Skip to main content

Thomas Perry

Biography

Thomas Perry

Thomas Perry is the author of more than 30 novels, including the Jane Whitefield series. His suspense novel THE BUTCHER'S BOY won an Edgar Award in 1983, and the comic thriller METZGER'S DOG was a New York Times Notable Book. Perry lives in Southern California.

Thomas Perry

Books by Thomas Perry

by Thomas Perry - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Charles Warren, Los Angeles attorney, has dedicated his career to aiding people in financial straits. In his newest case, helping a beautiful young widow find the money missing from her late husband’s investment accounts, Charlie recognizes a familiar scheme --- one that echoes the con job that targeted his own widowed mother many years before, and that led him, as a teenager, to commit a crime of retribution. Charlie can’t get the present case out of his mind, but within hours of starting his investigation, he is followed, shot at and has his briefcase stolen. It’s clear that someone doesn’t want him following the trail of the missing money but, as Charlie continues to pursue answers, he quickly becomes too entangled in the web of fraud, betrayal and career criminals surrounding the theft to escape its deadly snare.

by Thomas Perry - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Justine Poole provides security for wealthy and high-profile Hollywood stars. When she prevents a brazen robbery at the Beverly Hills home of two of her clients --- killing two of the five armed robbers in the process --- she is initially lauded in the media as a local hero. But the spotlight soon puts her in the crosshairs of the crime kingpin behind the burglaries. Unable to stand the embarrassment of his lackeys having been defeated by a lone woman, Mr. Conger puts in a call to the one man who can make his problems disappear. Known for his swiftness and subtlety, Leo Sealy will kill anyone for a price. Luckily for him, the local news is as eager as he is for any information about the heroic bodyguard --- and quick to broadcast their findings, regardless of what it might mean for her safety. But Sealy isn’t prepared for just how quick and resourceful Justine can be.

by Thomas Perry - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

When a sudden crime wave hits several small midwestern towns, the U.S. Attorney for the region calls on Harry Duncan to investigate. The ex-cop is reluctant to go up against a widespread criminal organization. But the attorney in question is Ellen Leicester, the wife who left him 15 years earlier, and he can’t say no to her. Initially brought in as a consultant to determine if the racketeering is severe enough to require an all-out investigation by the FBI, Duncan quickly finds himself in conflict with a syndicate far more violent than first suspected. As the investigation develops, he begins compiling a “murder book,” the notebook in which a detective keeps records, interviews, photos --- everything he needs to build his case. But his scrutiny of the gang soon makes Duncan a target, as well as Ellen.

by Thomas Perry - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Jane Whitefield helps people disappear. Fearing for their lives, fleeing dangerous situations, her clients come to her when they need to vanish completely. And when people are desperate enough to need her services, they come to the old house in rural western New York where Jane was raised to begin their escape. It’s there that, one spring night, Jane finds a young woman fresh from LA. After she cheated on her boyfriend, he dragged her to the home of the offending man and made her watch as he killed him. She testified against the boyfriend, but a bribed jury acquitted him, and now he’s free and trying to find and kill her. Jane agrees to help, but the boyfriend has some new friends: members of a Russian organized crime brotherhood.

by Thomas Perry - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Michael Shaeffer is a retired American businessman, living peacefully in England with his aristocratic wife. But her annual summer party brings strangers to their house, and with them, an attempt on Michael’s life. He is immediately thrust into action, luring his lethal pursuers to Australia before venturing into the lion’s den --- the States --- to figure out why the mafia is after him again, and how to stop them. EDDIE'S BOY jumps between Michael’s current predicament and the past, between the skill set he now ruthlessly and successfully employs and the training that made him what he is.

by Thomas Perry - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Twelve conspirators meticulously plan to throw open all the gates to the prison that contains them, so that more than a thousand convicts may escape and pour into the nearby small town. The newly freed prisoners rape, murder and destroy the town. An immense search ensues, but the 12 who plotted it all get away. After two years, all efforts by the local and federal police agencies have been in vain. Leah Hawkins, a former star basketball player and resident good cop, is placed on sabbatical so that she can tour the country learning advanced police procedures. The sabbatical is merely a ruse, however, as her real job is to track the infamous 12 and kill them. Soon, the surviving fugitives realize what she is up to, and a race to kill or be killed ensues.

by Thomas Perry - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Elle Stowell is a young woman with an unconventional profession: burglary. But Elle is no petty thief --- with just the right combination of smarts, looks and skills, she can easily stroll through ritzy Bel Air neighborhoods and pick out the perfect home for plucking the most valuable items. But after stumbling upon a grisly triple homicide while stealing from the home of a wealthy art dealer, Elle discovers that she is no longer the only one sneaking around. Somebody is searching for her. As Elle realizes that her knowledge of the high-profile murder has made her a target, she races to solve the case before becoming the next casualty.

by Thomas Perry - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

A threat is called into the LAPD Bomb Squad, and when tragedy ensues, the fragmented unit turns to Dick Stahl, a former Bomb Squad commander who now operates his own private security company. Just returned from a tough job in Mexico, Stahl is at first reluctant to accept the offer, but his sense of duty to the technicians he trained is too strong to turn it down. On his first day back at the head of the squad, Stahl’s three-person team is dispatched to a suspected car bomb. And it quickly becomes clear to him that they are dealing with an unusual mastermind --- one whose intended target seems to be the Bomb Squad itself.

by Thomas Perry - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

To all appearances, Dan Chase is a harmless retiree in Vermont. But most 60-year-old widowers don’t have multiple driver’s licenses, savings stockpiled in banks across the country, and a bugout kit with two Beretta Nanos stashed in the spare bedroom closet. Most have not spent decades on the run. Thirty-five years ago, Chase was sent to Libya to covertly assist a rebel army. When the plan turned sour, he reacted according to his own ideas of right and wrong, triggering consequences he never could have anticipated. Just as he had begun to think himself finally safe, Chase must reawaken his survival instincts to contend with the history he has spent his adult life trying to escape.

by Thomas Perry - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Last spring, a body was recovered from one of Los Angeles’s overwhelmed storm sewers. The victim was identified as James Ballantine, a middle-aged African-American who worked as a research scientist for a prestigious company. But two bullets to the back of the head looked like nothing if not foul play. Now, with the case turning cold, Ballantine’s former employers bring in detectives Sid and Ronnie Abel to succeed where the police have failed. Meanwhile, assassins-for-hire Ed and Nicole Hoyt’s mysterious contractors want to make sure that the facts about Ballantine’s death stay hidden.

by Thomas Perry - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

One morning, Jane Whitefield is met by an unusual sight: all eight clan mothers, the female leaders of the Seneca clans, parked in her driveway in two black cars. A childhood friend of Jane’s from the reservation, Jimmy, is wanted by the police for the murder of a local white man. But instead of turning himself in, he has fled, and no one knows where he is hiding out. At the clan mothers’ request, Jane retraces a walking trip she and Jimmy took together when they were 14 in hopes that he has gone the same way again.

by Clive Cussler and Thomas Perry - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Husband-and-wife team Sam and Remi Fargo are in Mexico, when they come upon a remarkable discovery --- the skeleton of a man clutching an ancient sealed pot, and within the pot, a Mayan book, larger than anyone has ever seen. The book contains astonishing information about the Mayans, their cities, and mankind itself. The secrets are so powerful that some people would do anything to possess them --- as the Fargos are about to find out.

by Clive Cussler and Thomas Perry - Adventure, Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Husband-and-wife Sam and Remi Fargo and their friend hunt for Attila the Hun's tomb, which supposedly contained a vast amount of treasure. They follow a trail that leads them across the eastern hemisphere and pits them against others who are hungry for the Attila's treasure.

by Thomas Perry - Suspense, Thriller

Jane Whitefield spirits James Shelby, a man unjustly convicted of his wife’s murder, out of a criminal court building. Within minutes, men posing as police kidnap Jane and, when she tries to escape, shoot her. Jane’s captors are employees of the man who really killed Shelby’s wife. She endures their torment and is willing to die rather than betray Shelby.

by Thomas Perry - Fiction, Thriller

In THE BUTCHER’S BOY, a professional killer betrayed by the Mafia leaves countless mobsters dead and then disappears. Justice Department official Elizabeth Waring is the only one who believes he ever existed. THE INFORMANT returns to the Butcher's Boy many years later as a Mafia hit team finally catches up with him.