Thomas Perry Books in Order
This Thomas Perry books page lists his novels in order, with series guides, short summaries, background, and where to start reading.
Last updated: June 7, 2026
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Publication Order
37 books
The Butcher's Boy
by Thomas Perry
1982
A professional hitman raised by Eddie the Butcher kills a senator, then discovers his employers want him dead. As he strikes back at the Mafia, analyst Elizabeth Waring begins tracing the pattern.
Metzger's Dog
by Thomas Perry
1983
Leroy Chinese Gordon breaks into a university lab looking for cocaine and steals CIA papers instead. Soon he and his odd crew are trying to ransom secrets that could throw Los Angeles into chaos.
Big Fish
by Thomas Perry
1985
Professional smugglers Altmeyer and Rachel think they are handling a lucrative weapons job, then discover a nuclear threat hidden inside the deal. Staying alive means outwitting criminals far more dangerous than themselves.
Island
by Thomas Perry
1988
A bold criminal scheme built around a remote island becomes more complicated than its planners expect. Perry turns the setup into a sharp, offbeat thriller about greed, escape, and plans going sideways.
Sleeping Dogs
by Thomas Perry
1992
Years after escaping the Mafia, Michael Schaeffer is found in his quiet English life. Forced back into motion, the Butcher’s Boy returns to America with old enemies and federal hunters closing in.
Vanishing Act
by Thomas Perry
1995
Jane Whitefield helps desperate people disappear, but ex-cop John Felker’s request turns into a trap. To survive, she must use every trick she knows about identity, pursuit, and staying invisible.
Dance for the Dead
by Thomas Perry
1996
Jane Whitefield protects an eight-year-old boy and another endangered client whose hidden lives are under attack. A calculating killer connects the cases, forcing Jane into one of her most dangerous rescue jobs.
Shadow Woman
by Thomas Perry
1997
Jane engineers a disappearance for Las Vegas gambling executive Pete Hatcher, only to draw the attention of two professional killers. The escape stretches from Nevada to New York and the mountains beyond.
The Face-Changers
by Thomas Perry
1998
When plastic surgeon Richard Dahlman is framed and hunted, Jane Whitefield steps back into guiding. This time the pursuers include a woman using Jane’s own name, methods, and reputation for deadly purposes.
Blood Money
by Thomas Perry
1999
Teenage Rita Shelford is hunted after her employer, a Mafia money man, disappears. Jane must hide Rita before the mob finds the records it believes the girl can lead them to.
Death Benefits
by Thomas Perry
2001
Insurance analyst John Walker is pulled from his orderly life when investigator Max Stillman asks about a missing colleague and a fraudulent payout. Their search becomes a dangerous race through money, loyalty, and murder.
Pursuit
by Thomas Perry
2001
After thirteen people are murdered in a Louisville restaurant, specialist Roy Prescott is hired to find the killer. His quarry is smart, methodical, and willing to kill again to stay free.
Dead Aim
by Thomas Perry
2002
Robert Mallon’s quiet Santa Barbara life breaks open after he encounters a doomed young woman on the beach. His search for answers draws him and detective Lydia Marks toward a deadly hunter.
Nightlife
by Thomas Perry
2006
Portland detective Catherine Hobbes investigates a murder tied to a Los Angeles crime figure, then crosses paths with PI Joe Pitt. Their trail leads to a female killer who changes identities with ease.
Silence
by Thomas Perry
2007
Six years after Jack Till helped Wendy Harper disappear, her ex is framed for her murder. Jack must find Wendy before hired assassins Paul and Sylvie Turner reach her first.
Fidelity
by Thomas Perry
2008
When private investigator Phil Kramer is shot on a quiet suburban street, his wife Emily finds their money gone and too many secrets left behind. Her search for the truth puts her in danger.
Runner
by Thomas Perry
2009
Jane has promised her husband she is done helping fugitives, until a bombing brings a pregnant teenager to her door. The girl is being tracked by killers, and Jane cannot walk away.
Strip
by Thomas Perry
2010
Strip-club owner Manco Kapak is robbed and blames newcomer Joe Carver, who is innocent but not helpless. Meanwhile the real thief keeps stealing, pushing Los Angeles criminals toward open war.
The Informant
by Thomas Perry
2011
When a Mafia hit team finds Michael Schaeffer, the Butcher’s Boy takes the fight back to its source. His uneasy contact with Elizabeth Waring gives both sides information they may regret sharing.
Poison Flower
by Thomas Perry
2012
Jane frees James Shelby from a Los Angeles courthouse after he is wrongly convicted of murder. The escape puts both of them in the path of enemies determined to punish anyone who helped.
The Tombs
by Thomas Perry
2012
Sam and Remi Fargo help excavate a secret site and uncover clues to the tombs of Attila the Hun. Their search across Europe draws treasure hunters, criminals, and a ruthless rival.
The Boyfriend
by Thomas Perry
2013
Retired LAPD detective Jack Till investigates the murder of a young escort and finds similar killings in other cities. To stop the killer, he must decode a hidden world of online identities.
The Mayan Secrets
by Thomas Perry
2013
After an earthquake in Mexico, Sam and Remi Fargo discover a Mayan codex hidden with ancient remains. The book may reveal lost cities, but others are ready to kill for it.
A String of Beads
by Thomas Perry
2014
Jane’s quiet life in Amherst ends when Seneca clan mothers ask her to find childhood friend Jimmy, accused of murder. Once she locates him, she learns the police are not his only danger.
