By Thomas Perry
(Reviewed by Nancy Jelinek)

Jane McKinnon, the lovely wife of Dr. Carey McKinnon, is helping to host a fund-raiser to remodel the surgical wing of the hospital where Carey has his practice as a surgeon. Tall and slender, Jane is a quiet, part Native American woman who prefers to always be in the background—and with good reason. Jane’s profession, given up when she married Carey, is unknown to his friends and colleagues, and she’d like to keep it that way.

Always wary, Jane realizes something is amiss shortly before an explosion rocks the hospital. When presented with the cause of the blast—a pregnant girl being stalked by her controlling boyfriend—Jane breaks the promise she made to Carey when they married and steps back into her past, guiding the girl, Christine, out of the hands of her pursuers.

Christine is not only pregnant with her boyfriend’s baby, but was also his secretary. She knows too many secrets. The young woman was given the name of “Jane Whitefield” by a friend who was helped to disappear years ago.

Jane’s ability to quickly make difficult, sometimes deadly decisions to keep her out of harm’s way is frightening to Christine, but until Jane can show Christine how to be a “runner,” neither will be safe. However, it’s been several years since Jane guided her last runner to anonymity and safety. She’s hoping she still has all the skills it’s going to take to keep them both alive.

Runner is a fast-paced cat-and-mouse game crisscrossing the country from New York to Minnesota to California and back again. You’ll find it difficult to put down.

Runner is the sixth book in the Jane Whitefield series. The first in the series is Vanishing Act, followed by Dance for the Dead, Shadow Woman, The Face Changers, and Blood Money. Thomas Perry has several other books to his credit.