Synopsis
Jane Whitefield, the ingenious Native American heroine of the celebrated novel Vanishing Act, returns in Dance for the Dead to pursue her unusual profession. She helps people disappear by creating new identities for them -- identities that prevent them from being discovered by their enemies. But this time she must fight for the lives of two people who have lived under false pretenses for years.
The first is an innocent child: It is only after eight-year-old Timmy Decker's parents are brutally murdered that he learns they were not his parents at all; they were, in fact, his kidnappers. Timmy Decker is declared to be Timmy Phillips -- and he becomes the prize in a violent struggle in which faceless strangers vie for control of the enormous trust fund Timmy never knew he had.
The second fugitive is neither innocent nor a child: Mary Perkins admits she served time for defrauding S&Us during the 1980s, but she is evasive about her current predicament. Jane is sure of only one thing: Violent men are searching for Mary Perkins, and they will not give up until they find her.
As Jane uses her wits to preserve the lives of her two charges, she begins to suspect that what she faces is not two unrelated cases but a contest with a single cunning enemy -- a vicious predator who becomes more terrifying and powerful with each kill.
Edgar -- winning writer Thomas Perry surpasses himself with Dance for the Dead, giving us a superb thriller in which the fiercely intelligent, wildly resourceful Jane Whitefield confronts the most frightening adversary of her life.
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About Thomas Perry
T
Thomas Perry
1947–2025
Thomas Perry was born in Tonawanda, New York in 1947. He received a B.A. from Cornell University in 1969 and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Rochester in 1974. He has worked as a park maintenance man, factory laborer, commercial fisherman, university administrator and teacher, and a writer and producer of prime time network television shows. He lives in Southern California. Perry is the author of 22 novels including the Jane Whitefield series (Vanishing Act, Dance for the Dead, Shadow Woman, The Face Changers, Blood Money, Runner, and Poison Flower), Death Benefits, and Pursuit, the first recipient of the Gumshoe Award for best novel. He won the Edgar for The Butcher’s Boy, and Metzger’s Dog was a New York Times Notable Book. The Independent Mystery Booksellers’ Association included Vanishing Act in its “100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century,” and Nightlife was a New York Times bestseller. Metzger’s Dog was voted one of NPR’s 100 Killer Thrillers--Best Thrillers Ever. Strip was chosen as a New York Times Notable Crime Book for 2010, and The Informant was a New York Times Notable Crime Book for 2011 and won the Barry Award for Best Thriller, 2011. Poison Flower was chosen among Booklist’s Best Crime Novels of 2013. www.thomasperryauthor.com
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