Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Perry (1947--2025) delivers a welcome follow-up to The Left-handed Twin with this frenetic thriller that finds Native American witness protector Jane Whitfield grappling with motherhood. The premature birth of her daughter, May, has drawn Jane into a quieter, more domestic life. Her fragile peace is shattered, however, when Clare Markham, an Indigenous teenager from Oklahoma, seeks her help after fighting off a sexual assault. When Clare's attacker dies from the injuries she inflicted on him, she becomes the target of a relentless manhunt led by the dead man's brother, a police officer. Jane tries to set Clare up with a new living situation and identity, even as she herself is being hunted. Magda Kaprovna, a Russian enforcer, has been broken out of jail by Boston mob boss Pavel Oblonsky and tasked with capturing Jane, torturing her into revealing the identities and locations of people she's helped relocate, and selling the information to the highest bidder. Perry crafts a taut, morally charged narrative where loyalty and survival collide. Fans of high-stakes suspense will savor this white-knuckle ride. Agent: Mel Berger, WME. (Mar.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Jane Whitefield helps people who are in danger vanish for their own sakes, and she is very proficient at erasing their existences. Her life has gotten more complicated over the years as she has started a family. She has promised her husband that she would not put herself in danger by assuming the burdens of others, but she isn't one to turn away others in need. When Jane meets 16-year-old Claire Markham, she sees someone desperately in need of her skills. Claire is a fugitive from justice after fatally stabbing a man who sexually assaulted her. Jane begins the process of effacing Claire's identity and creating a new one, but a ghost from Jane's past appears, threatening Jane and her family. Perry keeps his audience riveted from the opening paragraph, and the level of engagement doesn't diminish one iota as Jane's pursuers close in. VERDICT Jane is fearless and determined, and her narrative remains powerful in this 10th book of the series (following The Left-Handed Twin). This is a smart, fast-paced action drama from a stellar literary talent.--Philip Zozzaro
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
In Jane Whitefield's 10th and last appearance, the heroine who specializes in engineering other people's disappearances faces her most daunting workload. This is Perry's final novel, completed before his death in Sept. 2025. Soon after a traffic accident brings Jane's pregnancy to an improbably happy conclusion, she's confronted by 16-year-old Clare Markham, a fugitive from justice who countered a man's attempt to rape her by stabbing him to death. Instead of taking her chances with the authorities in Oklahoma, Clare--who, like Jane, is a Seneca--has made her way to upstate New York to ask Jane to help her vanish for good. The task is complicated by the sudden appearance of Brian Finlay, whose boss, Barton Stillivant, wants him dead to protect the secret that Stillivant is a merchant in illegal arms. Stillivant's gone with the best expert in the field: Magda Kaprovna, a thief he had released from a California women's prison, ostensibly to be deported, but actually to be brought back to the U.S. to track and kill his former executive assistant. When Brian inadvertently leads Magda to Jane, she realizes it won't be enough to help him and Clare disappear; she'll have to disappear herself, along with her husband, Dr. Carey McKinnon, and their newborn daughter, May Dawn. Despite the warning of Harry, her spirit guide, that "your boat is already too full. You're going to have to be ready to decide who goes overboard," Jane's determined to protect everyone in her charge--whatever the cost to their pursuers. A supercharged final pursuit that's a fitting close to Perry's remarkably consistent career as a master of suspense. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
