The Tree of Light and Flowers

Jane Whitefield #11

by Thomas Perry

Jane Whitefield is used to protecting vulnerable people, but after she gives birth, the fugitives she must rescue are her own family.

A violent car crash brings on the premature birth of the baby that Jane Whitefield and her husband have hoped for, but it also shatters the period of calm in their lives like an earthquake triggering a tectonic shift.

Within weeks, Jane’s peaceful time as a new mother in a safe, harmonious home starts to revert to her harrowing previous life. She had spent over a decade rescuing and sheltering people from dangerous foes, taking them to new locations, and teaching them to live under new identities. It was something that she’d hoped to never have to do again.

Nearly simultaneously, as though the events were connected, people who are thousands of miles apart in vastly different circumstances start to move. Some of them are in terrible need of help finding a route to safety. Some are dedicated to serving justice. Others are determined to capture the woman who makes people disappear so they can force her to reveal where their potential victims are now. All of these travelers are soon on their way to the old house in western New York.

Suddenly the people requiring Jane’s special skills include not only multiple fugitives, but also Jane herself, her husband, and their newborn, as the danger she faces comes from people who know how to find her. She’ll need to use everything she’s ever learned in order to survive.

Genres: Mystery

Kindle Edition

Expected publication March 3, 2026

About the author

Thomas Perry was the author of 25 novels. He was born in Tonawanda, New York in 1947. He received a B.A. from Cornell University in 1969 and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Rochester in 1974. He had worked as a park maintenance man, factory laborer, commercial fisherman, university administrator and teacher, and as a writer and producer of prime time network television shows.

Thomas Perry lived in Southern California.

Reviews

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a treat, another Jane Whitefield adventure!. Jane is of course married, but now she has a little one in her life too, their daughter May. Life is going along pretty well and then someone needs her help, then the people who tried to take her three years ago return and a second person needs help. Jane has to maneuver with all these parties and move her own family while she tries to work things out.

This book was almost impossible to put down. It starts out with a car accident and then just keeps on rolling. Very suspenseful and there were moments that had me holding my breath. You are going to have to read it to see how or if things work out and for whom. This was a really good book. I tried to not read it to fast, but that was impossible.

I would like to thank The Mysterious Press and NetGalley for this ARC.

[Pattyh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you for the opportunity to preview The Tree of light and Flowers.
It is with sadness to recognize the passing of Thomas Perry recently. He is an author that always provided a book filled with great insight and inspiration as well as mystery and suspense.
This book follows my favorite hero Jane Whitfield a Seneca Indian woman who makes people in trouble disappear.
In this book Jane helps a young woman accused of murder while having to disappear herself from some really bad people.
A cross country flight keeps Jane running for her life and the life of her family.
This is a terrifying situation for Jane as she now has a baby to care for.
Can she outrun while keeping herself alive because she’s not alone anymore. Her family is everything to her.
Excellent! 5 stars

[Pam Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so sorry to read that Thomas Perry died suddenly on Sept. 15th this year. He has been one of my favorite mystery authors since the early 1990’s. His series on Jane Whitefield is a classic and has won Perry many awards over the years. You might know him as the author of stand-alones such as The Old Man which was a TV series starring Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow in 2022.

And I DO love Perry’s stand-alone novels as well. But for me the best of his legacy will be the Jane Whitefield series of ten books. The latest, and unfortunately, the last, Jane Whitefield book will come out posthumously in March of 2026.

The Tree of Light and Flowers wraps up the Whitefield storyline which began in 1994 when Jane, a Seneca woman who helps people to disappear and obtain new identities, first was introduced in Vanishing Act. Jane works as guide again, and for the last time in Tree of Light and Flowers, when a teenage girl seeks her help from arrest after the teen killed her well-connected rapist. Jane has a new baby now, and she has a gang of crooks after her for the knowledge she holds of the 30 years of hiding people with secrets. Jane’s peaceful time as a new mother abruptly comes to an end.

I will miss Thomas Perry’s writings. He was one of the very best in the mystery genre. Perry won the Edgar Award in 1983 for his very first novel, The Butcher’s Boy. Vanishing Act was chosen as one of the the "100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century" by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association and was included in Parade's list of "101 Best Mystery Books of All Time."

Time changed and Jane Whitefield had to come up with new ways to disappear people, but she always did – even when technology took away many of her ways of cheating the system. If you haven’t read the first nine Jane Whitefield books, consider starting with Vanishing Act. I know you will love this series as I have. If you are caught up, then say goodbye to Thomas Perry and Jane Whitefield with the wonderful -- The Tree of Light and Flowers.

My rating: 5 of 5

This ARC title was provided by Netgalley.com at no cost, and I am providing an unbiased review. The Tree of Light and Flowers will be published on March 2, 2026.

[J Kromrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Penzler Publishing and Netgalley for this eARC.

Thomas Perry’s The Tree of Light and Flowers is a tense, emotionally layered addition to the Jane Whitefield series, blending the urgency of survival with the intimate challenges of family.

🌌 The novel opens with a violent car crash that shatters Jane Whitefield’s fragile peace, plunging her back into the dangerous world she thought she had left behind.

Perry’s prose is taut and immersive, creating a mood where domestic calm collides with sudden peril.

The tone balances suspense with emotional resonance, making the reader feel both the adrenaline of pursuit and the vulnerability of new parenthood.

👤 Jane Whitefield, long known for guiding fugitives to safety, now faces her most personal case: protecting her own family. Her husband and newborn child are drawn into the narrative not as passive figures but as catalysts for Jane’s return to her harrowing skills.

- Secondary characters—friends, enemies, and those caught in between—are shaded with Perry’s trademark ambiguity, forcing Jane (and the reader) to question trust at every turn.

