I think it was my friend Ann Allen who christened Thomas Perry's Jane Whitefield series “literary crack.” Perry has plenty of standalones with super-capable men defeating bad guys armed with only duct tape and a sharp twig, but if it's his books featuring fierce women that really speak to you, well, my crackheads, line up for your fix!

Perry starts us off with a horrific (but in Perry style, meticulously planned and executed) prison break. The small town of Weldonville. Colo., has relied on the federal prison for years as a major employer, but on the night of a mass escape, the prison becomes the town's worst nightmare. Under cover of the chaos created by letting everyone else loose, the twelve ringleaders get away. Enter our heroine, Weldonville policewoman Leah Hawkins, who on the second anniversary of that terrible night, sets out on a mission to find those twelve men and deal out justice.

This is classic Perry. Jane Whitefield was all about helping people disappear, so we learned all sorts of fascinating details about how to change your life and avoid attention (of course her charges blew it pretty often, or there would be no story, right?). In A SMALL TOWN, our heroine is coming from the other direction, hunting people who have new identities. Still fascinating! Leah is a typical Perry protagonist, sharp and well-armed and able to outthink the villains. Like Jane Whitefield, she also has a supportive crew – in this case, a whole town full of people who know how to keep a secret.

The criminals are expecting anything but a lone woman. They don't see Leah coming, and she makes sure no one sees her going. It's Thomas Perry at his best. Enjoy!

This is why I read Thomas Perry! Leah Hawkins, a small town officer, is tracking down twelve escaped conflicts who in one night managed to ravage her home town. She has put her badge aside and is looking for vigilante justice, and it's not long before the twelve figure it out and take steps to put an end to her chase.
Is it realistic to think she can find clues the FBI missed? No.
Could a government reparation grant to the town be spent this way? Probably not.
Does this reader care? No way! It's a fast paced page turner that I couldn't put down. Leah Hawkins is an excellent hero for this book, she's flawed, she's determined and she's smart. The author gets right to it, there are few if any distracting subplots and the plot comes together well at the end.
Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I liked it. Excellent attention to detail, and great character development. I can always depend upon Thomas Perry for a book that I’m going to enjoy reading.The only problem I had with this book Is that I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.

A tad formulaic but Perry has a gift for locales and characters. The story is compelling if somewhat uneven.

Thomas Perry's latest is a chilling story of mayhem and murder, written with hid usual skill. A prison break in the small town of the title occasions a rampage that touches almost everyone and so scares stuns and decimates the residents that it all but destroys those who remain - or, in the case of the protagonist, a former policewoman, incites a revenger-fueled mission that will leave you gasping for breath. A great read from always reliable writer whose backlist is well worth delving into.

I have read all of Thomas Perry's books over the years. Thank you, Net Galley. It was a good story but did not have the buildup that I am used in his books. We only have Leah point of view and very little of any other of the characters. I liked the idea of going after the 12 inmates who got away, but the way Leah went about it was very farfetched. She did everything alone, the one time she got help, we did not get to read any of that character’s point of view which is unusual in Perry's writing. She got them all of course. The end was very abrupt. People were together with barely a mention as to how it happened. Perry usually gives us more background and more details. I did enjoy the book, the chase and the superhuman Leah. His writing is changed and different but still worth a read.

This was the first of the author's books that I have read. I found the book to be easily readable, however highly unrealistic. The premise of the book is that twelve inmates take over a federal prison, release the entire inmate population, rape and pillage their way through a local town, and then disappear into the night. The main character, a former police officer, is hired by the city council to go rogue and track down, and eliminate, the twelve main escapees.
First. I am a retired Federal Bureau of Prisons employee. The premise and scenes described are completely unrealistic. The overpowering of the "control center" of the prison is impossible. Inmates do not have access to the entrance. Same with the prison armory, they are not located inside the prison where inmates have access. Same with the armed guards patrolling inside the prison. Doesn't happen. Along with many, many other details in the book, it makes me wonder if the author ever actually researched Federal prisons?
Second. The idea that a city council would hire a vigilante police officer to hunt down and kill people. Does the author really want the reader to believe the idea of that many people being able to keep a secret? Not today!
Third. The vigilante. How is the reader to believe that a single police officer is able to independently track down, across the entire country, people that the FBI/State Police agencies/etc, could not? And a couple of years after the initial escape? The FBI/BOP/etc would NEVER, EVER give up the search where so many of their own brothers-in-arms had been murdered! And the thought that these simple criminals could evade the best minds in law enforcement is laughable.
Fourth. The idea that this vigilante could just walk into a place and murder people, with no repercussions or investigation by the affected jurisdiction is crazy.
No, while the story would make a semi-successful B movie plot, it is totally unrealistic.
I have to pass on recommending this one!

