Dance for the Dead (Jane Whitefield Series #2)

by Thomas Perry, Joyce Bean (Read by)

Overview

Jane Whitefield, the ingenious Native American heroine of the celebrated novel Vanishing Acts, returns in Dance for the Dead to pursue her unusual profession: she helps people disappear by creating new identities for them - identities that prevent them from being discovered by their enemies. But this time she must fight for the lives of two people who have lived under false pretenses for years.

As Jane uses her wits to preserve the lives of her two charges, she begins to suspect that what she faces is not two unrelated cases but a contest with a single cunning enemy - a vicious predator who becomes more terrifying and powerful with each kill.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798200126675
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	03/01/2021
Series:	Jane Whitefield Series , #2
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Thomas Perry won an Edgar Award for The Butcher’s Boy, and Metzger’s Dog was one of the New York Times's Notable Books of the Year. His other books include The Face-Changers, Shadow Woman, Dance for the Dead, and Vanishing Act. He lives in Southern California with his wife and two daughters.

Read an Excerpt

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Excerpted from "Dance for the Dead"
by .
Copyright © 1997 Thomas Perry.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Bean's performance is engaging. She mixes her pace and tones adeptly, allowing listeners to fully appreciate the richness of Whitefield's character.... This is an entertaining novel that benefits from Bean's narration." —-AudioFile

Editorial Reviews

As usual, Perry (The Butcher's Boy) cuts to the chase. In the opening scene of this riveting mystery thriller, Jane Whitefield, an expert at helping people in danger disappear, slugs it out with three brawny hoodlums in an L.A. courthouse. At that point, she has traveled across half the country trying to protect Timmy Phillips, an eight-year-old heir to millions, from the stop-at-nothing professional killers on their trail. The same criminals, led by a powerful ex-cop named Barraclough, murdered Timmy's adoptive parents. Now they want Mary Perkins, a fugitive savings-and-loan fleecer who also asks Whitefield for help. Perry launches a complex pursuit, during which Whitefield relies on her Seneca heritage for insight and on friends for crucial assistance. A love interest highlights the personal price Whitefield pays for doing her secretive, dangerous work. The nail-biting climax takes place on a snowy night in a location that seems tailor-made for film: the rusting remains of a huge steel mill near Buffalo. The denouement may strike some readers as too neat, but it's a minor quibble. With his distinctive protagonist, thoroughly amoral villains and the unrelenting action, Perry scores again. 75,000 first printing; major ad/promo. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Jane's attempt to help an orphan boy overlaps with her work for a woman accused of stealing $50 million in Perry's (Vanishing Act, LJ 12/94) latest thriller.

Library Journal

An explosive second outing for Jane Whitefield, the Senecan specialist in helping people disappear (Vanishing Act, 1995).

The story kicks off with a whoosh as Jane succeeds in saving the life of her latest client, eight-year-old Timothy Phillips, by producing him in an L.A. court that's about to declare him dead so that whoever's been plundering his trust fund can breathe easy. Once Timmy's story is read into the record, he's safe, but it's been a high-casualty operation, and Jane's in no mood for getting accosted at the airport by Mary Perkins, who begs Jane to help her elude the killers following her. It isn't until the two women are halfway across the country that Jane has the time to hear Mary's story: During the unregulated '80s, she bilked unwary banks of millions through a pyramid of lovingly detailed real- estate schemes, and now that she's already done time for the feds, who weren't able to shake the money loose from her, some monstrous freelancer has decided to take a turn. Jane gets Mary parked in a new town with shiny new credit cards, and even takes a few days back in her upstate New York hometown to entertain a marriage proposal from her hitherto platonic friend Dr. Carey McKinnon, but then it's back to business as she goes after the trustee who's been looting Timmy Phillips's estate. The looting, though, turns out to be even deeper and deadlier than she imagined—and it naturally leads her straight back to Mary and the ominous, insatiable security firm that's getting closer and closer to her. The plotting is a miracle of unrelenting tension; the breathless, knowing prose is pitch-perfect; and Jane's fierce righteousness is perfectly balanced by a mind-boggling wealth of detail about how to plunder trusts, defraud banks, and disappear.

Five more of Jane's adventures are already stockpiled for annual release. Truly a treasure for Random—as long as they never let the peerlessly devious author get behind them.

Kirkus Reviews

Compelling . . . Nobody writes a chase better than [Thomas] Perry.”—The Washington Post Book World

“Spellbinding . . . Terrific . . . Jane Whitefield may be the most arresting protagonist in the 90s thriller arena. . . . Thrillers need good villains, and this one has a formidable SOB who is cold-blooded enough to satisfy anybody's taste.”—Entertainment Weekly

“A terse thriller . . . Perry starts the story with a bang.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“One of the most engaging heroines in contemporary suspense.”—The Flint Journal

From the Publisher

Jane Whitefield, a 32-year-old Seneca woman, is a unique mystery protagonist whose expertise is helping people in danger disappear. Whitefield is a combination of toughness, panache, and sensuality, traits that help her solve this complex mystery. Narrator Joyce Bean’s performance is engaging. She mixes her pace and tones adeptly, allowing listeners to fully appreciate the richness of Whitefield’s character. Equally effective is Bean’s portrayal of 8-year old Timmy Phillips, whom Whitefield is trying to protect after the murder of his adoptive parents. While the story is wordy and the ending a bit too pat, overall, this is an entertaining novel that benefits from Bean’s narration. D.J.S. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2010 - AudioFile