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Overview
Jane Whitefield helps people in trouble to disappear. Her client in Dance for the Dead is a brave and endearing young boy named Timmy. His parents are dead, and his adoptive parents, along with his governess and her boyfriend, have been brutally murdered by someone trying to acquire the enormous fortune that Timmy is due to inherit. But Jane also has another client, one she doesn't want, but is forced to help: Mary Perkins, suspected of stealing $50 million from S&L's during the eighties. The two cases become excitingly intertwined.In the tradition of popular female sleuths like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone and Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski, Thomas Perry presents his new novel, featuring Native American heroine Jane Whitefield. Perry's previous novel, Vanishing Act, has been optioned for a film.
Synopsis
"COMPELLING . . . NOBODY WRITES A CHASE BETTER THAN PERRY."
*The Washington Post Book World
When eight-year-old Timothy Decker finds his parents brutally murdered, it's clear the Deckers weren't the intended victims: Timothy's own room—ransacked, all traces of his existence expertly obliterated *is the shocking evidence. Timothy's nanny, Mona, is certain about only one thing. Timmy needs to disappear, fast.
Only Jane Whitefield, a Native American "guide" who specializes in making victims vanish, can lead him to safety. But diverting Jane's attention is Mary Perkins, a desperate woman with S&L fraud in her past. Stalking Mary is a ruthless predator determined to find her *and the fortune she claims she doesn't have. Jane quickly creates a new life for Mary and jumps back on Timmy's case . . . not knowing that the two are fatefully linked to one calculating killer. . . .
"Spellbinding . . . Terrific . . . Jane Whitefield may be the most arresting protagonist in the 90s thriller arena. . . . Thrillers need good villains, and this one has a formidable SOB who is cold-blooded enough to satisfy anybody's taste."
*Entertainment Weekly
"A terse thriller . . . Perry starts the story with a bang."
*San Francisco Chronicle
Publishers Weekly
As usual, Perry (The Butcher's Boy) cuts to the chase. In the opening scene of this riveting mystery thriller, Jane Whitefield, an expert at helping people in danger disappear, slugs it out with three brawny hoodlums in an L.A. courthouse. At that point, she has traveled across half the country trying to protect Timmy Phillips, an eight-year-old heir to millions, from the stop-at-nothing professional killers on their trail. The same criminals, led by a powerful ex-cop named Barraclough, murdered Timmy's adoptive parents. Now they want Mary Perkins, a fugitive savings-and-loan fleecer who also asks Whitefield for help. Perry launches a complex pursuit, during which Whitefield relies on her Seneca heritage for insight and on friends for crucial assistance. A love interest highlights the personal price Whitefield pays for doing her secretive, dangerous work. The nail-biting climax takes place on a snowy night in a location that seems tailor-made for film: the rusting remains of a huge steel mill near Buffalo. The denouement may strike some readers as too neat, but it's a minor quibble. With his distinctive protagonist, thoroughly amoral villains and the unrelenting action, Perry scores again. 75,000 first printing; major ad/promo. (Apr.)
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
As usual, Perry (The Butcher's Boy) cuts to the chase. In the opening scene of this riveting mystery thriller, Jane Whitefield, an expert at helping people in danger disappear, slugs it out with three brawny hoodlums in an L.A. courthouse. At that point, she has traveled across half the country trying to protect Timmy Phillips, an eight-year-old heir to millions, from the stop-at-nothing professional killers on their trail. The same criminals, led by a powerful ex-cop named Barraclough, murdered Timmy's adoptive parents. Now they want Mary Perkins, a fugitive savings-and-loan fleecer who also asks Whitefield for help. Perry launches a complex pursuit, during which Whitefield relies on her Seneca heritage for insight and on friends for crucial assistance. A love interest highlights the personal price Whitefield pays for doing her secretive, dangerous work. The nail-biting climax takes place on a snowy night in a location that seems tailor-made for film: the rusting remains of a huge steel mill near Buffalo. The denouement may strike some readers as too neat, but it's a minor quibble. With his distinctive protagonist, thoroughly amoral villains and the unrelenting action, Perry scores again. 75,000 first printing; major ad/promo. (Apr.)Library Journal
Jane's attempt to help an orphan boy overlaps with her work for a woman accused of stealing $50 million in Perry's (Vanishing Act, LJ 12/94) latest thriller.Emily Melton
Jane Whitefield has an uncommon career as a freelance "disappearer." When someone is in a jam and needs a safe haven, Jane finds it for them. Jane's newest case involves an eight-year-old who will inherit millions as long as he remains alive until the will is probated. The villains after his fortune have already killed his parents, his nanny, and a lawyer and are hot on the trail of the kid. Then Jane encounters smart, attractive Mary Perkins, a former banker and consummate con artist who has stolen a cool $50 million in a savings-and-loan scam. So far, Mary has managed to keep herself hidden from the folks who want the money back, but she's running out of time and disguises, and she figures only Jane can help. In a plot with more action than an Indiana Jones adventure, more suspense than "Psycho", and more clever twists and tricks than a James Bond flick, Perry keeps his readers on the edges of their seats for more than 300 pages. A taut, tense, superbly written thriller that will satisfy even the most demanding reader.Kirkus Reviews
An explosive second outing for Jane Whitefield, the Senecan specialist in helping people disappear (Vanishing Act, 1995).The story kicks off with a whoosh as Jane succeeds in saving the life of her latest client, eight-year-old Timothy Phillips, by producing him in an L.A. court that's about to declare him dead so that whoever's been plundering his trust fund can breathe easy. Once Timmy's story is read into the record, he's safe, but it's been a high-casualty operation, and Jane's in no mood for getting accosted at the airport by Mary Perkins, who begs Jane to help her elude the killers following her. It isn't until the two women are halfway across the country that Jane has the time to hear Mary's story: During the unregulated '80s, she bilked unwary banks of millions through a pyramid of lovingly detailed real- estate schemes, and now that she's already done time for the feds, who weren't able to shake the money loose from her, some monstrous freelancer has decided to take a turn. Jane gets Mary parked in a new town with shiny new credit cards, and even takes a few days back in her upstate New York hometown to entertain a marriage proposal from her hitherto platonic friend Dr. Carey McKinnon, but then it's back to business as she goes after the trustee who's been looting Timmy Phillips's estate. The looting, though, turns out to be even deeper and deadlier than she imagined—and it naturally leads her straight back to Mary and the ominous, insatiable security firm that's getting closer and closer to her. The plotting is a miracle of unrelenting tension; the breathless, knowing prose is pitch-perfect; and Jane's fierce righteousness is perfectly balanced by a mind-boggling wealth of detail about how to plunder trusts, defraud banks, and disappear.
Five more of Jane's adventures are already stockpiled for annual release. Truly a treasure for Random—as long as they never let the peerlessly devious author get behind them.