Vanishing Act

by Thomas Perry Narrated by Joyce Bean

Overview

Jane Whitefield is a Native American guide who leads solitary outcasts through hostile territory to escape the vengeance of their enemies. But the shaded forest paths her Seneca ancestors might have followed on such missions have all been converted to superhighways, and now the safest way stations are crowded urban buildings that offer the camouflage of anonymity. Still, the supply of runaways-and the need for a woman who will take great risks to save them-have never been greater.



Jane knows all the tricks; in fact, she has invented several of them herself in the ten years she has been teaching fugitives to live with new identities. Many of her clients have been innocent people whom the institutions of society have been too slow and cumbersome to protect, but an increasing number have been like the gambler Harry Kemple: people who aren't especially admirable but who aren't bad enough to deserve to die prematurely.



Jane opens her door to find in her house an uninvited visitor named John Felker, the latest to run to her for sanctuary. Felker is not like the others Jane has helped, and everything about him is disquieting. He doesn't even know whom he is running from-only that whoever is framing him as an embezzler has already circulated an open contract in the prison system for his death. Maybe his problems began years ago, when he was a policeman; a good cop makes an enemy with each arrest. But perhaps he is still a policeman and has invented precisely the right story to entrap Jane. Or perhaps he is something even worse.



The unexpected guest draws this exceptional woman into an adventure of mystery, love and sacrifice, betrayal and vengeance, and propels her on a pursuit that takes her from the night streets of Los Angeles and Vancouver to the dark, unexplored regions of her own mind. There is no way for Jane Whitefield to survive this particular vanishing act except to uncover the hidden meanings of violent events that have kept police forces and criminal syndicates equally mystified for years. She must see beyond the cement and steel of the cities and learn to see as her Indian ancestors did.



Vanishing Act is Edgar Award winner Thomas Perry at the top of his form, pitting a heroine like no other against a cunning, implacable enemy in a world where mercy and brutality exist in equal measure and the only way to survive is by one's wits.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Perry's sixth novel (after Sleeping Dogs) is a taut thriller that at times reads like an extended, though flawed, character study of its heroine. Jane Whitefield, half-white, half-Indian member of the Seneca Wolf clan, helps people disappear-people like Rhonda Eckerly, fleeing her abusive husband, or Harry Kemple, hoping to stay alive after witnessing a gangland shooting. Like a one-woman witness protection program, Jane has helped both vanish by giving them new identities and new starts at life. Now an alleged new victim has invaded Jane's upstate New York house: John Felker claims that he's a cop-turned-accountant, is being framed as an embezzler and has a contract out on his life. Almost immediately, the men chasing Felker appear, and Jane leads him farther upstate, to a Canadian Indian reservation where he can build a new life. Jane is an original and fascinating creation. Like Andrew Vachss's series hero, Burke, she operates outside the law, but with a particular slant born of her distinct character and Seneca heritage. Perry tells her story in a trim and brisk manner, moreover, with plenty of action and suspense. It takes Jane far longer than it will most readers to figure out that Felker is other than what he says, however, and while her trusting nature, which borders on gullibility, generates tension, it doesn't mesh with her hard-boiled profession and hunter-like wiles. It's only when the truth behind Felker is revealed, and Jane acts decisively on it, that most readers will regain the respect they've lost for this otherwise likable and unusually intriguing heroine. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Perry is best known for his antihero comic thrillers like Metzger's Dogs (LJ 9/15/83) and The Butcher's Boy (LJ 8/82). Here he has a new hero, a woman who draws on the strengths of her upstate New York Native American tradition to guide those in trouble to safety by creating new identities for them. Her latest case involves an ex-cop turned accountant who has been set up to take a dive for an unknown enemy. After an opening that is a graphic grabber, the cop's recounting of his story and Jane's deciphering of it from her point of view are almost too convoluted. Once the action gets going, however, Perry is back on track, though this novel lacks the comic twists that earmarked his earlier works. The ending is a stunner, with Jane and the bad guy battling it out Indian-like in the North Woods (read the Adirondacks). A cut above average, but not Perry's best. Buy where nonformula thrillers are popular. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/94.]-Francine Fialkoff, "Library Journal"

School Library Journal

YA-The protagonist in this convoluted tale of intrigue and suspense is Jane Whitefield, who helps people start new lives by acquiring new identities. She is drawn to John Felker, an ex-cop turned accountant who has been set up to take an embezzlement rap. Jane and Felker embark on an adventure that leads them from New York to Vancouver, from California to the Adirondacks. Somewhere along the way, the roles of hunter and hunted become blurred and Jane must call upon the wisdom of her Seneca ancestors to survive this latest vanishing act. A thriller with wide appeal.-Pamela B. Rearden, Centreville Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171211394
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	05/14/2009
Series:	Jane Whitefield Series , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,043,604

Videos