Nightlife by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 2006)

 

From the back cover

“When the cousin of Los Angeles underworld figure Hugo Poole is found shot to death in his home in Portland, Oregon, homicide detective Catherine Hobbes is determined to solve the case. But her feelings, and the investigation, are complicated when Hugo simultaneously hires Joe Pitt. As Joe and Catherine form an uneasy alliance, the murder count rises. Following the evidence, Catherine finds herself in a deadly contest with a cunning female adversary capable of changing her appearance and identity at will. Catherine must use everything she knows, as a detective and as a woman, to stop a murderer who kills on impulse and with ease, and who becomes more efficient and elusive with each crime.”

 

 

Review

Nightlife, like Perry’s best writing, is a near-impossible-to-set-down, tautly penned and edited police-procedural thriller, with well-developed characters worth rooting for or hissing at (even the emotionally immature/defensive, cold-blooded killer,Tanya Starling, aka Charlene Buckner, aka other names, can be sympathized or at least understood, given her fully realized backstory). That Perry provides effective character motivations imbues the resulting violence, all of it masterfully edited and written, with an impressive, reads-fresh, character-sourced intimacy, even as he sidesteps certain action-thriller tropes, and an ending that deftly blends key-character trepidation and hope into a “would love to see these characters again” finish. Top-notch book, top-notch author.

The Left-Handed Twin by Thomas Perry

 

(oversized pb; 2021: ninth book in the Jane Whitefield series)

 

From the back cover

“Jane Whitefield helps people disappear. Fearing for their lives, fleeing dangerous situations, her clients come to her when they need to vanish completely.

“Her newest comes fresh from LA with a whole lot of trouble behind her. After she cheated on her boyfriend, he dragged her to the home of the offending man and made her watch as he killed him. She testified against the boyfriend, but a bribed jury acquitted him, and now he’s free and on her trail. Jane agrees to help, and it soon becomes clear that outsmarting the murderous boyfriend is not beyond Jane’s skills. But the boyfriend has some new friends: members of a Russian organized crime brotherhood, intent to capture not only Sara but Jane, whose secrets could be worth millions.

 

Thus begins a bloodthirsty chase that winds through the cities of the northeast before finally plunging into Maine’s Hundred Mile Wilderness. But in a pursuit where nothing can be trusted, one thing is certain: only one party—Jane or her pursuers—will emerge alive.”

 

Review

“Three or four years” after Jane’s kidnapping and torture in Poison Flower, Jane guides a young woman (Sara Doughton, later renamed Anne Preston Bailey) into a safer, not-on-the-predatory-radar life after Sara breaks into Jane’s old family house—Sara’s reason for doing so is that she’s trying to escape an obsessive, murderous, and across-the-board abusive boyfriend (Albert) who’s terrorizing her, even more so after she testified against him in court. Initially (relatively) easy, things become more exponentially more difficult when one of Albert’s friends enlists the Russian mob to help the selfish, immature Albert to trap his erstwhile ex anew.

Like the best Jane Whitefield novels, Left-Handed has tight editing, excellent, reader-immersing pacing and characterization, Native American/Seneca lore, short and sharp action sequences, plot- and character-relevant mentions of Jane’s past (shown in previous franchise books), and a satisfying ending that pushes Jane and her husband Carey into new, life-altering situations, even as another new, possibly series-spanning villain (smart, nuanced Russian enforcer Magda, another Jane doppelgänger) rises into prominence. Looking forward to Perry's next Jane Whitefield book!

A String of Beads by Thomas Perry

 

(oversize pb; 2015: eighth book in the Jane Whitefield series)

 

From the back cover

“A year after getting shot on a job that took a dangerous turn, Jane has settled into the quiet life of a suburban housewife in Amherst, New York—or so she thinks. One morning, coming back from a run, Jane is met by an unusual sight: the female leaders of the eight Seneca clans parked in her driveway in two black cars. They have come to her with a troublesome request. Jane’s childhood friend from the reservation, Jimmy [Sanders], is wanted by the police for the murder of a local white man and has fled. The clan mothers believe Jane is the only one who can find him. But when Jane begins to retrace a journey, she took with jimmy when they were fourteen years old, she realizes that the police aren’t the only ones after him. As the chase intensifies, the number of people caught up in this deadly plot grows, and Jane is the only one who can protect those endangered by it.”

