Saying goodbye to Author Thomas Perry through his final Jane Whitefield novel

Thomas Perry, one of my favorite crime fiction novelists, died last September. It was sudden. I was devastated when I heard then wondered, did he live long enough to finish his next book?

He did. Perry’s final novel, “The Tree of Light and Flowers” was completed before he died and has just come out. Perry’s body of work is enormous but he is probably best known for this series which features Jane Whitefield. This one is the tenth and final book in the series and he meant for it to be.

Jane Whitefield saves lives. People contact her regarding life and death situations, often somebody wants to kill them. Whitefield describes them as her “runners” and helps them hide then adopt new identities.

As this story opens Whitefield has settled into a calm and contented life with her husband and the new baby they had been trying to have for years. Her husband is a surgeon and while he is aware of what he believes is Jane’s former occupation he clearly assumes her furtive secret career has ended.

The runners seeking her out would usually show up at the house where Jane used to live. After she got married she began living with her husband in a house his family built centuries ago. But Jane has kept the other house-in the previous book she almost died there after a Russian woman working for a criminal gang captured her.

As this new story begins we see that same woman, Magda Kaprovna, is about to get out of a Russian prison to pursue Jane again. The Russian mobsters still have their strategy, to capture Jane, torture her until she reveals the identities of all the people she has helped in the past, then sell that information to the people who still want to locate those runners.

Clare, a new runner, appears at Jane’s old house. Jane begins helping this teen-aged fugitive from Oklahoma who has fled after she killed a man who was trying to rape her. The police are looking for her. The man she stabbed has a brother, a policeman who is convinced Clare murdered him.

Clare is a member of the Seneca tribe. Jane feels an instant bond with her. Jane’s father was a Seneca and she is very connected with her indigenous roots. Jane then feels forced to lie to her husband Carey about who Clare is and what she is doing there. She tells him this young woman is there to help care for their baby.

Please read all 10 books. In order. This finale is incredible. Thomas Perry was a genius. I’ll miss him.