Richmond Reads
by
John Denniston
To Thine Own Self...
Thomas Perry is at it again. May’s release of Fidelity (Harcourt, 368
pages, $25) continues the author’s mastery of the page-turner with
another plot of hairpin twists and turns, multi-dimensional characters,
and compelling tension. With its early summer publication date,
“Fidelity” will definitely be one book spotted at the beach this year.
When private investigator Phil Kramer is murdered in his car—on page 2,
no less—it’s left to his widow to find out why. Emily Kramer takes over
the four-person Kramer Investigations team looking for answers. Was Phil
working on a dangerous case? Did he have former clients who would kill
him? Was this simply a random act?
The questions mount as she discovers that Phil has emptied all of their
bank accounts, has been absent from work for days at a time and
apparently had a separate life that she knew nothing about during their
22-year marriage.
She plods, sometimes fumbles, as she moves through the clues, or rather
the lack of clues, but her drive and determination never flag, even
after she finds out she has become the target of her husband’s killers.
Jerry Hobart is a hit man. Hired to kill the PI, then his widow, Hobart
is cautious, methodical, and very good at his job.
Like other villains in Perry’s novels (one can’t help but think of the
intriguing Paul and Sylvie Turner of last year’s “Silence”), Hobart is
strangely appealing. He definitely has no conscience when it comes to
killing. It is, after all, his job. Yet as the cat-and-mouse death game
with Emily progresses, some readers will find themselves drawn more to
the hunter than to the hunted.
Perry paints his characters with a depth and naturalness that defy
stereotypes in the detective genre. The bad guys aren’t necessarily
evil, and the good guys aren’t exactly perfect. Much like Patricia
Highsmith did in her “Ripley” series, Perry forgoes the simplistic
black-and-white picture of people being evil or good—perhaps leaving
that to the nightly TV news—to show the range of grays that exist in us
all.
Even the minor characters in “Fidelity” demonstrate that things are
never as simple as they appear. Phil’s long-time partner, Ray, has
critical secrets, as do other members of Kramer Investigations.
Perry pushes the concept, sometimes subtly and sometimes not, until it’s
clear that the book’s title isn’t merely based on a wife’s loyalty to
her dead husband but rather on the idea that our actions may or may not
be truthful to our inner cores.
While the red-hot pace of “Fidelity” hits hard and fast like a tsunami,
it’s in the quiet gray depths of understanding character that Perry
excels this summer.
John Denniston lives and writes in Richmond.
