Thursday, March 15, 2012

Poison Flower by Thomas Perry






    “As Jane dived toward the bed of ice plants beside the exit ramp she heard the shot and felt the brutal impact of the bullet, and then the explosion of pain.”

    Has one of the most exciting characters in crime fiction just been stopped?  No way.  It is just the beginning of Poison Flower, the seventh in Thomas Perry’s acclaimed Jane Whitefield series.  She’s a gal who makes her living helping the innocent, which gets her into more trouble than any three could handle.  That is  precisely what happens when she comes to the aid of James Shelby, a man wrongly found guilty of his wife’s murder.

    However, she doesn’t get much farther than managing to get him out of the criminal court building in downtown Los Angeles.  That’s no small task but her minor victory is short lived as just a few minutes later some rogue cops kidnap her and shoot when she tries to escape.  These thugs are minions of the man who really killed Shelby’s wife, and they’re willing, nay, almost happy, to do whatever it takes to make her tell them where Shelby is hiding.  Lamed and beaten she does finally manage to escape.

    But she is far from home with nowhere to turn, no money or identification and being hunted.  Jane well knows she must reach Shelby and his sister before the hunters find them.

    Poison Flower has been called “an hours long jolt of pure adrenaline-filled plot.”  How true.

    Enjoy!

    - Gail Cooke

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