Two men join forces to investigate a woman’s mysterious disappearance in this “labyrinthine tale of murder [and] conspiracy” ( People ) from the award-winning author of The Butcher’s Boy. “Fast-paced . . . a totally enveloping read [that] relies on the wits of the characters rather than the high-tech gadgetry.”— The Denver Post A careful, methodical young data analyst for a California insurance company, John Walker knows when people will marry, at what age they will most likely have children, and when they will die. All signs point to a long successful career—until Max Stillman, a gruff security consultant, appears without warning at the office. It seems a colleague with whom Walker once had an affair has disappeared after paying a very large death benefit to an impostor. Stillman wants to find and convict her; Walker is convinced the woman is innocent. Now Walker teams up with Stillman on an urgent north-by-northeast race—relentlessly leading to a pay-off that just might shock the life out of him. . . . “Compelling . . . a labyrinthine tale of murder [and] conspiracy. . . . The hardboiled dialogue, quirky characters, and careful pacing deliver some chilling fun.” — People (page-turner of the week) “The characters in Thomas Perry’s surefooted adventures are always on the run. What encourages us to trot after them is their ingenuity in getting where they’re going and the resources for survival they discover within themselves when the flight becomes desperate.” — The New York Times Book Review “A page-turner . . . A complex web of intrigue . . . Death Benefits moves like a streak and consistently stays a step or two ahead of readers.” — San Francisco Chronicle “Masterful . . . Insurance hasn’t been this interesting since James M. Cain wrote Double Indemnity. ” — The Baltimore Sun “Fast-paced . . . a totally enveloping read [that] relies on the wits of the characters rather than the high-tech gadgetry.” — The Denver Post “Relentless action, several intriguing characters, and a wild, surprising finale.” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch New York Times bestselling author Thomas Perry won an Edgar Award for The Butcher’s Boy , and Metzger’s Dog was one of the New York Times ’s Notable Books of the Year. His other books include The Face-Changers , Shadow Woman , Dance for the Dead , and Vanishing Act . Thomas Perry died in 2025. Ellen leaned forward over the sink and took a last, critical look at her makeup in the bathroom mirror. She could see that the eyes were good. The way to look trustworthy was to look trusting, and her eyes seemed big and blue and wide-open. The color on the cheeks was good, too: she could tell it was clear, smooth, and natural, even though the mirror was pocked with black spots, and the light in here was harsh and yellow. But she intended to be there early enough to slip into the ladies' room, do a recheck, and make any necessary revisions before she was seen. She had been training herself not to take anything for granted since she was nine years old, and she was twenty-four now. Not to anticipate problems was to invite them. She went back into her kitchen, picked her purse off the table, and slung it over her shoulder, then opened her thin leather briefcase to be sure she had everything. She always carried a small kit consisting of the brochures and forms necessary to commit a customer to one of the common policies: term life, whole life, health, home owner's, auto. Before she had left the office last night, she had added some of the more exotic ones to cover art, jewelry, planes, and boats. The application forms she carried always had her name typed in as agent, with her telephone extension and office and e-mail addresses in the other boxes, and her signature already in the space at the bottom. She never left the home office in doubt about who should get the commission. Clipped to the inside of her briefcase she carried a slim gold pen that felt good in a customer's hand when he signed his name, and she kept an identical one, never used, out of sight below it so there could never be a moment when she was ready to close on a customer and couldn't. Taking a few simple, habitual precautions was usually enough to keep her from lying in bed at night worrying about lost opportunity, failure, and humiliation. She reached into the other side of the divider in her briefcase, pulled out the claim forms she had prepared, and examined them. She was not proofreading the entries. She knew there were no mistakes. She had been up late, studying the files, filling in the blank spaces on the forms with a typewriter, so there would be no real paperwork left to do. This morning she used the forms to test her memory of family names, addresses, dates. She had no illusion that she was engaged in anything but an act of dissimulation. It was conscious, studied, and practiced, and anything less than a flawless performance would be a disaster. When she had all the personal details b