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.