(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.
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