 

Review

A year after Jane’s kidnapping, torture and revenge in Poison Flower, Jane—always wary of potential danger—has settled into semi-comfortable life with her doctor-husband (Cary McKinnon). But when the female members of an influential Seneca/Native American council seek her help in locating and rescuing her good, on-the-lam childhood friend (Jimmy Sanders) who’s been accused of murder, she takes on Sanders as a runner. The closer Jane gets to locating and helping Jimmy (and those related to her current run), the more complications arise—many linked to killer/thievery ringleader (Daniel Crane) and his Mafia-afiliate associates (Salamone and don Lorenzo Malconi).

There hasn’t been a less-than-excellent entry in the Jane Whitefield series thus far, and Beads is no exception. Beads has an especially strong Seneca-centric storyline to it, reminding me a lot of its source novel (Vanishing Act, 1995). Of course, there’s lots of physical defensive/tactical talk and elements, action, strong character development for its lead characters, and villains worth hissing at. Worth owning, this. Followed by The Left Handed Twin.

Poison Flower by Thomas Perry

 

(hb; 2012: seventh book in the Jane Whitefield series)

From the back cover

“James Shelby has been unjustly convicted of his wife’s murder. To save him from prison or death, Jane orchestrates his escape from the heavily guarded criminal court building in Los Angeles. Within minutes, imposters posing as police officers shoot Jane, take her away, and tie her to a mattress in a small, dark room.

“Jane’s captors are employees for the true killer, who believes he won’t be safe until Shelby is dead. His henchmen will do anything to break Jane’s mind, body, and spirit to get her to reveal Shelby’s hiding place, yet Jane endures their sadistic torment using techniques passed on via her Seneca warrior ancestors. Jane is alone, wounded, thousands of miles from home with no money and no identification, hunted by both the police and her ruthless captors. In an unrelenting cross-country battle, Jane must use all her cunning to rejoin Shelby, get them both to safety, and unmask the real murderer. And when at last Jane turns to fight, her enemies face a ferocious warrior who has one weapon they don’t.”

 

Review

One of the many strengths of Perry’s Jane Whitefield series (and overall writing) is that he, a prolific author, regularly switches up the plot structures and setups of his books, often within the same series, so that each book stands out from (most of) his other works. This is especially true of Poison Flower, which focuses not on Jane guiding her clients to safety, but her trying to escape kidnappers and, having done so, making sure that she and those she cares about are safe from them—even if it means her engaging in an activity she reluctantly engages in: revenge.

Poison, like other Jane Whitefield novels, is a fast, entertaining work, making for another thriller that feels fresh and familiar while expanding ongoing characters and Jane’s world. The emotional gravitas of the dangers Jane and her friends and family face are immediate, engaging, action-brutal and often hair-raising (especially after Jane is kidnapped by Daniel Martel’s auction-minded killers). This is an excellent work, not shocking considering its creator, fast-moving but not so slick as to lack memorability or emotional heft. Followed by A String of Beads.

Runner by Thomas Perry

(hb; 2009 – sixth book in the Jane Whitefield series)

From the inside flap

“After a nine-year absence, the fiercely resourceful Native American guide Jane Whitefield is back. . .

“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 to live a happy, quiet life as 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 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 either a rescue operation—or a chance for revenge.”

 

Review

Runner takes place several years after the events of Blood Money. In the now, a hit team bombs the hospital where her husband, Carey McKinnon, works—they do this to snatch an on-the-run, older and pregnant teenager (Christine Monahan) who’s fleeing her ex-lover/former employer (Richard Beale) who’s into some shady dealings. Christine is there, trying to engage Jane’s services, which might require some technological updating.

Keeping with previous Jane Whitefield entries, there’s plenty of hateable bad guys, great character development (new and returning characters), action, an engaging story and solid pacing, as well as enough variation in its structure and storytelling to offset it, make it stand out from earlier Whitefield novels. Worth owning, this.

Followed by Poison Flower.

Blood Money by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 1999: fifth book in the Jane Whitefield series)

From the back cover

“Even before she heard the teenager’s story, Jane Whitefield’s Native American intuition whispered danger. For a year, Rita Shelford kept house for an old man in Florida. When he disappeared, other men came and tried to kill her. That was before she knew that her employer was the Mafia’s brilliant moneyman, recently reported murdred. Now the mob suspects Rita of stealing the only record of a shady investment worth billions. Unless Jane, Rita’s last hope, can spirit Rita into a new identity, she’s a dead woman. As the mafioso army converges on airports and hotels, highways and city streets, there seems to be no exit—except form life itself.”

 

Review

Caveat: (possible) element and multi-series tie-in (not plot) spoilers in this review.

Another instant favorite of mine in the Jane Whitefield series, Blood sports a bigger cast, some of them returning characters: George Hawkes, who turned Richard Dahlman onto Jane in The Face Changers, 1998; Zinni, a Mafia soldier/airport watcher in the employ of Richard Delfina, originally seen in an earlier book featuring Nancy Carmody—I forget which one; and Martha McCutcheon, Native American/Oklahoma clan mother who helped Mary Perkins (another Whitefield client) after Perkins was “repeatedly beaten, raped and starved” in Shadow Woman (1997).

Blood’s original characters are just as interesting: Bernie “the Elephant” Lupus, a Mafia moneyman whose memory of their hidden financial accounts and amounts was slipping prior to his death; and Tony Saachi, a retiree who still might be one of the sharpest Mafia dons.

Blood has all the action-oriented, tactical, Native American elements (including meaningful dreams) and character-based thrills of previous Whitefield books, with more of an ensemble cast—many of them of particularly delightful, nasty or both—making this even more engaging and (sometimes) humorous.

I’m not sure about this, but some of Tony Saachi’s dialogue on page 162 of Blood feels like a (possible) reference to Thomas Perry’s Butcher’s Boy quadrilogy: “You should’ve been with us in ’87 when the Castiglione thing broke. Nearly two hundred guys went, just like that, in one night.” Again, not sure about that, but I’d like to think so.

Anyhow, Blood Money is worth owning, another high mark in Perry’s consistently charming and often dark series. Followed by Runner.

The Face-Changers by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 1998: fourth book in the Jane Whitefield series)

From the back cover

“Jane Whitefield, legendary half-Indian shadow guide who spirits hunted people away from certain death, has never had a client like Dr. Richard Dahlman. A famous plastic surgeon who has dedicated his life to healing, the good doctor hasn’t a clue why stalkers are out for his blood. But he knows Jane Whitefield’s name—and that she iss his only hope. Once again Jane performs her magic, leading Dahlman in a nightmare flight across America, only a heartbeat ahead of pursuers whose leader is a dead ringer for Jane: a raven-haired beauty who was stolen her name, reputation, and techniques—not to save lives, but to destroy them.”

 

Review

Caveat: (possible) not-quite-spoiler series notes in this review.

A year after the events of Shadow Woman (1997), Jane Whitefield, retired from her guide business, is drawn back into intrigue and danger when her husband, Carey McKinnon, asks her to help his surgical/experimental-researcher mentor (Dr. Richard Dahlman) disappear after he’s framed for the murder of his co-researcher. Complicating Jane’s task is a woman who’s operating as Jane’s doppelgãnger, with a money-flush, murder-leaning organization backing the faux-Jane. Also in the violent mix: Alvin Jardine, a low-life, Jane-loathing bounty hunter, who might make an appearance (or a few) in future Jane Whitefield entries.

As with earlier books in the series, there’s an element/mention of Seneca/Native American mythology (in this case the titular “face-changers”, Creator-Punishment beings), a measured-pace, snappy writing, character-driven set-up with plenty of action, twists, fresh takes on familiar situations, and a satisfying resolution that rings true, as well as mentions from previous Whitefield novels (in this case, Vanishing Act, 1995, specifically: John Felker, duplicitous and sociopathic former client of Jane’s; Lewis Feng, a documents forger Jane worked with, later killed by Felker, as was another former Jane client, Harry in Santa Barbara).

Worth owning, this. Followed by Blood Money.

Shadow Woman by Thomas Perry

 

(hb; 1997: third book in the Jane Whitefield series)

From the inside flap

“Jane Whitefield is a ‘guide’—she leads desperate people away from danger into safe places and gives them new identities. In Shadow Woman, Jane designs a harrowing escape for Pete Hatcher, a Las Vegas casino executive whose suspicious employers are about to kill him. Once her client is safe, Jane makes herself vanish and retires from her dangerous profession to marry the man she loves. But the risky business she left behind returns with terrible urgency on the night she receives Pete Hatcher’s call for help. A man and a woman who can only be an assassination team have found his hiding place, and Jane must beat the killers to their prey. She needs all the courage, fortitude, and intelligence of her Native American heritage to keep Hatcher alive. And this time, the killers know she’s coming.”

