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Dance for the Dead (Jane Whitfield Novel) |
Author: Thomas Perry
Published: 1997-03-02 |
List price: $7.99
Our price: $7.99
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As of: January 07th, 2009 05:37:49 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Fast-paced thriller with a clever, devious heroine
Jane Whitefield is a blue-eyed, half-Seneca woman who helps people in danger of being killed disappear and establish new identities. In this novel, the second in Thomas Perry's enthralling suspense series, she must protect both an 8-year-old boy who is heir to a multimillion-dollar trust fund and a woman convicted of savings & loan fraud, who has served her time and is on parole, from some evil, murderous men who are after their money.
At first I was afraid I might get lost in all the financial intricacies of trusts and banks, but Perry explains it all clearly without slowing the action. His heroine is clever, devious and resourceful, and I found her instructions to her client on how to establish a new identity and avoid being tracked down fascinating. Jane relies on traditional tribal wisdom as a guide, e.g., that dreams are a good place to obtain secret information. I liked the strain of mysticism running through the fast-paced, complex story, and the thrilling denouement is followed by a most satisfying epilogue.
 A slightly shaky sequel
This is second novel about Jane Whitefield, half-Seneca (and half blue-eyed) "guide," whose specialty is helping those on the run disappear into the cracks in society. Most of these fugitives are innocent -- women fleeing from abusive spouses, etc. -- but not all of the. Mary Perkins is one of the latter, a successful practitioner of S&L fraud who was caught and served her time in prison. The thing is, she still has a very large amount of stolen money tucked away that she never admitted to, and if that fact becomes known, her parole will be revoked. So she has no one to turn to when the Really Bad Guys go looking for her hidden wealth -- except Jane. At the same time, Timothy Phillips, whose parents died and left him a huge trust fund, really is one of the innocents -- but he has been targeted by the same Bad Guys. What makes these stories fascinating, at least to me, is the detail Perry brings to the business of convincing society you don't exist. Many of the things Jane does in the mid-1990s wouldn't work today, of course, not in our security-happy post-9/11 world, so it will be interesting to see how she updates her methods. As always, Perry is strong on characterization and back story, and the action seems to flow naturally -- most of the time, anyway. In this case, he appears to have rushed the ending. Earlier in the story, Barraclough demonstrates that he understands how dangerous Whitefield can be, but he seems to have forgotten this in the climactic scenes. And we're never actually told how Jane sets up her final encounter, though it's hinted at. Nor does it seem quite in character for her to coolly take a shotgun to those who are hunting her. Also, Perry seems to think it's necessary to bring in a boyfriend whose existence was never hinted at before. Why?
 Extremely Disappointing
I really enjoyed the first Jane Whitefield book and was eager to read the second. Yuck. Jane was totally unappealing this time around; the plot was incredibly contrived. She has, all of a sudden, a lover. Their conversation is contrived and stilted. She acts like a teenager about his phonecalls. What gives?
I was bored by the long descriptions of how money was stolen from savings and loans. The descriptions of sadism were unnecessary. Jane does all kind of illegal things and gets away with all of them, including killing people. She performs tasks such as climbing fences and running for miles that seem impossible to me. She sees people from long distances away in office windows and can tell whether they are bosses or secretaries.
In the first book, the Native American sequences were woven in seamlessly. Here they were a mere add on.
And then, just when I thought I would make it through to the end, I'm stuck in the head of this sadistic guy who's after her. Yuck again. This will be my last Jane Whitefield.
Thomas Perry is a great author!
I have read all of Thomas Perry's books. He is a great author! He manages to combine huge amounts of action and suspense with literate writing and well-developed, sensitive and interesting characters. "Dance for the Dead" is about Jane Whitfield, my favorite Thomas Perry character. Jane is a Seneca Indian who grew up near Niagara Falls, and the book is loaded with Indian history. Jane saves people by giving them a new identity and helping them to hide from whatever trouble they are in. This puts her in a lot of danger and provides plenty of opportunity to meet interesting people. Since her life is so dangerous, she keeps a very low profile and doesn't have much of a social life. In this book, she begins a romance with a doctor from her hometown who she has known for a long time, but thankfully this series really sticks to the action and adventure, and never veers too far into romance territory. As other reviewers have noted, it makes me really happy to find a male author who chose to write about such a take-charge, capable woman. I would recommend this whole series to anyone who likes well-written action adventure.
Love Jane!
I love books that are both exciting and actually teach me something--trusts and banking--without slowing down the story. Jane is a fascinating character, a Native American whose culture and history are provided through visions and dreams, who is capable and inventive. This is a very good book in a fascinating series.
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