A String Of Beads

 

I just finished the latest Jane Whitefield novel from Thomas Perry.  If you haven't read him, he is consistently good and worth checking out.  This is a series, though, and you should start with the first one.

Jane is a Seneca and has a talent for helping people disappear when they need to go.  She doesn't hide criminals, but people who have angered the wrong people and don't trust the police to save them.  Jane teaches them how to completely change all their usual routines and gets them new identities and places them in new cities.  It is a long process and dangerous.  Most people are not prepared and have no money, so she doesn't charge them.  Once they are established elsewhere, many people send her money or offer to help in other ways.

These relocations are frequently dangerous as people don't give up everything and everybody they know unless it is to save their lives.

Jane is now married and doesn't want to do this kind of work anymore.  But one day her clan mothers from the Tonawanda band show up at her house.  They have a situation with Jimmy Sanders,  a young man from Jane's youth on the reservation.  He has been accused of murder, a crime he didn't commit, and they have heard that people are getting themselves arrested and put in jail, so that he can be killed if he turns himself in to the authorities.  He needs to hide until his name can be cleared and they want Jane to do it.

She didn't even know that they were aware of her work in this area. 

One of the clan mothers gives her a string of beads, an ote-ko-a.  The rest of the world called it wampum and thought of it as a form of money.  But it wasn't.  It was a sacred commemoration.  It was a way for the clan mothers to assign a an important task and it is not something Jane could take lightly or refuse.

She needed to find where Jimmy was hiding and then keep him safe.  Later, Jane would need to try to find out who really committed the crime and clear his name.  And not get dead, because it turns out the Mob is involved.

As you can imagine, her husband is not on board with this plan and it causes some tension in their relationship.  Again.

Perry writes a compelling mystery and is worthy of a read.

Poison Flower

   

Thomas Perry writes a series about Jane Whitefield.  She helps people to disappear. “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." Suppose your ex is a cop.  And he has made it clear he is going to kill you.  And the other cops don't believe you.  What would you do? She will help get them new identification and get lost somewhere.  She teaches them to change the way they live and work.  She shows them how to disappear.

Jane doesn't advertise or have a web page.  Someone who knows what she does has to tell the potential runner how to find her. She doesn't charge for her services and frequently fronts the money for desperate people.  Most of the time the runners will pay her back at some vague future time.  When they are settled and earning money and safe, money finds its way to Jane. 

Each of the last few books have seemed to be the last in the series.  After all, she got married and agreed to stop her dangerous calling.  But when desperate people have nowhere to turn, she feels compelled to help out.

In this book, Jane helps James Shelby escape from court where he has been unjustly convicted in the murder of his wife.  The actual murderer set Shelby up so that no one would suspect him.  The rest of the book is a whirlwind of Jane trying to get him safe and then trying to figure who really did it.  That part is assisted by the fact that the murderer is sending people after them the whole time.  So they have to evade the cops and the murderers. 

Jane is captured by them and tortured to get information about where Shelby is going.  Jane is Native American, a Seneca,  and uses the stories of how braves would stay back and fight off groups of  enemy warriors to give his own people time to escape to help her withstand the pain.  Many times this meant being caught and tortured and it was a sign of bravery to be stoic under the torture.

In the course of investigating Jane, they discover there are many people who want to know where she has put past runners.  They are willing to pay a lot to torture the information out of her so they can finish what they started.

Jane escapes and the race is on.  The book is non-stop action and I couldn't put the book down.  I highly recommend this series.  I suggest you start with the first one and read them in order.  This book references past books and while it isn't necessary to read them in order, I always prefer to do that.  There are many places online to find books in order by any author.  I suggest you go right now and get started!