The Tree of Light and Flowers

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.

Thomas Perry is the Edgar-winning author of over thirty novels, including The Butcher’s Boy, which Parade Magazine included in its 2021 list of 101 Best Mystery Books of All Time, and Metzger’s Dog, which NPR listeners voted one of the “Best Thrillers of All Time.” His novel The Old Man was the inspiration for the television series starring Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow, and his novel Strip inspired the film The Get Out starring Russell Crowe. He died in Los Angeles on September 15, 2025, at the age of 78.