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review -
I love Thomas Perry's book so was excited to read this one -
Twelve inmates plan an escape letting all the prisoners out to rape and murder and destroy the town.
No one can seem to capture them.
Leah takes a leave to try to track the twelve and kill them - thus begins an exciting story!

I was anxious to read Thomas Perry again since he has been one of my favorite authors for years until his last book. I was really disappointed. I was not disappointed in this story although I often felt like maybe two people were writing this. There is a subtle disjointedness to it. I did not really like the main character, Leah, and really found her exploits a bit hard to believe and silly to the point that they were a distraction. Overall though this was an interesting plot and it kept me interested all the way through. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced readers copy for review.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview a Small Town by Thomas Perry.

I have read all of Perry's books and wile this on didn't let me down the main character did. Leah Hawkins is only realistic if she is Jack Reacher after a sex change. The story is great but her character against 12 murderous thugs was just too over the top for me.

YET I DID enjoy the story

There's some very strong scenes in this book. Strong characters but also weak ones. The violence from the off is evident. I did realise there would be some, given the prisoners who escape and do unspeakable damage to the town and its people but still.. I admit I had to break away from it for a bit and then continue.

There's a strong theme of vigilante justice in the novel as a police office goes rogue and goes off on a major trek across several places in order to apprehend and kill them. There's a lot of stepping back and suspending disbelief but the chase was good to read and the way she tried to track them down was interesting! Not sure I believed someone like Leah would go hell for leather and not even call law enforcement to finish things off so to speak, but maybe that's just me being too realistic.
I think this book unsettled me for its sheer launch into getting justice where you think the legal system has let you and others down. Too much stuff in the news seems to be mirroring this and it makes me uncomfortable in many ways. Ok this is fiction but sometimes it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Whilst this was not my cup of tea, I would still read more from this author.

A Small Town is a fast-paced and action-packed book. I enjoyed the plot, the atmosphere and I loved how the mystery was well crafted throughout the story. I highly recommend this book for thriller and crime novel fans.

Many thanks to Thomas Perry, NetGalley, and Mysterious Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

i like the way Thomas Perry writes. His characters are well developed. This book has murder and then is it revenge murder?

A small Colorado town is destroyed when a dozen men at the nearby federal penitentiary escape, taking a thousand inmates with them to pillage the town. Two years later, with the town dying, Leah, the chief of police, decides, with the city council's approval, to track down the leaders and kill them.

The character of Leah was very well done. It didn't fall into stereotypes or cliches of a beautiful woman detective, one who bumbles but somehow solves the crime, or one that needs to be rescued by a cute guy, who she may have a crush on. Leah was a strong, competent detective who happened to be female. I liked her a lot.

The book is well-written and moves at a good pace. There are two points that bothered me. One, a very slight spoiler, is that when two of the men were killed their bodies were moved to a location where they were easily found and identified. I just don't see why that happened. I see it for wrapping up the plot, but not why the people in possession of the bodies would not have hidden them. The second was the last chapter. I found it very confusing and had to read it twice to figure out who the characters were. Although it wrapped things up in a satisfactory way it almost seemed like it was written by a different person.

Other than those minor points I enjoyed this very much. It was a fast read and I would like to have read more books featuring Leah.

I would put this, with Metzinger's Dog, at the top of Perry's work.

