Thomas Perry's novels include the Jane Whitefield series (
Vanishing Act,
Dance for the Dead,
Shadow Woman,
The Face Changers,
Blood Money,
Runner,
Poison Flower, and
A String of Beads),
Death Benefits,
Pursuit, the first recipient of the Gumshoe Award for best novel, and
The Butcher's Boy, which won the prestigious Edgar Award.
His new novel is
The Bomb Maker.
Recently I asked Perry about what he was reading. His reply:
I’ve read quite a few books this year that I would say are special in one way or another. The first that comes to mind is Deon Meyer’s Fever. Deon Meyer is a crime writer who has 
produced some of the most suspenseful fiction of the past few years—books like Thirteen Hours. He’s South African and writes in Afrikaans, but has an able translator. Fever is a departure for him, a post-apocalyptic story about the South African survivors of a worldwide plague who try to survive, then to rebuild a new, practical, and just society. But as always in Meyer’s books, it’s the characters that thrill you. We watch a boy grow into a young man and meet the right girl, not an unfamiliar tale. But it’s a long book, and between readings I actually caught myself worrying about them and those around them.
Jeffrey Siger has a new book called An Aegean April. It’s one of a number of books he’s placed on various 
Greek Islands. This time it’s Lesbos, where hundreds of thousands of refugees from across the Mediterranean have been washed up or smuggled ashore. It’s a good, thrilling book, but what makes it remarkable is the fact that the crimes, the action, and the moral problems are all natural products of this genuine humanitarian crisis. Siger, who lives in Greece much of the time, manages to educate the reader with the story, not with explanations. It’s a real achievement.
Visit
Thomas Perry's website and
Facebook page.
--Marshal Zeringue
Thomas Perry's novels include the Jane Whitefield series (Vanishing Act, Dance for the Dead, Shadow Woman, The Face Changers, Blood Money, Runner, Poison Flower, and A String of Beads), Death Benefits, Pursuit, the first recipient of the Gumshoe Award for best novel, and The Butcher's Boy, which won the prestigious Edgar Award.
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