Reviewing "A String of Beads" by Thomas Perry

All of Thomas Perry's bestselling thrillers have been exciting reads but I like the Jane Whitefield novels best.  Jane describes herself as a guide.  What she means is that she guides people in terrible trouble  out of their current lives and into new ones.  Women whose husbands are trying to kill them; men who have run afoul of the mafia; people wrongly convicted of crimes; these are the people Jane guides into new lives.

Jane Whitefield is perhaps one of the best female characters in modern fiction.  She is half Seneca Indian with very strong ties to her native roots.  In this newest book of the series, Jane is called on to guide her childhood friend who is being set up to take the blame for a murder he didn't commit.

Jane is a master at spiriting people out of dangerous situations and moving them into new locations with new identities and a new hope for a safe future.  If you have never read a Jane Whitefield novel, I would recommend starting with one of the earlier books,  A String of Beads is number nine in the series.

Jane Whitefield earlier books:  Vanishing Act, Dance for the Dead, Shadow Woman.  All available on amazon for as little as $ .01 plus shipping ($3.99) for hardcover used in good condition.

Also some thoughts on the movie Joy.   

The story of an amazing young woman who finds herself in a low paying, dead end job with the responsibility of her entire extended, dysfunctional family squarely on her shoulders.  Joy Mangano is supporting her daughter, her mother, her father, her grandmother and her ex-husband all in a tiny run down house that is falling apart.  In spite of, or maybe because of the demands of her helpless family, Joy claws her way to the top of a multi-million dollar empire through the strength of her personality and her imagination.  And she achieves this all while never sacrificing her charm, humor and humanity.  This is a fantastic story but I thought the script could have been much, much better.  Instead of watching this in the theater, I wish I would have waited for it to come out in DVD.

Reviewing the novel "Ghostman" by Roger Hobbs

Who do you call when your brilliantly planned casino robbery falls apart and no one knows where the stolen money went.

The Ghostman is a fixer, a cleaner, living off the grid with dozens of false identities and a flair for disguise.  When criminals make a mess, they call the Ghostman to clean it up. 

A Seattle crime boss has set up a spectacular, million-plus dollar casino heist.  His men rob the armored vehicle as it delivers the money to the casino’s back door.  The robbers transfer the money to their own vehicle, but before they can make their escape, a sniper ambushes them from the shadows of the casino parking ramp.  One of the badly wounded robbers manages to escape in a badly wounded automobile but he doesn’t drive to the agreed upon hideout and he doesn’t phone the crime boss for help.  The money and the robber are in the wind and the Ghostman has 36-hours to find them.

Reviewers of Ghostman by Roger Hobbs have compared the book to the novels of Lee Child.  Personally I see very little similarity to Child’s Jack Reacher novels.   This book reminds me a little of another fast paced thriller I read several years ago, The Bricklayer   by Noah Boyd. 

Halfway through the book and enjoying it very much.  There is some (not a lot) of graphic violence but I just skip over any gory parts.  The temperature here this morning was minus 4 degrees.  A hot cup of Constant Comment tea, a fresh muffin and a thriller novel is the perfect way to wait out the bitter weather.