3.0
Peril
ByPublisher Description
A mobster sends his bagman to track down his runaway daughter-in-law in this novel by “one of the most accomplished writers in the crime/thriller genre” (Financial Times).
Sara Labriola is certain that if she stays in her marriage, someone is going to wind up dead—and it’ll probably be her. So she flees her coastal Long Island home for New York City, where she changes her identity and finds work singing at a bar.
Her husband is upset, of course. But her father-in-law, a small-time but brutal mob boss, is angry—and orders an underling to find her. . Meanwhile, Sara’s husband—who despises his cruel, controlling father—learns of his father’s plot and sends a friend into the mix to prevent the impending bloodshed. With multiple men searching for her, Sara is in danger. But she’s not the only one . . .
“Neat turns of phrase and tight plotting make for an engaging read.” —Publishers Weekly
“Nobody tells a story better than Cook.” —Michael Connelly
Sara Labriola is certain that if she stays in her marriage, someone is going to wind up dead—and it’ll probably be her. So she flees her coastal Long Island home for New York City, where she changes her identity and finds work singing at a bar.
Her husband is upset, of course. But her father-in-law, a small-time but brutal mob boss, is angry—and orders an underling to find her. . Meanwhile, Sara’s husband—who despises his cruel, controlling father—learns of his father’s plot and sends a friend into the mix to prevent the impending bloodshed. With multiple men searching for her, Sara is in danger. But she’s not the only one . . .
“Neat turns of phrase and tight plotting make for an engaging read.” —Publishers Weekly
“Nobody tells a story better than Cook.” —Michael Connelly
Download the free Fable app
Stay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
Rate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
Curate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesStay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building toolRate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tagsCurate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities4 Reviews
3.0
Love
Created almost 5 years agoShare
Report
Lindsay
Created almost 5 years agoShare
Report
LindsayT
Created almost 5 years agoShare
Report
“My first finished book of 2020 is Thomas H. Cook’s 2004 novel Peril. Unlike most of the other books I’ve read by Cook, which have generally focused on one narrator, Peril lets the reader see the same set of circumstances through a variety of lenses.
Sara Labriola is hoping to disappear. After nine years of marriage to Tony, she can’t go on and so one day she packs her clothes, leaves her wedding ring and takes the bus into Manhattan.
Tony is devastated when he discovers Sara missing, but his father, Leo, is furious. Leo is a thug who berates everyone around him, including Tony who has never had the nerve to stand up to him. Leo tells his guy Caruso to find Sara and Caruso leverages the help of Mortimer Dodge because he owes Leo money. Dodge works for a guy named Stark, a guy whose job it is to find people.
Need a chart yet? Let’s recap.
Sara runs away from Tony.
Tony wants to find his wife before his father does because he knows that if Leo finds her first the consequences will be grim. He tasks his employee and friend Eddie with helping him.
Leo gets Caruso on the job. Caruso gets Mortimer on the job. Mortimer gets Stark on the job.
Sara is in NY and thinks she has found a job singing in a night club owned by Abe, who happens to know Mortimer.
It all sounds way more complicated than it is and it’s actually way more compelling than this, too, and that’s because, well, Thomas H. Cook wrote it.
You know how you can read some thrillers or mysteries and they’re just straight ahead books that are driven by plot but not much else? Yeah, that’s not Cook. There is not a character in this novel who doesn’t have a totally believable backstory that makes them, even when they are not particularly likeable, sympathetic. (The exception here is Leo Labriola, who is a misogynistic asshat.) And I mean every character, even characters we only meet a couple times, like the mother of Sara’s neighbour, Della.
And if you think all this backstory is going to bog down the plot – which would be bad, too – forget about it. You’ll turn the pages lickety-split because, well, Thomas H. Cook. He balances character and story and even if some of what happens here seems a tad too coincidental, you won’t care. At all.
There’s something old school about Peril. It’s like a noir film, peopled with shadowy gangsters in crumpled hats, a beautiful, fragile heroine who earns the good will of the men she meets, and a bunch of guys who ultimately, turn out to be loyal and decent.
You will NEVER be wasting your time to read a Cook book. (Couldn’t resist.)”
Start a Book Club
Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!FAQ
Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?
Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?
How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?
Do you sell physical books too?
Are book clubs free to join on Fable?
How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?
Save to a list
0
/30
0
/100
Private List