Just in case you’re not one of the many viewers of the trailer, the FX television network is kicking off a new series on June 16, 2022, starring Jeff Bridges in the title role, of the following Thomas Perry novel which we reviewed in April of 2017.  We thought you might enjoy a quick review.

 

The Old Man

Mysterious Book Report No. 284

by John Dwaine McKenna

The Old Man, (Mysterious Press/Grove Atlantic, $26.00, 337 pages, ISBN 978-0-80212585-6), by Thomas Perry is honed and polished to a razor-sharp brilliance by one of the most accomplished thriller writers working in crime fiction today.  The action, suspense and drama begins in the first paragraph and doesn’t let up until the last sentence on the last page.  It is a sure-enough tour-de-force that will keep the reader nailed in place waiting and watching to see if old age and cunning will prevail over youth and exuberance as the adventure plays out.

The novel begins in rural Vermont, where we’re introduced to a widower and retiree named Dan Chase.  He’s in his sixties, has a grown daughter and a pair of large dogs who are devoted to him.  Outwardly, he’s a typical older man, living a quiet, unassuming, low-key lifestyle . . . the same as he has for the past thirty-five years.  Privately however, Chase is an altogether different hombre.  The kind who maintains four different ID’s, keeps a pair of Beretta 9mm Nanos and a .45 caliber Colt Commander close at hand, as well as a “bug-out kit” stuffed with money, guns, clothes and multiple identities in case he has to make a fast getaway.  He stays in peak physical condition and has multiple escape routes in mind at all times.  That’s because thirty-five years ago, the man calling himself Dan Chase was a rising star in a clandestine world.  As an Army Intelligence Officer, he was tasked with delivering a large amount of American currency to a Libyan middleman, who was to deliver it in turn to a rebel group that was set upon overthrowing the dictator, Mu’ammar al Gaddafi.  But when the middleman steals the cash, Chase administers some street justice, keeps the money and goes home to the USA.  Now, a change of government in Libya has Dan Chase lined up in the gunsights of some nasty operatives who keep trying to kill him.  The Old Man is one of the absolute best thrillers MBR has reviewed to date.  It will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish as author Perry displays his absolute mastery of the writer’s craft, he makes the impossibly difficult look easy.  As an added benefit, there’s more than twenty other novels of his to enjoy including, The Butchers Boy, which won an Edgar and Poison Flower, named by Booklist as one of the “101 Best Crime Novels of the Past Decade.”  From the MBRs point-of-view, Thomas Perry is the best of the best!!!

 

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