Death Benefits

This book is about insurance fraud and claims analysis. Yawning yet? Be in for a surprise as Thomas Perry weaves a terrific investigative tale built around precisely those seemingly soporific plot elements. Max Stillman, a new character for Perry, and John Walker, an insurance analyst who's really good with numbers, team up to discover how a man could impersonate another to make off with millions in death benefits. What they uncover has much larger ramifications and leads them to a town in New Hampshire with a rather sordid past. Mix in Serena, a.k.a Mary Katherine, a delightfully vampish hacker, and all the ingredients are there for a fun read.

Listened to as an audio book that had me sitting in the driveway much too much to hear what show more was next. Read by a favorite reader, Michael Kramer. show less

Thomas Perry puts a story together like no one else. Some plot pieces are so subtle that I get lost but I get found again pretty soon. In Death Benefits, he takes an ordinary insurance actuary and pairs him with an extraordinary and mysterious insurance investigator. Together they peel apart a complicated fraud scheme. It's a great story - one that you hate to see end.

This wasn't bad. It wasn't exceptional, but it didn't leave me feeling annoyed that I had read it all the way through. I will probably try a few more Thomas Perry books.

I found the insurance part of this somewhat off, but that's what I do for a living but one should always expect errors of this kind unless the author used to have as a career the one he is writing about.

Walker and Mary were OK characters. Stillman was a teensy bit of a cliche. The apparent deus ex machina wasn't explained well enough at the end - just one glancing sentence - but it was still acceptable. And it took me until the time the characters started to get their research right to figure out what was going on.

All in all, an acceptable book and, as I said, I will show more definitely try some more Thomas Perry. show less

Most unusual setting for a mystery to be uncovered - an insurance office. The investigators were quirky enough to be worth a read in the next book.

First half was interesting. I liked it a lot. A so-so last half gets it three stars overall.

Good characters and an unusual plot.

Christmas gift