Death Benefits

Rating:
Summary: DEATH BENEFITS SHOULD BE DENIED!
Review: I am an insurance fraud investigator, so I was excited about this novel and couldn't wait to read it. Oh, but what a terrible dissappointment it turned out to be!

The characters were unreal; the plot was weak; the narration was disorganized. It was slow, boring and basically a waste of my time. At times it read like a survelliance report on the characters' activity.

In the real world of insurance fraud, law enforcement and trained fraud investigators would have been all over this case----not some shady mystery man assisted by an insurance analyst!

I recommend reading absolutely ANYTHING other than this. I swear your local telephone book would be more interesting and exciting. Trust me! Save your money....

Rating:
Summary: More, more, more-----------
Review: I bought this in hardback when it first came out because I have enjoyed this authors work for some time. I was not disappointed. This book builds to a really different and interesting climax and the characters of John Walker and Max and the others were fascinating. Even the murdered woman became real and you grieved with John at her death. The reason for her death enraged you. In all of this, Thomas Perry engaged you from start to finish.

I, personally, think John & Co are worthy of a series of their own, but I, unlike some people, do like a beginning, a middle, and an end to a series. I loved Jane whitfield and it was believable that she retired. (I also love Babylon 5-a five year TV series that came to a conclusion) I would like to get to know John Walker better.

Rating:
Summary: My first Perry
Review: I enjoy discovering new authors. After reading many positive reviews for his work, I picked up a copy of Death Benefits at my local library. This tale of insurance fraud and murder was refreshingly original. I must say, however, that the pace of the story seemed awkward and uneven at times.

Walker, the young insurance analyst who is pressed into sevice by the grizzled veteran investigator, seems to take getting attacked in alleys by thugs and shot at right in stride. He follows Stillman, the investigator, around like a puppy,taking everything he says as gospel. The ending was reminiscent of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, not in the Sci-Fi sense. You'll understand when you read it.

Overall, I wasn't blown away by Mr. Perry but he has sparked my interest and I will check out other titles by him.

Rating:
Summary: My first Perry
Review: I enjoy discovering new authors. After reading many positive reviews for his work, I picked up a copy of Death Benefits at my local library. This tale of insurance fraud and murder was refreshingly original. I must say, however, that the pace of the story seemed awkward and uneven at times.

Walker, the young insurance analyst who is pressed into sevice by the grizzled veteran investigator, seems to take getting attacked in alleys by thugs and shot at right in stride. He follows Stillman, the investigator, around like a puppy,taking everything he says as gospel. The ending was reminiscent of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, not in the Sci-Fi sense. You'll understand when you read it.

Overall, I wasn't blown away by Mr. Perry but he has sparked my interest and I will check out other titles by him.

Rating:
Summary: Shockingly good
Review: I have been gobbling up Thomas Perry novels ever since discovering his Jane Whitfield series, so I only glanced at the cover when I picked this one up from the bin. I have to confess I was let down when I saw that it was about the insurance industry--what could be more boring? But "boring" is exactly the wrong word to use to describe this wonderfully exciting novel. I was hooked from the first few pages and just could not put it down. This is one of those suspense thrillers where you love the characters and are so swept up in the story you forget to make dinner for yourself. The disappearance of a woman who looks as if she is involved in a scheme to peculate millions leads a former lover on a quest to uncover her fate, and he soon finds himself embroiled in a deep conspiracy. This is believable, a book about greed and love, that will fascinate you.

Rating:
Summary: Perry has done it again!
Review: I have been waiting for Thomas Perry's book and to my surprise found it in a local bookstore. I was disappointed that it was not a Jane Whitehead novel, but he more than made up for that by crafting a tight plot about likeable people that you're really sympathetic to,even though--well, anyway, it's a great thriller, and I sat up to finish reading it until 3:00 AM. I strongly recommend it! [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I loved Butcher's Boy and immediately picked up Death Benefit expecting or wishing for a reprise. The beginning of it was equal. Walker the inexperienced analyst and Stillman the experienced detective work together and find the body of Ellen Snyder. As in other Perry book's the characters are interesting.
The second section of the book is almost painful to read. The never ending stay in the small town in New Hampshire was uninteresting. I also have trouble figuring out what really happened. If someone want to explain this to me please send me an E Mail.


