August 16, 2021
At the start of Edgar winner Perry’s engrossing eighth Jane Whitefield novel (after 2015’s A String of Beads), Jane, a Native American guide who specializes in helping people in trouble disappear, finds a stranger, Sara Doughton, waiting for her one night in the Amherst, N.Y., house Jane shares with her new husband, surgeon Carey McKinnon. When Sara explains she’s fled L.A. to escape a murderous former boyfriend bent on revenge, Jane agrees to help. Meanwhile, the ex-boyfriend enlists the aid of some Russian criminals, who soon take an interest in Jane. After relocating Sara in Boston with a new identity, Jane attempts to lose her pursuers in Maine on the Appalachian Trail. Utilizing wisdom from her Seneca ancestors and some bad-ass survival skills, Jane matches wits with a gang of elite killers. Though a few sequences strain credibility, Perry delivers nonstop action, relentless tension, and such three-dimensional secondary characters as the female thief Magda. Jane’s developing relationship with Carey is a plus. Fans will hope they won’t have to wait another six years for Jane’s next outing.