 

Review

Like the preceding Whitefield novel, Dance for the Dead, Shadow Woman is light on Indian practicality and wisdom tales and focuses on the action, immediate storyline, and characters—and what a doozy some of the characters are! Linda Thompson and Earl Bliss, within the context of the Whitefield novels, might just be the most hair-raising and perverse psychosexual skip tracers/murderers Jane has faced. Not only that, Pete Seaver, head of security and occasional killer for incorporated Las Vegas mobsters (Pleasure, Inc.) is beginning to have doubts about his Las Vegas employers and Thompson and Bliss, and has set out to get their prey, Hatcher and, if necessary, Whitefield.

For the most part, Shadow is an excellent, intense read, with a darkly funny ending. It deftly avoids (possibly) melodramatic situations between Jane and her laid-back fiancé, Carey McKinnon, who is—for this reader, anyway—so naïve and trusting he borders on people-stupid/unrealistic. Despite this relatively character nit, Shadow works as an above-average novel, one worth owning. Followed by The Face Changers.

Dance for the Dead by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 1996: second book in the Jane Whitefield series)

From the back cover

“. . . the patron saint of the pursued, a native American guide who specializes in making victims vanish. Calling on the ancient wisdom of the Seneca tribe and her own razor-sharp cunning, she conjures up new identities for people with nowhere left to run. She’s as quick and quiet as freshly fallen snow., and she covers a trail just as completely. But when a calculating killer stalks an innocent eight-year-old boy, Jane faces dangerous obstacles that will put her powers—and her life—to a terrifying test.” 

 

Review

Dance is a good, swiftly plotted follow-up to Vanishing Act, with Jane taking on incorporated, seemingly omnipresent assassins. The action sequences are fewer in Dance (as are Jane’s Native American introspective thoughts) than in Vanishing, but with its different set-up, same character depth, and overall excellent writing, it’s an action thriller worth seeking. Followed by Shadow Woman.

Vanishing Act by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 1995: first book in the Jane Whitefield series)

From the back cover

“Jane Whitefield is a Native American guide who leads people out of the wilderness—not the tree-filled variety but the kind created by enemies who want you dead. She is in the one-woman business of helping the desperate disappear. Thanks to her membership in the Wolf Clan of the Seneca tribe, she can fool any pursuer, cover any trail, and then provide her clients with new identities, complete with authentic paperwork. Jane knows all the tricks, ancient and modern; in fact, she has invented several of them herself.

“So she is only mildly surprised to find an intruder waiting for her when she returns home one day. An ex-cop suspected of embezzling, John Felker wants Jane to do for him what she did for his buddy Harry Kemple: make him vanish. But as Jane opens a door out of the world for Felker, she walks into a trap that will take all her heritage and cunning to escape.”

 

Review

Vanishing is an excellent thriller, one of the best works I’ve read from Perry thus far. His slick, well-edited action and usual solid characterization is on display, the latter taken to a new level through a touch of mysticism and his deep-dive, main-protagonist’s knowledge of her multi-tribal-integral knowledge of her peoples’ history, practices and skills (thus making Vanishing an edutaining and effectively heartfelt-but-not-sappy read). Standout novel from a standout writer, worth owning. Followed by Dance for the Dead.

Metzger's Dog by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 1983)

From the back cover

“A soldier of fortune. His cat. His ex-lover. With a clean shot at 10 million.

“All they have to do is read the want ads. Blackmail the CIA. Shut down a major American city.

“And get away with it.”

 

Review

Metzger’s is a fun, action-punctuated and relatively light-in-tone heist and blackmail tale, one that sports a 1970s-cinematic, semi-loose-in-telling (but always focused and character-centric) feel, especially in comparison with Perry’s four-book, tightly edited Butcher’s Boy series. This touch of the offbeat in this ambitious, animal-friendly heist/ransom story makes Metzger’s and its characters a joy to read (about, particularly Chinese Gordon, a.k.a. Leroy Charles Gordon). Worth owning, this, especially for fans of Charles Willeford and his creative ilk.

Eddie's Boy by Thomas Perry

 

(hb; 2020: fourth book in the Butcher’s Boy series)

From the inside flap

“Michael Schaeffer is a retired American businessman, living peacefully in England with his aristocratic wife. But her annual summer party brings strangers to their house, and with them, an attempt on Michael’s life. He is immediately thrust into action, luring his lethal pursuers to Australia before venturing into the lion’s den─the States─to figure out why the mafia is after him─again─and how to stop them. . .”

