Thomas Perry writes fast-moving, enjoyable books, and Strip is no exception. It's stuffed with colorful characters, beginning with Joe Carver (not his real name), who's on the run from strip-club owner and money launderer Manco Kapak because Kapak's been led to believe that Carver is the one who robbed him. Kapak's enforcers barely competent enforcers are funny and human. They might be thugs, but that's not all they are. Spence, Kapak's right-hand man, is deeper than Kapak knows. Jefferson Falkins, the real robber, meets a woman named Carrie, and with them we find ourselves in Gun Crazy territory. Then there are the waitress and the drug lord and the cop (who's got a problem that I believe no other literary cop has had).Perry sets all these characters in motion, giving them plenty of time to talk and act and intersect in ways that are often funny and sometimes surprising. They've all working their way toward the darkness at the end of the book, when they might not all get what they want, though some of them get what they deserve, while others get what they need.
I might have cut a few pages, but Perry's clearly having fun with the writing, and so should we. Good stuff.
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