A String of Beads

November 3, 2014
In Edgar-winner Perry’s explosive eighth Jane Whitefield novel (after 2012’s Poison Flower), Jane, who helps people in danger disappear, would like nothing better than to disappear herself—into the quieter side of her double life, as an upstate New York surgeon’s wife—but her Seneca clan elders have other plans. At first, her mission seems straightforward enough: find her now-fugitive childhood friend from the rez, Jimmy Sanders, who faces a murder charge in connection with the shooting of a man he’d bested in a bar fight a few months earlier, and bring him in safely to surrender to authorities. But it quickly becomes clear the case is far more complex, with ruthless mob-connected muscle apparently determined to kill Jimmy first. During the extended, blood-splattered series of chases that ensues, those willing to suspend disbelief and overlook several cartoonish side characters can anticipate a hair-raising adventure with a woman warrior who would make her Seneca forbears proud. Agent: Mel Berger, WME.

December 1, 2014

Perry (The Boyfriend) is back with the eighth book (after Poison Flower) in his "Jane Whitefield" series. One year earlier Jane had been shot, beaten, and tortured before she was able to escape her captors. Still recovering from this incident at her home in Amherst, NY, she is approached by all eight Seneca clan mothers from the local reservation, who ask for her help in finding and protecting a childhood friend of hers. The women are concerned that Jimmy Sander's disappearance will be seen as a sign of guilt that he killed the white laborer with whom he had a bar fight. Jane sets aside her quiet routine to help a fellow Seneca evade arrest for a murder he says he didn't commit. She also needs to find out who and why another group of men is desperately looking for Jimmy. VERDICT Perry's thriller swings into action as soon as Jane is on the trail. A breathless pace sets the tone with numerous close calls as the expert, clever heroine tries to solve the crime before Jimmy gets caught. Enthusiastically recommended for series fans and for readers who appreciate strong female protagonists. [See Prepub Alert, 7/28/14; six-city tour.]--Deb West, Gannon Univ. Lib., Erie, PA

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2014
In the eighth novel in this series, Jane Whitefield, now married to a surgeon, using her married name of McKinnon and trying to recover from the physical and mental trauma left by the bad guys in the preceding novel, Poison Flower (2013), wants nothing more than to be an ordinary housewife. But she still takes precautions, changing her routine constantly, going to as many as 14 grocery stores before she returns to the first, so that no one can track her. Jane herself is a tracker; her Seneca upbringing gave her skills in finding and hiding people that she has used for more than 20 years. And when eight older women, representing the eight Seneca clans, visit Jane at her Amherst, New York, home and ask her to find Jimmy, her childhood friend from summers at the reservation, Jane can't refuse. Jimmy is wanted for the murder of a man during a bar fight; the elders want Jimmy, whom they believe to be innocent, to come home and surrender. Jane quickly finds Jimmy, and then both of them are hunted down by an ever-growing cast of characters. Many scenes have an almost Twilight Zone atmosphere of sudden recognition. The landscape is filled with references to tribal history, and Perry also delivers fascinating information on how to hide and change identity, starting with dumping the cell phone. First-rate suspense.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

November 15, 2014
A refreshing change of pace for Jane Whitefield McKinnon, who specializes in helping people hide from dangerous pursuers (Poison Flower, 2012, etc.): She's asked to find someone who's already gone to earth.No request that comes from the eight clan mothers of the Tonawanda Seneca clan in which Jane grew up can be denied. So Jane doesn't hesitate to leave her long-suffering husband to search for her childhood friend Jimmy Sanders, who punched a drunk who took a swing at him in an Akron bar and then found the cops building a homicide case against him when the drunk, Nick Bauermeister, was shot dead in the home he shared with his girlfriend, Chelsea Schnell. Jimmy makes it easy for Jane to find him-everything in this installment is unexpectedly easy-but soon enough, they're predictably on the run together. The only thing that's not predictable is the reason why. Nick, it turns out, didn't just work for Daniel Crane's Box Farm Personal Storage facility; he worked for Dan as a thief, and Dan, who killed him in the hope of securing Chelsea's favors himself, turns out to be seriously connected to people who are even more seriously connected. The upshot is that it's not just the law that's looking for Jimmy; an awful lot of conscientious, well-armed professionals are involved as well, some of them employees of mob uber-boss Lorenzo Malconi, some of them on loan by associates eager to do Malconi a favor. Oddly, Jane and Jimmy (and later Chelsea) never seem to be squeezed, as you'd expect, between the cops and robbers looking for them; instead, it's the bad guys who are squeezed between Technical Sgt. Isaac Lloyd, of the New York State Police, and Jane herself, whose best defense is often a good offense. Perry (The Boyfriend, 2013, etc.) supplies twists and thrills aplenty, but it's hard to feel the suffocating kind of suspense that's his stock in trade when the pursuers seem to be in more danger than the pursued.

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