Jack Till
Created by Thomas Perry

Ever hide something, and then you can't find it?

Much like his series hero Jane Whitefield, Thomas Perry's JACK TILL has a knack for helping people disappear.

Jack is a retired LAPD homicide detective turned private eye who's boiled his life down to the basics -- his job (he has an office on Ventura Boulevard within walking distance of his apartment on the east side of Laurel Canyon) and taking care of his twenty-one year-old daughter Holley who has Down's Syndrome.

Several years ago he helped Wendy Harper, a restaurant owner with a contract out on her, disappear, but he may have done too good a job. Now, Wendy's former business partner and sometime lover has been arrested for her murder. To clear him, Jack must essentially pull a Whitefield in reverse and undo everything he did, and find Wendy. But finding her proves to be only the start of his problems -- the contract's still out on Wendy, and a husband/wife team of freakishly tall assassins are also looking for her.

That's the basic premise in Silence, a well-received 2007 standalone that fans of his Whitefield series should quite enjoy.

The Butcher's Boy (1982) was Perry's first novel, and it promptly snatched up an Edgar for Best First novel, and he has over 20 novels to his credit (so far), including Metzer's Dog (1983), a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Pursuit, a Gumshoe Award for Best Novel. He's best known for the bestselling Jane Whitefield series, about a Native American "guide" who specializes in helping people disappear. P.I. fans might also want to check out Nightlife (2006), featuring Portland private eye Joe Pitt and police detective Catherine Hobbes, and Death Benfits (2001), which pairs rookie insurance claims data analyst Johnny Walker with grizzled freelance investigator Max Spillman.

Perry now lives in southern California.

UNDER OATH

• "... another intelligent, literate thriller."
  -- Publisher's Weekly
  
  
• "Thomas Perry is, quite simply, brilliant. And as each book comes out he becomes more so. Silence is a case in point.  Don't miss it."
  -- Robert B. Parker)
  
  
• "Silence is ingenious, a runaway train-paced thriller..."
  -- George Pelecanos

NOVELS

• Silence (2007) .. Buy this book

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.