Vanishing Act (Jane Whitefield Series #1)

by Thomas Perry

Overview

"A CHALLENGING AND SATISFYING THRILLER. . .[WITH] MANY SURPRISING TWISTS. "
—The New York Times
Jane Whitefield is a Native American guide who leads people out of the wilderness—not the tree-filled variety but the kind created by enemies who want you dead. She is in the one-woman business of helping the desperate disappear. Thanks to her membership in the Wolf Clan of the Seneca tribe, she can fool any pursuer, cover any trail, and then provide her clients with new identities, complete with authentic paperwork. Jane knows all the tricks, ancient and modern; in fact, she has invented several of them herself.
So she is only mildly surprised to find an intruder waiting for her when she returns home one day. An ex-cop suspected of embezzling, John Felker wants Jane to do for him what she did for his buddy Harry Kemple: make him vanish. But as Jane opens a door out of the world for Felker, she walks into a trap that will take all her heritage and cunning to escape....
"Thomas Perry keeps pulling fresh ideas and original characters out of thin air. The strong-willed heroine he introduces in Vanishing Act rates as one of his most singular creations."
—The New York Times Book Review
ONE THRILLER THAT MUST BE READ . . . .Perry has created his most complex and compelling protagonist."
—San Francisco Examiner

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804113878
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/28/1996
Series:	Jane Whitefield Series , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	34,365
Product dimensions:	4.20(w) x 6.86(h) x 0.91(d)

About the Author

Joyce Bean is an accomplished audiobook narrator and director. In addition to being an AudioFile Earphones Award winner, she has been nominated multiple times for a prestigious Audie Award, including for Good-bye and Amen by Beth Gutcheon.

Table of Contents

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Bean's performance is an act that's hard to follow. She's highly believable as Whitefield and modulates the story's emotional ups and downs easily." —-AudioFile

Editorial Reviews

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.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

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"

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

School Library Journal

A battered wife needs a safe haven from her violent husband. A card shark who has gone too far craves the safety of anonymity. A young boy, tired of being a pawn in a bitter custody battle, wants to escape into a new identity. Jane Whitefield, a tough, smart, resourceful woman with a strong Native American heritage, can help. She knows all the tricks it takes to make someone disappear. Her latest case is one John Felker, who has been accused of ripping off big bucks from his employer and needs to acquire a new identity, at least until things cool off. Even though Felker's story doesn't quite add up, Jane finds herself strongly attracted to him. Unfortunately, her attraction overwhelms her judgment, and it's only after Felker has disappeared that she finds he's not been completely honest about his background. Jane sets out on a journey to find the truth about Felker--a journey that will take her from Canada to California and that will end in violence in the dark forests of upstate New York. A suspenseful and satisfying thriller.

Emily Melton

"Bean's performance is an act that's hard to follow. She's highly believable as Whitefield and modulates the story's emotional ups and downs easily." —-AudioFile

From the Publisher