[3] In the first book, Vanishing Act, a man asks Jane to help him disappear, claiming that he was sent to her by an old client of hers, Harry Kemple.
In Blood Money, to protect a young girl in trouble, Jane gets involved with an accountant for the major Mafia families who has faked his own death.
Poison Flowers is possibly the darkest novel in the series, as Jane is captured and tortured by villains from her past years of guiding runners.
In A String of Beads, the eight clan mothers task Jane with finding and returning her childhood friend who disappeared after being accused of murder.
"[3] In Murder on the reservation, Ray Browne notes that the series emphasizes the strengths of the Seneca while exposing the faults of white society, and speculates that Perry might be "pointing out to the Indians that there are new lifestyles available to them".
[8] Macdonald draws a similar conclusion: "By drawing on a traditional Native American role and demonstrating its viability and evolution in the modern world, Perry does what few other fiction writers do: he recognizes that Native Americans have the right to evade white expectations of who and what they are, and instead to forge modern roles for themselves within the frameworks of their heritage—to find ongoing meaning and significance rather than be trapped forever in the time warp of white imagining.
In Native American Sleuths, John Donaldson notes that the way in which Perry incorporates Seneca beliefs and rituals makes them relatable for readers, and describes the passages as "poignant, because they are windows offering glimpses of a once-living culture, now gone forever; and disturbing because they reveal the whites' role in ending that way of life.
[1] A recurring theme throughout the series is the battle between good and evil, presented in the form of a Seneca legend of Hawenneyu the creator and Hanegoategeh the destroyer eternally struggling against each other.
[14] The Orlando Sentinel says Perry has created "a fascinating heroine in Jane Whitefield, who is not only quick on her feet but savvy and compassionate.
"[9] One reviewer critiqued The Face-Changers for "an overly complex structure that obliges a reader to put up with long passages filled with nothing but the minutiae of pursuit and paranoia.
[17] The Denver Post describes Blood Money as "an excellent novel of suspense, one whose success is based on the strength and wits of its characters as opposed to one built on high-tech gadgetry" and "a bright and engaging adventure that pulls readers in with an interesting premise and wonderful characters and holds their attention with action that is both unexpected and credible",[18] and Kirkus called it "compulsively readable.
[20] In its review for Poison Flower, The Washington Times calls Jane "perhaps one of the most intriguing characters in literary crime" and says it is "especially interesting to track her recollections of her Seneca ancestry and her ultimate reliance on another kind of civilization.
"[22] Publishers Weekly calls A String of Beads, the last book in the series to date, "a hair-raising adventure with a woman warrior who would make her Seneca forbears proud.