Dance for the Dead

Rating:
Summary: Dance for the Dead
Review: A no-nonsense, no-frills, and fast-paced read. Jane Whitefield is a native American Houdini on a life mission to save others. Her escapes from danger are clever and provide the reader (or listener) a sort of "how to" on avoiding detection, capture and/or death. This is not the usual who-dunnit or action thriller. The native American thread woven through it is fascinating and Jane is a remarkable and unique heroine. There isn't a dull moment. After listening to the audiobook version, I immediatelly went out and bought the first book featuring Jane: "Vanishing Act." It was equally compelling. If there was a negative about "Dance for the Dead," it was the audiobook reader, Lindsay Crouse. Her monotone reading became, well, monotonous. But the author's story overcame her flat recitation.

Rating:
Summary: Action packed from beginning to end. I LOVED IT!
Review: I picked up this book because the cover caught my attention. I was looking for mystery, excitement, danger with a native american flavor. I could not believe my luck. I read this book in a couple of days on the train, during lunch and late at night. I loved the lead character Jane Whitefield--she's badd!!! I think Jane Whitefield would make an excellent TV series. This was my first Thomas Perry novel and I plan to read Vanishing Act next. This book is a real treasure.

Rating:
Summary: Go Jane!
Review: I'm not a big fan of mystery/suspense novels, but one dull Sunday afternoon I saw this book sitting on my parents' coffee table, and began flipping through it. The concept hooked me almost at once -- there's something enormously appealing about Jane Whitefield and her endless supply of ingenuity as she helps people create new identities. I read my way through the series and strongly recommend the books to anyone. Sure, Jane's clever escapes and rescues occasionally stretch credulity, but that's part of the fun of reading fiction. I like it when the good guys win, thanks.

I would love to read more about Jane sometime -- it would be interesting to see how she would cope with the increased security of post-September 11th America.

Rating:
Summary: Two Unrelated Cases, Same Bad Guys
Review: Native American Jane Whitefield from upstate New York is an expert at helping innocent fugitives disappear and this time she's got two seemingly unrelated cases, innocents that need hiding, Timmy Decker and Mary Perkins. Timmy, an eight-year-old who learns after his parents are murdered that they weren't really his parents, but had kidnapped him years earlier, has become the target of strangers fighting for control of a trust fund he never knew he had. Mary Perkins had served time for defrauding savings and loan companies during the Eighties, and is now on the run from killers who are after the money they think she has.

Jane takes up both their causes, delving into her bag of tricks to help them evade pursuit, only to discover that the two supposedly unrelated cases are the target of a vicious predator, one whose skills seem to match her own.

It almost doesn't make any sense to rate this book, because, in my opinion, Thomas Perry can't write less than five star material. This is a wonderful book and Jane is a super character. You should read this one.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene