Book details

Jane Whitefield—the fierce and resourceful heroine of Thomas Perry's most popular thrillers—returns from retirement to guide a fugitive out of danger.

 

For more than a decade, Jane Whitefield pursued her unusual profession: “I’m a guide . . . I show people how to go from places where somebody is trying to kill them to other places where nobody is.” Then she promised her husband she would never work again, and settled in to live a happy, quiet life as Jane McKinnon, the wife of a surgeon in Amherst, New York. But when a bomb goes off in the middle of a hospital fundraiser, Jane finds herself face to face with the cause of the explosion: a young pregnant girl who has been tracked across the country by a team of guns-for-hire. That night, regardless of what she wants or the vow she’s made to her husband, Jane must come back to transform one more victim into a runner. Her quest for safety sets in motion a mission that may be as much of a rescue operation as it is a chance for revenge.

From Publishers Weekly

Perrys exciting if relatively formulaic sixth Jane Whitefield novel (after 1999s Blood Money) finds Jane, a Native American guide who helps people assume new identities, living quietly under an alias in western New York State, married to a local doctor. Shortly after pregnant Christine Monahan shows up at the hospital where Janes husband works, desperately searching for Jane, a bomb explodes in the hospital. The two women wind up fleeing cross-country with a cadre of thugs hot on their trail. Jane learns that Christine is the girlfriend of an abusive real estate mogul in San Diego obsessed with finding her and their unborn child. By giving Christine and her baby new identities, Jane once again puts herself in mortal danger. Blending the frenetic pacing of a top-notch thriller with Native American mysticism, this entry will more than satisfy longtime fans, though newcomers to the series may be confused by the lack of any kind of substantial backstory. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Perry returns to his Jane Whitefield series (The Face-Changers, 1998) after several stand-alones and picks up right where he left off—unrelenting suspense surrounded by a detail-rich exposition on the art of “disappearing.” Whitefield, a Native American living a quiet life as the wife of a surgeon in upstate New York, is retired from her under-the-radar work as a “guide,” someone who helps people in peril vanish from their pursuers. Then a bomb explodes during a hospital fund-raiser, and Jane discovers that the explosion was directed at a pregnant young woman, a “runner” desperately in need of disappearing. Back in the game but having lost more than a step (cell phones and ubiquitous databases, among other technological innovations, have dramatically changed the business of disappearing), Jane sets out to guide one more runner to safety. Naturally, it doesn’t go as planned, and rather than protecting the hunted, Jane becomes the hunter. Perry’s premise demands remarkable attention to detail, and much of the appeal in this series is watching those details fall into place, especially as the ever-quickening pace pumps into overdrive. Like Ridley Pearson, though, Perry never sacrifices nuances of character to the demands of his breakneck pace. A first-class thriller and the welcome return of an outstanding series. --Bill Ott

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews