The Price You Pay by Nick Petrie

Published by G.P. Putnam's Sons on February 6, 2024

Nick Petrie continues a reliable thriller series in the latest Peter Ash novel. Trouble has a habit of finding Peter, interfering with his desire to live a quiet life with his wife June, the woman who helps still the noise of PTSD that would otherwise make it impossible for Peter to sleep indoors.

Peter’s good friend Lewis used to be the leader in a small group of thieves who specialized in stealing from criminals. The criminals who survived or the organizations for which they worked would like to get revenge, but they only know the thieves as the Ghost Killers. Cops think the Ghost Killers are an urban legend, but the underworld knows better.

After the Ghost Killers retired, one of their number needed help to recover from a brain injury. Teddy’s speech therapist told him to record every memory of his past in a journal. Teddy dutifully wrote down everything he knew about the other Ghost Killers and the crimes they committed. Unfortunately, he shared some of that information with his speech therapist (he was shagging her by that point and wanted to impress her). She turned out to be bad at keeping his secrets.

One of the criminals who lost money to the Ghost Killers learned about the journals. Lewis worries that if the journals are distributed throughout the underworld (or to the police), all of the Ghost Killers will be at risk of arrest or retribution. Yet the woman who wants the journals suffered a deeper loss than money, giving her a special motivation to find Lewis and the other Ghosts. She wants to go Keyser Soze on them. She hires a man to find the journals and to bring the Ghost Killers to her. The man is a former CIA agent. He’s good at his work but he learns that Peter and Lewis are formidable adversaries.

The Price You Pay is an intelligent action novel. Peter and Lewis stay true to the personalities they have developed in earlier novels. Peter is defined largely by his courageous efforts to battle his PTSD while Lewis is overcoming his dark past by making a relatively normal life with his new wife and her kids. Or course, life might not qualify as normal when Lewis is being chased by men with guns, as is often the case.

Petrie creates suspense by forcing Peter and Lewis to overcome obstacles as they track down the stolen journals and protect their families from the woman who seeks revenge. They use their wits in combination with their fighting skills, bringing a freshness to action scenes that go beyond improbable shootouts and tough guys hitting other tough guys in the throat. Their wives bring skills of their own to assist Peter and Lewis. The ending delivers the kind of tension that thriller fans expect. I’m pleased that after eight books, this series hasn’t gone stale. I hope Petrie can keep it going for a few more.

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