Runner

After a nine-year absence, the fiercely resourceful Native American guide Jane Whitefield is back, in the latest superb thriller by award-winning author Thomas Perry. For more than a decade, Jane 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 hired hunters.That night, regardless of what she wants or the vow that she's made to her husband, Jane must come back to transform one more victim into a runner. And her quest for safety sets in motion a mission that will be a rescue operation---or a chance for revenge...

Publishers Weekly

Perry's exciting if relatively formulaic sixth Jane Whitefield novel (after 1999's 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 Jane's 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.)

THOMAS PERRY is the author of the Jane Whitefield series as well as the best-selling novels Nightlife, Death Benefits, and Pursuit, the first recipient of the Gumshoe Award for Best Novel. He won the Edgar Award for The Butcher's Boy, and Metzger's Dog was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He lives in Southern California.

Bean has had careers as a television news producer, writer, actor, and voice talent. She has a B.A. in Telecommunications from Michigan State University.