🔍 Family and survival form the novel’s core, with Jane’s maternal instincts colliding with her professional expertise.

Perry explores the tension between identity and concealment, asking whether a life built on secrecy can ever truly be safe.

This story interrogates how trauma reshapes both memory and belonging, showing that even joy (like the birth of a child) can be shadowed by danger.

🎧 Perry structures the novel with deliberate pacing, weaving moments of quiet domesticity with bursts of action.

The narrative mirrors Jane’s fractured state—caught between the desire for peace and the inevitability of conflict.
His prose is precise yet evocative, grounding suspense in emotional stakes rather than spectacle.

⭐ The Tree of Light and Flowers is both a gripping thriller and a meditation on the cost of protection. By placing Jane’s own family at the center of the danger, Perry raises the emotional intensity of the series to new heights. It’s a novel that reminds readers that safety is never permanent, and that even the most skilled protector must confront the vulnerabilities of love.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tree of Light and Flowers is in the highly popular Jane Whitefield series, one of the few series prolific writer Thomas Perry wrote over his long and distinguished career. The old saying "the devil is in the details" aptly describes a Jane Whitefield gripping thriller. Perry describes every careful step Jane must take to ensure the person (a runner) escaping a dangerous situation is truly disappeared forever from the chaser. It’s amazing how much work and expense is required to totally remake a person into someone that can’t be found. For years Jane has been guiding innocent people caught in life or death situations. Jane excels at developing for the runner a new detailed background, leaving no detail untouched, and then schools the runner on all phases of their fabricated backstory and how to handle their new lives in the future.

Jane, married with a child, has given up being a guide for those in desperate of help. To her dismay she unexpectedly finds herself once again in several potentially fatal situations as she is determined to protect and disappear two runners seeking her help. In addition a group of Russian thugs hired to find and capture Jane are given limitless funds to track her down and bring her in. Along with the two runners Jane and her family have become targets. Jane uses all her disappearing skills, calm under pressure demeanor, and creative MacGyver like thinking to keep herself, family, and runners safe. This gripping thriller is Thomas Perry at his best and a fitting finish to the Jane Whitefield saga. It’s a must read.

My thanks to The Mysterious Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this outstanding publication.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this was my first Jane Whitefield book. I requested this ARC without realizing it was part of a larger series. After finishing it, I think it does quite well as a standalone actually! I didn't feel like I was without knowledge that would've changed how I felt about the book overall. There was definite backstory I wish I would've known more about, but it was 100% not necessary to enjoy this one. If nothing else, it has me wanting to go back and read the series from the start.

Now onto the book itself - I felt like this one had great character development and enough action to keep me engrossed the entire time. This was a quick, easy, engaging read that fans of the author's other works and/or thrillers in general will certainly love. I thought the end of the book wrapped up nicely - especially if this is it for the series due to Mr. Perry's recent death.

Thanks to Net Galley and Penzler Publishers for this ARC! #TheTreeofLightandFlowers #NetGalley

[Mary C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jane Whitefield has settled into married life with her husband and baby daughter. Her quiet life is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a female teenager in need of her special services. As she works on setting up a new life for the girl, her life is thrown into chaos when a woman who was part of a team that had captured Jane three years ago has returned to hunt her again with help from her Russian boss. Jane needs to get her family to safety before she can go after the woman, her team and her boss while rescuing innocent people in harm's way. The non-stop action keeps one turning the pages to the end. Sad that this is the end of the series due to Mr. Perry's death.
#TheTreeofLightandFlowers #PenzlerPublishers #MysteriousPress #NetGalley

[Loy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tree of Light and Flowers by Thomas Perry is the latest installment in the Jane Whitefield series.
The story starts with Jane, who is pregnant, having a car crash and the baby early.
As the story unfolds, people are searching for her—to help them escape or to find her and the people she has helped.
The book is so well written and the story so suspenseful that it is hard to put down.
I have read or listened to all the Jane books, and this one is top tier.
You need to read some of the earlier books to help with the enjoyment of this one Highly recommended.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been with Jane Whitefield since the beginning - actually since a bit before the beginning, as I was a young bookseller when Vanishing Act was published and got to read an advance copy. This novel was a nice end to her story, and a good farewell from the late author, Thomas Perry. I’ve been happy to be on this journey with both of them.

[Doug Yonce · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve missed Jane and her modern-day Underground Railroad. Great to have her back! But this time the stakes are much higher. Having read the previous books in this series adds so much to understanding Jane and her burden for others. I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher and voluntarily provided an honest review.

[Lora · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this final book of the long-running Jane Whitefield series, Jane and her husband, Carey, have recently become parents, but there are still people out there who want Jane dead because of all the individuals she has helped disappear safely over the years. Russian Magda Kaprovna, who featured in The Left-Handed Twin is back, ready to kill Jane if she can find her. Will Jane be able to keep Carey and her baby, May safe? A fitting end to the series, yet sad knowing that this is Perry's last book.

[Likestotravel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This last Thomas Perry book was intense, dark but gratifying, and very fast paced. I didn’t realize this is part of a series - devoured it as if it were a standalone. Enjoyed the Interesting Seneca Indian culture overlay that built the texture of the story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penzler Publishers for the opportunity to read this DRC.

[Patricia Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Perry has managed to captivate his readers with suspenseful and unorthodox plots. This gripping storyline is carried throughout the book and comes to an optimistic ending. He accomplishes all this in his last book.

Thank you Netgalley and Penzler Publishers for the eArc for review.

[Brittany McCann]

THANK YOU Thomas Perry! I thought we had seen the end, and I was so sad because I love Jane!!! Just don't kill her off!