Books with author Thomas Persano

A bracing and ingeniously cast L.A. crime novel from Edgar Award–winner Thomas Perry An aging but formidable strip club owner, Claudiu “Manco” Kapak, is robbed by a masked gunman as he places his cash receipts in a bank’s night-deposit box. Enraged, he sends out half a dozen security men to find the witless culprit. Their search leads them to Joe Carver, an innocent but hardly defenseless newcomer who evades capture and sets out to make Kapak wish he’d targeted someone else. Meanwhile, the real burglar, Jefferson Davis Falkins, and his new girlfriend Carrie seem to believe they’ve found a whole new profession: robbing Manco Kapak. Lieutenant Nick Slosser, the police detective in charge of the puzzling and increasingly violent case, has his own troubles, including worries about how he’s going to afford to send the oldest child of each of his two bigamous marriages to college without making their mothers suspicious. As this strange series of events explodes into a triple killing, Carver finds himself in the middle of a brewing gang war over Kapak’s little empire, while Falkins and Carrie journey into territory more dangerous than they could have ever imagined.

JANE WHITEFIELD is . . . . . . in the one-woman business of helping the desperate disappear. Thanks to her membership in the Wolf Clan of the Seneca tribe, she can fool any pursuer, cover any trail, and then provide her clients with new identities, complete with authentic paperwork. Jane knows all the tricks, ancient and modern; in fact, she has invented several of them herself. But when Jane opens a door out of the world for an attractive fugitive named John Felker, she walks into a trap that will take all her heritage and cunning to escape. . . . "A unique heroine, an ultracompetent woman attuned to the ancient ways of her ancestors and to the harsh realities of the modern, bureaucratic world."--San Francisco Chronicle"A compelling, multifaceted protagonist. Whitefield is as tough as Sam Spade, as tender as Jo in Little Women and as resourceful as Robinson Crusoe's Friday."--Philadelphia Inquirer"Strong-willed . . . [A] most singular creation."--The New York Times Book Review"Entertainingly resourceful." --The New York Times"One sharp and tough cookie."--Detroit NewsFrom the Paperback edition.

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.

2 cassettes / 3 hoursRead by Margaret WhittonWith this stunning new novel of suspense, one of America's best writers of thrilling fiction moves to an entirely new level of brilliance and craftsmanship. "The books keep getting better," said Lawrence Block about Thomas Perry's Shadow Woman. But now, in The Face-Changers, Perry combines in a special way the superb storytelling, rich characters, and fine writing that have made his work so highly praised. The courageous and ingenious Jane Whitefield has worked as a "guide" for over a decade, helping people in danger disappear. Now she has promised her new husband, Dr. Carey McKinnon, that she will never work again. But then Carey's mentor, a famous plastic surgeon, seeks him out, desperate and pursued, wounded and wanted for murder. Carey asks Jane to perform her dangerous magic one last time. But as Jane tries to save her husband's friend, she uncovers the perverse activities of the Face-Changers: Using Jane Whitefield's name, reputation, and techniques, they are destroying human lives rather than saving them.