Others have enjoyed these books so I will not give away too much. All I can say is that I have read three Perry books now and 2 our of 3 were good so I will give it a try.


Rating:
Summary: Waste of Time
Review: I thought "The Butcher's Boy" was one of the great all-time suspense novels and I also liked some of the Jane Whitefield novels quite a bit. "Death Benefits" is not any of those novels. I only kept reading this book because it's by Thomas Perry and I kept thinking, 'it's got to get better.'

Instead, it gets worse. And, it manages to be both paranoid and boring. The book divides roughly into 2 parts: pre-and-post-finding of Ellen Snyder. The pre section is reasonably involving, although it ultimately asks us to believe that the perpetrators can drug someone enough to keep them compliant but not so much that they can't stand upright and move through airports without attracting unwanted attention.

After the first section comes to an inglorious halt (the protagonists, Walker and Stillman, have found no usable information on who is perpetrating the insurance fraud), the second never really gets going. For one thing, the second section of the book never really has anything to do with the first section: completely different type of crime and different style of committing the crime.

Between the two sections no sense at all emerges of who the perpetrator(s) might be or their motive.

We go along with the two odd-couple protagonists (Walker and Stillman who have some appeal) on shopping trips and small time breaking and entering, trying to get leads which mainly don't develop. Real nail biting stuff.

Finally, the heroes cross the border into what they think is New Hampshire, but is really the Twilight Zone. Only, without the camp appeal or Rod Serling's compelling baritone. It turns out the bad guys are an entire Stepford town!

Or, maybe not. Maybe it's only some of the town and the rest are innocent wives, children (husbands aren't innocent, I guess) and a rather elaborate undercover FBI operation. Come to think of it, if the FBI is on the case that thoroughly, what's the point of Walker & Stillman?

The other loose end -- who was aiding and abetting the bad guys from inside the insurance company? -- is tied up sketchily and perfunctorily. How long has this massive conspiracy been going on? Why has Maclaren just now been targeted? Who was this insider and how did he operate?

Who knows? Who cares? Certainly not Perry, and not me. I doubt you will either.

Rating:
Summary: A Minor Let Down But Still 1st Class
Review: I'll skip the plot intros shown in other reviews. There are a limited number of authors whose books I'll reread every few years and all of Perry's books heretofore have fit into that category. When I saw him at a booksigning last year and he explained about Jane being left to wedded bliss and new characters in the next book, I had no regrets since so many series characters become stale after a while.

Max Stillman is fun but a not-unwelcome repetition of similar characters that figured prominently in "Metzger's Dog" and I believe "Dance for the Dead". I enjoyed Max's comment about age in which he says "The ones (changes) you can't see are bigger than the ones you can. One day you just discover that you can't watch this movie or read this book or have this conversation any more. Sometimes you've had it too many times already, but at others, it's not even that. It's just that nothing in it is anything that you're interested in anymore."

Perry's books are always about clever people and I enjoy the way he uses his secondary characters so the primary person can explain how they're in fact so clever (it's done totally modestly). Max starts out being clever but too many years or too many of the old fashioned Mai Tais creep up and he loses his edge and becomes very naive towards the end.

While the maturation under fire of John Walker is interesting, his statements don't always stay in character. Sometimes he seems the only one who knows what's going on and then he's back to the bumbling way he was. There are numerous implausible circumstances.

Those are the cons. While this is the weakest of all Perry's books, he's done so well before, he's entitled. How does this compare to what else is out there, not much of a contest. Will I read this book with Perry's others every summer in which the year is even-numbered, you betcha.

Rating:
Summary: not his best work
Review: I'm a huge fan of Perry's Whitefield series - I'm always sad when I've reached the end. Not so with this one. Perry's writing isn't terrible, but it's not great either. The first half reminds me of Ayn Rand - it's sparse. She, however, pulled it off much more effectively than Perry. Also in her favor, Rand had a point to make with her plot and her style, which Perry doesn't seem to. The second half reminded me of Robin Cook or Michael Palmer (both of whom I can't stand) in terms of plot. Overall, I don't recommend it.