The Book of the Lion
by Thomas Perry
2015
Professor Dominic Hallkyn receives a call about a lost Chaucer manuscript and is pulled into a ransom plot. The chase through Boston turns a rare-book dream into a very real threat.
Forty Thieves
by Thomas Perry
2016
Ex-LAPD detectives Sid and Ronnie Abel reopen the murder of scientist James Ballantine. At the same time, married assassins Ed and Nicole Hoyt are hired to make sure the truth stays buried.
The Old Man
by Thomas Perry
2017
Dan Chase looks like a quiet Vermont retiree, but his old intelligence past is still alive. When killers come for him, he runs with the skills and secrets he has hidden for decades.
The Bomb Maker
by Thomas Perry
2018
After a deadly attack on the LAPD Bomb Squad, former commander Dick Stahl returns to help. He soon realizes the bomb maker is not just planting devices, but targeting the squad itself.
The Burglar
by Thomas Perry
2019
Elle Stowell is a skilled burglar working wealthy Los Angeles homes until she stumbles onto a triple homicide. Now someone knows she was there, and she must solve the murders to survive.
A Small Town
by Thomas Perry
2020
A planned prison break unleashes more than a thousand convicts on a nearby town, and twelve masterminds vanish. Two years later, the town sends Leah Hawkins to find them one by one.
Eddie's Boy
by Thomas Perry
2020
Michael Schaeffer is living peacefully in England when an attempt on his life pulls him back into his old methods. The hunt sends him abroad and then toward the Mafia’s source.
The Left-Handed Twin
by Thomas Perry
2021
Jane helps Sara, a young woman fleeing an ex-boyfriend who killed a man and walked free. When Russian organized criminals hear about Jane’s disappearing skills, the chase turns much larger.
Jane Whitefield
by Thomas Perry
2022
Jane Whitefield is a Seneca guide who helps people in lethal danger disappear into new lives. Her stories mix identity, pursuit, and the hard choices that come with saving strangers.
Murder Book
by Thomas Perry
2023
Ex-cop Harry Duncan is asked by his former wife, a U.S. attorney, to investigate a Midwestern crime wave. As he builds his murder book, the syndicate begins targeting him.
Hero
by Thomas Perry
2024
Private security agent Justine Poole stops a Beverly Hills robbery and becomes a media hero. The attention also exposes her to a crime boss and a hired killer named Leo Sealy.
Pro Bono
by Thomas Perry
2025
Perry turns legal help and financial danger into a tight thriller about money, leverage, and people with too much to hide. A good deed becomes the doorway into a far deadlier fight.
The Tree of Light and Flowers
by Thomas Perry
2026
A violent crash brings on the premature birth of Jane Whitefield’s child and shatters her peace. Soon fugitives and hunters converge, forcing Jane to protect clients, her husband, and her newborn.
Where should I start?
For Jane Whitefield thrillers: Vanishing Act → Dance for the Dead → Shadow Woman → The Face-Changers.
For the Butcher's Boy arc: The Butcher's Boy → Sleeping Dogs → The Informant → Eddie's Boy.
For sharp standalones: Metzger's Dog → Pursuit → The Old Man.
For Jack Till mysteries: Silence → The Boyfriend.
For treasure-hunt adventure: The Tombs → The Mayan Secrets.
Author bio
Thomas Perry was born in Tonawanda, New York, in 1947 and grew up in the western New York landscape that later helped shape his Jane Whitefield books. He went to Tonawanda High School, earned his B.A. in English from Cornell in 1969, and completed a Ph.D. in English literature at the University of Rochester in 1974.
Before fiction became his full-time work, Perry collected the kind of job history that makes a thriller writer useful on page one. He worked as a laborer, park maintenance worker, commercial fisherman, university administrator, instructor, and weapons mechanic in the Air National Guard.
He started writing fiction young, in eighth grade, but his first published novel took time. The Butcher's Boy, his third attempt at a novel, came out in 1982 and won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel the next year. It introduced readers to one of his favorite kinds of people to write about: a professional who knows exactly how to survive when everyone else is guessing.
The chase was his home ground.
Perry followed that debut with books that often mixed danger with dry wit and practical know-how. Metzger's Dog turned a theft of CIA papers into a crooked, funny Los Angeles scramble. Pursuit set a quiet manhunter against a mass killer. Death Benefits used insurance work, missing money, and a reluctant young investigator to build a very human kind of suspense.
His best-known series character is Jane Whitefield, a Seneca woman who helps people in mortal danger disappear into new lives. Beginning with Vanishing Act, the Jane novels gave Perry room to write about identity, debt, loyalty, and the small details that let a person slip away from a world that wants to find them. Readers often come for the escape plans and stay for Jane's calm, watchful intelligence.
He also worked in television, writing and producing for shows including Simon & Simon, 21 Jump Street, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. That screen work fits the books: Perry liked movement, clean scene construction, and conversations where people are always trying to learn more than they reveal.
He kept returning to dangerous professionals. The Old Man follows a retired intelligence operative whose past finally catches him, and it later became a television series. The Butcher's Boy returned decades after his first appearance in The Informant and Eddie's Boy, still older, still careful, and still hard to corner.
Perry lived for many years in Southern California with his wife, the writer Jo Perry. He died suddenly in Los Angeles on September 15, 2025, leaving behind a long shelf of thrillers about people running, hiding, hunting, and thinking three steps ahead.
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