Rating: 
Summary: Thomas Perry has done it again
Review: Okay, so there's no Jane Whitefield. But I only really missed her for the first few pages, and after that I was hooked. This author could (should!) teach classes in pacing and clarity. After a Thomas Perry novel I have to spend a few nights catching up on lost sleep before I start reading something else. This is the first of his non-Jane books I've ever read. I'll be back for more, though Jane Whitefield will always be first on my favorites list.
Rating: 
Summary: Eventually, Boring
Review: Perry can always be counted on for terse dialogue and terse action. I had hopes for the same for the first half of the book. It then seemed his mind began to wander, and so did mine.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable payoff
Review: Perry is a pro, who like many others this year decides to opt for a change of characters. Walker and Stillman, whose names seem to describe their personalities, are pupil and teacher in this interesting thriller. (Echoes of John Sanford's computer thrillers) You will not be able to stop once you get to the last 100 pages. Great descriptive writing- "Seeing her pull clothes over that smooth, white body was like watching the moon being obscured by dark clouds", is just one of the rewards of this work. Have fun.
Rating:
Summary: More, more, more-----------
Review: Some perfectly reasonable people seem to prefer The Butcher's Boy or Vanishing Act to this, but Death Benefits is my favorite Perry. The three main charactors are as strong and charming as any in fiction, and if the plot gets a little wild in places, it's still quite a ride. I read for fun, and this is more fun than any other thriller I can think of.
Rating:
Summary: Whoooiiiie!
Review: Some perfectly reasonable people seem to prefer The Butcher's Boy or Vanishing Act to this, but Death Benefits is my favorite Perry. The three main charactors are as strong and charming as any in fiction, and if the plot gets a little wild in places, it's still quite a ride. I read for fun, and this is more fun than any other thriller I can think of.
Rating:
Summary: Love Perry, However the book sagged by end
Review: The basic premise is interesting. The intricacy of the insurance world is explained quite well and John's life is boring. However the problem comes in the third act when Max, John and the new girl with many names are trapped in a town that is evil. Nice twist, an almost unexpected road leading to this final showdown. But here;s the problem Ellen Snyder (assistant manager at the Pasadena branch office of McLaren Life and Casualty, pays out a 12 million dollar death benefit to an imposter and then disappears, company red flags go up all over)a pivotal character dead before any other characters get to interact with her. John only reflects on his brief affair. I felt a little cheated when her body is found, quite impossibly, in a field. She's instrumental to the case yes but also to the who tableau of the crime and hence the book. The replacement girl is suppose to be this genius interesting thing but she comes in as a pale substitute.
Security consultant, Max Stillman, is called in to clean up the mess. Grabbing data analyst, John Walker, from McLaren's San Francisco headquarters to assist him, because he knew Ellen intimately, the two set off across the country, tracking Ellen and the money. Stillman's convinced she's guilty of insurance fraud. Walker is sure she's innocent and sticks with Stillman and the case to protect and defend her. But what these two find, at the end of the road, shocks and surprises even Max Stillman, and he's seen it all. However at a certain point the obvious becomes apparent and the three of them trapped in this town that kills for cash is played well but never pays off.
What hurts the book is that we're total outsiders to this town and its residents so they're all violent zombies attacking the heroes. There is no connection to the villains, they're just a mass facelss mob. If Ellen had been one of them then we could see some motivation see some betrayal, some game played. I love Thomas Perry's work but no one is close to getting into the scrapes that Jane Whitefield does and gets out of.
Max Stillman is good, not a Jane but good. John just gets to be a newbie and the chickie who loves computers is just there as a sex convenience and DC-esque Oracle. A nice ride but don't expect the bells and whistles and porterhous you get with 4 out of 5 of teh Jane Whitefield books. This is a departure when instead there should have been some kind of combo action. Jane trying to hide Ellen as Max.John and towns[people close in all for different reasons. Now that wou;d've been interesting. A page turner? Ehhhh, a finisher. You're 100 pages in, might as well finish it.
Rating:
Summary: challenges plausibility
Review: the ending is not very plausible. however, if you are looking for something fun and attention-holding to, say, read on a plane, this is very entertaining. i enjoyed it despite the slight letdown at the end. the characters, while not exactly three-dimensional , were likeable, the plot well-done.
Rating: 
Summary: Big Disappointment
Review: The novel begins promisingly enough, but what a preposterous conclusion! As a fan of Thomas Perry's other novels, I can only say that this was a BIG DISAPPOINTMENT. This is 2/3 of a good book.
Rating:
Summary: Started strong, fizzled, but enough to carry through
Review: The premise, the background, settings, the main and supporting characters, all brilliant. So I was ready for a barnburner. And, I guess for some, the action and suspense towards the end of the book will rate highly. However, I guess my problem with the book is a creative problem. To me, the end result of this case should have been more plausible. The mystery of the missing girl could have been stronger - instead it ends too soon. Oh well, all in all, not bad.
Rating:
Summary: moderately disappointing ending
Review: This is my first Perry book and hopefully would not be the last impression I get. _Death Benefits_ starts off wildly interesting; we are drawn to the life of an overachiever (Ellen) who has mastered the art of the chameleon in order to succeed within a large insurance company. She mysteriously disappears, after being responsible for an astronomical 12 million dollar payout to a con-man. The insurance company reacts by calling in their reserves. We are dragged to her manhunt by her friend Walker, who is sure that Ellen is an unwilling victim. Part of the interest at this point comes from Max Stillman, a jack-of-all-trade former police officer who has converted his skills into a bounty hunter/sleuth for the private sector. Part of the fun is watching Stillman and his many antics and deductions about human nature. However, by the time we get drawn into the con-men's town, the gig is up and the rest of the story reads like _The Bedford Wives_ or _Children of the Corn_. The bad guys are faceless and difficult to identify or understand. I was moderately disappointed in this first try of an author that gets such high reviews in his genre. Will try another novel and see if this one was an aberration.
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