Thank you Netgalley and Mysterious Press for a chance to review this title that comes out in January of 2020. The story begins when lots of prisoners escape from a prison near the town of Weldonville. They do terrible damage to the town, killing way too many and then driving off. Two years later the 12 ringleaders of the prison break still haven’t been apprehended. So police officer Leah Hawkins sets out on her own to find them and kill them. A few turns a long the way take her in a somewhat different direction.

I’m not a fan of vigilante justice and I didn’t care for Leah. She was more like a robot than a human. She didn’t seem to have any feelings about anything. And as another reviewer said not much of what happened was very plausible. I would have liked it a little better if Leah had located the escapees and then called in local law enforcement to take care of the rest.
I thought this might be a debut author, but it turns out he’s written several books. I’m not quite sure why his published get away with almost everything going as planned instead of placing a serious conflict in the plot line.

I can’t recommend this book.

A Small Town by Thomas Perry is a fictional tale where twelve violent prison inmates orchestrate a large scale prison break out that leads to the decimation of the nearby town Weldonville when over 1,000 prison inmates run amok.

In the aftermath, two years after the twelve behind the break out can't be located by authorities, Weldonville police officer Leah Hawkins then decides to hunt down the masterminds behind this rampage and send them off to the place they belong.

Unfortunately for this reader, the implausibilities within A Small Town required too much escape from reality to work and for such a premise to be engaging, an additional foundation for such implausibilities to occur needed development.

It is recommended readers seek out other works of Thomas Perry than that of A Small Town.

I really liked this novel. The prison break was clever and very well-written.. The revenge story had substance. It was a good idea to make Leah Hawkins the the beneficiary of part of the town's four million dollar grant. She showed real investigative skills in tracking down the murderers from the prison, and I was rooting for her all along the way. The author presented this as something that was necessary in order to achieve some level of justice, as the courts would not likely provide it. We can fantasize in this fictional setting. No doubt many think that the courts have given too much ground and real justice is slow and rare. This is a book sure to cheer them up.
Thanks, NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

January sees the launch of, A Small Town, a new standalone from Thomas Perry. After several lacklustre releases, one decent one, The Old Man and the truly awful Forty Thieves which he should beg his publisher to withdraw, he’s finally returned to form with a gripping expertly paced can’t-put-down Avenging Angel thriller of grand scale. Leah Hawkins is Perry’s greatest creation since Jane Whitefield and is equally good at finding people as Jane is at hiding them. The game changed for sensational plots after The Silent Patient and The Chain and Perry’s latest brings a whole new dimension to a prison escape story and hunt for escapees. Make sure A Small Town is on your list. Highly recommended.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview a Small Town by Thomas Perry.
Mr. Perry has the ability to make you root for the underdog - he takes an ordinary individual and gives them the innate ability to "disappear" while taking down enemies one at a time.
In his new novel, a small town in Colorado houses a large penetentiary. The residents of this small town make up most of the workers at the facility. It used to be a prison for white collar crimes, but over time, more hardened criminals are behind its bars.
When this small town faces the unimaginable - a prison escape - that devistates the town, the residents look back with distain and hatred for those who killed their neighbors. Twelve of those escapees have not been found and after two years, this small town believes that if they don't take things in their own hands, nothing will be done.
Police Chief, Leah Hawkins, takes a leave of absence to seek out those who ruined her town, and her one mission is to take out those twelve - or die trying.
5 stars. Perry is back in form with this novel - RECOMMEND.

A Small Town by Thomas Perry -- 5 Stars
Mystery Press
9780802148063

It started with a complexly orchestrated prison break releasing 1200 inmates who murdered the entire prison staff. They went on to raid a small town nearly destroying it and the lives of its citizens. Then there was a take-no-prisoners manhunt for the twelve who masterminded the escape. All this created a story full of action and entertainment.

Leah Hawkins, the central character who single-handed pursued the twelve men was well crafted. She carried out the task assigned to her by the city council with intelligence and skill. It appears that this is a stand-alone novel. I was hoping that it was the beginning of a series. Leah was such a strong and engaging woman that I hoped it was the beginning of a series with her as the lead.

I’ve read and enjoyed other novels by Thomas Perry. This one encourages me to read the ones I have missed. I thank the author for the entertaining hours I spent with A Small Town.

Reviewer: Nancy