently felt that he lost face because of this - hence, the kill order.

Then, we totally leave the sphere of reality when this assassin seems to be able to find the MC no matter where she is and with no reasoning behind the ability. Yes, we all know that you can track credit card charges, but to somehow follow someone who leaves her car in a full airport garage parking lot, gets lost in the chaos of people and then doubles back and jumps in a cab and shares the ride with a total stranger for an hour cab ride? Yet, the assassin just seems to immediately show up on the street in front of the totally random coffee shop that she walked to? How? Not from a phone, nor from any purchase nor did he follow her. Things like that probably wouldn't be a problem if it was a one off, but the entire second half of the book was filled with situations that were similar. It proceeded to continually pull me out of the story.

The story itself is very fast paced and full of action. The female MC is a likeable and competent character that you can not help but root for.

Thank you to Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC. The opinions above are mine and mine alone.

Great story!

Justine Poole is a bodyguard for the rich and famous of Los Angeles. When her boss calls and asks her to go to the home of a client he is protecting because he thinks they are being followed by people wanting to rob them, she complies. He was right and the clients were targeted to be the next in line of a string of robberies where the crooks follow someone home and get inside their walls before gates and locks have time to re-engage. While Justine is protecting the clients from the robbers she winds up shooting and killing two of them. She is seen as a hero by the public, but the crime lord behind the robberies sees her as a threat to his reputation and sends a hit man out to kill her.

The plot was great and I loved the characters. I am a big fan of the author and this is right up there with Butcher Boy and Metzger's Dog. I finished it in one day and wish I hadn't so I could still be reading it.

As a longtime fan of Thomas Perry, I look forward to his newest novels, and Hero is no exception. It tracks the aftermath of a young female security guard who kills two men who had tried to ambush her client. Three others were arrested and jailed. Her heroism puts her in jeopardy as the head of the robbing team feels a loss of face. Justin Poole must die! Her assailant is himself quite good at his work, and Perry keeps us wondering if he will succeed.
Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

This is a great book. Characters well developed and interesting plot. Hope there will be more books with the main characters