As the Mystery Series Examiner has suggested in other articles, the enthusiasm with which readers unfailingly greet new books in popular mystery series can be both a blessing and a curse for the writers of those works. Writers may feel frustrated by having to conform each new work to a previously established pattern even though they know their efforts will be rewarded with public approval.
Thomas Perry, like Dennis Lehane, is yet another writer who shut down a well-received series to try his hand at what he hoped would be more challenging endeavors. Perry is the author of the Jane Whitefield mystery series.
Perry began the Jane Whitefield series in 1994 with Vanishing Act, followed by Dance for the Dead (1996), Shadow Woman (1997), The Face-Changers (1998) and Blood Money (1999). Ten years later, in 2009, he returned to the series with Runner.
Perry's protagonist, Jane Whitefield, a member of the Seneca Indian tribe, uses her skill as a guide to lead people whose lives are in jeopardy to safety. "I show people how to go from places where somebody is trying to kill them to other places where nobody is," Jane explains.
In Runner, the newest Jane Whitefield novel, four professional killers trigger a bomb blast during a fundraiser at the hospital where Jane’s husband, Carey McKinnon, works as a surgeon. Jane’s decision to help Christine Monahan, the young pregnant woman who is the target of the killers, means that Jane must break her promise never to work as a guide again.
On his website, Thomas Perry provides his readers with his reasons for halting his series in 1999. Unlike Dennis Lehane’s brief explanation for ending his Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro series – “I've tried, but his [Patrick’s] voice won't come" – Perry’s analysis focuses on the problems inherent in creating a series character:
"A writer's most important task is learning to be a better writer. Writing a series about one character is a great way to learn, but I came to suspect that writing a second five volumes doesn't teach us a lot more than writing the first five does. Writing a series is also comfortable, and being comfortable for a long period probably isn't the best way to learn to improve."
When Perry resumed the series in 2009 with Runner, he did so because, as he further explains, “I learned something about her [Jane] that I hadn't already written ... that was worth a reader's time and attention.”
Perry’s return to his series also got the attention of TV writer Carol Mendelsohn (CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY). An Oct. 20, 2010 article in The Hollywood Reporter states that Mendelsohn has sold a new crime drama to CBS based on the Jane Whitefield books.
The currently untitled drama, to be produced by CBS TV Studios and Carol Mendelsohn Productions, will have Medium producer Craig Sweeny as its writer and executive producer. Mendelsohn and Julie Weitz will be non-writing executive producers.
Comments