My Weekly Book

Dead Run by PJ Tracy

This is, quite simply, one of the best thriller-stroke-police procedurals that I have read for a very long time. It’s got a gripping, edge-of-the-seat plot that makes it damn nigh impossible to put down no matter how late (or early) it seems to unaccountably have got while your attention was fastened on the book. After the slight lull of Livebait the authors are right back on the form that they showed in their first novel, Want to Play. Here we’re dealing with the full cast of characters we got to know in that story. The premise is, at first glance, standard horror-flick fare. The three principal female protagonists are stranded deep, deep in the Wisconsin forest with something nasty after their cars break down. But these are no ordinary horror-flick characters. While their male friends, colleagues and lovers (and also a pet dog) tie themselves in knots trying to save them the ladies coolly get on with the extremely tricky task of preserving their own lives in the face of seemingly impossible odds as well as… or maybe I’ll just let you read it and find out that bit for yourselves.

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In Dead Run the authors show that they are prepared to take big, serious risks with their characters which is something I always like to see – as well as the willingness to tackle big issues, which is done here in an understated kind of a way. They do a cracking job of generating suspense and they let the ladies showcase their talents without the need for the cavalry to ride in right up until the very end. In the face of extreme stress each of the women has a kind of interior monologue going on which I thought really added to the atmosphere of the thing. The reader experiences a great deal of welcome confusion as to who the bad boys really are which keeps you guessing for a good two-thirds of the story. The central crimes are humanised in a poignant fashion.

This one comes highly recommended and I’m not sure you’d necessarily have had to read the first two before getting stuck in. My only advice is not to do it if you’ve got other things to do… Huge thanks to ju1es for lending me her copy.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 28th, 2006 at 1:06 PM and is filed under 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.