 

Review 

The fourth Butcher’s Boy novel maintains the engaging, action-punctuated, and tautly written immediacy that make up the story DNA of Perry’s earlier Butcher’s books. This time Michael Schaeffer’s looks back at his childhood with butcher/hitman Eddie Mastrewski as his strict-but-kind father figure run longer and make up a much bigger part of Eddie’s.

When, a decade after the events of The Informant, another hit squad tries to take him out in his England estate (and he, with imaginative and slick efficiency, dispatches them), he is forced to return to stateside to deal with the last of the mobsters who likely ordered his murder. Elizabeth Waring, the FBI agent who’d previously hunted three times is now a high-ranking government employee and thrown into the hunt for Schaeffer (whose real name she still doesn’t know), though this time─as with the two previous books─she's friendlier with him.

Eddie’s is another great entry in the Butcher’s series, with all the elements that initial books in the (thus far) quadrilogy make them standout reads in the action/thriller genre.

The Informant by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 2011: third book in the Butcher’s Boy series)

From the inside flap

“The Butcher’s Boy is back. Thomas Perry’s vengeful assassin, who turned on his Mafia clients. . . has been quiet for a decade. Now,. . .[he] has returned to play a deadly psychological game with Elizabeth Waring, the only Justice Department official who ever believed he existed.

“The Butcher’s Boy knows Waring can help him hunt down the Mafia boss who sent a team of hit men to kill him─and in return he offers her key information that will help her crack an unsolved murder. So begins a new assault on organized crime and an uneasy alliance between opposite sides of the law. As the Butcher’s Boy works his way closer to his deadly enemy. . . to kill him first, Waring is in a desperate struggle, either to force her unlikely ally to become a protected informant, or to take him out of commission for good.”

 

Review

Informant’s set-up will likely be familiar to readers of its two prequels, but its overall action and editorial pacing is varied, expedited and, just as importantly, possesses the raw immediacy, strong lead characters and well-sketched supporting characters of its previous works. The violence is again short, sharp and potent, while all of these elements deftly sidestep clichés and add surprising elements to and decisions by its two leads, Michael Schaeffer and Elizabeth Waring. This is an excellent read, and a welcome continuance of Perry’s Butcher Boy series. Followed by Eddie’s Boy.

Sleeping Dogs by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 1992: second book in the Butcher’s Boy series)

From the back cover

“He came to England to rest. He calls himself Michael Schaeffer, says he’s a retired American businessman. He goes to the races, dates a kinky aristocrat, and sleeps with dozens of weapons. Ten years ago, it was different. Then, he was the Butcher’s Boy, the highly skilled mob hit man who pulled a slaughter job on some double-crossing clients and started a mob war. Ever since, there’s been a price on his head.

“Now, after a decade, they’ve found him. The Butcher’s Boy escapes back to the States with more reasons to kill. Until the odds turn terrifyingly against him. . . until the Mafia, the cops, the FBI, and the damn Justice Department want his hide. . . until he’s locked into a cross-country odyssey of fear and death that could tear his world to pieces.”

 

Review

Like its source novel, The Butcher's Boy (1982) Sleeping has the same raw-yet-tightly-written immediacy, with strong (further) character development (for its leads), well-sketched supporting players, and enough cinematic, sometimes dark-humored action to make it worth adapting into a film or miniseries. Its leads, Schaeffer and E.V. Waring─the government agent who pursued him in the first book─are true to the earlier incarnations while growing more interesting, more layered as they go along. Looking forward to reading the third Butcher’s Boy novel, The Informant.

The Butcher's Boy by Thomas Perry

 

(pb; 1982: first book in the Butcher’s Boy series)

From the back cover

“How good is a hit man who blows his big hit? As good as dead.

“How good is the woman assigned to catch him before his killers can? As good as her next move.

“How good is The Butcher’s Boy? As good as they come.”

 

Review

Boy is a great hybrid crime thriller and police procedural, an edgy, blunt, and often action-punctuated genre novel, one that recalls the works of Richard Stark (particularly his twenty-four-book Parker series) and some of the tighter, terser works of William P. McGivern. Boy is a stunning start to what promises to be a standout series. Followed by Sleeping Dogs.