Shadow Woman – Thomas Perry

I really need to read the unread books I’ve got sitting on my shelf, but as I sort through my boxed books I keep finding gems I want to read right now!
Shadow Woman is the third in a (so far) five book series about Jane Whitefield, a Seneca woman who helps people in trouble find new lives with new identities. Previous novels have had the stories of the clients at the foreground, while Jane is revealed incrementally – how she came to do this, her back-story, and the gentle unfurling romance with a good man.
When Carey first asked Jane to marry him, she told him the truth about what she did, and said that if he asked again in twelve months she’d say yes. With one last fugitive - a Las Vegas casino worker whose bosses think he knows more than he does - safely set up in an anonymous apartment in a random town, Jane’s ready to commit to a life of unremarkable domesticity.
The men behind the Pleasure Island casino are still after Pete Hatcher, and the contract killer couple they’ve hired can’t be called off until the job’s done. Although Jane warned him that buying a gun wouldn’t make him safer, Pete just has to have one. Or two. And buying a car from a private seller is low risk, so he should be okay. That’s what he tells himself, until he escapes being shot by the narrowest of margins. On the run again, and this time without a plan, Pete calls Jane for help, and in doing so brings danger to her door.
I thoroughly enjoyed this instalment in the life and times of Jane Whitefield. Perry writes in a way that combines fast paced plot with character development and good writing. Jane’s indigenous heritage plays a significant role in her life, including why she came to do this, and nuggets of information about Seneca history and tradition are incidentally woven into the novel in a way that reminded me of Faye Kellerman’s inclusion of Judaism in the Pete Decker series – integral to the protagonist/s, somewhat germane to the plot, not wielded like a baseball bat.
So many authors seem to churn out series sequels long past the expiration date of the story arc and/or at a faster pace than the author’s talent can encompass (I’m talking to you, Patricia Cornwell!). Thomas Perry goes from strength to strength, and writes with integrity. Jane is a strong, sympathetic, courageous, nuanced and human character, and I really hope to see more of her, in her own time. - Alex