Runner by Patrick Lee

Published by Minotaur Books on February 18, 2014

A girl named Rachel is running from six armed men and it is Sam Dryden's bad luck (or maybe it's not) to be walking on the boardwalk near his beach home, in a position to rescue her. Rachel can't remember why she's running, but Martin Gaul -- the kind of omnipotent bad guy often found in Thrillerworld, who can make a phone call and gain instant access to top secret military satellites -- knows that Rachel will eventually recover her memory. He wants her dead before that happens. Farfetched? Yes, but not nearly as farfetched as the reason Rachel is on the run.

Runner is a conspiracy thriller with some science fiction elements. Its internal logic is consistent and, if you're willing to suspend disbelief (as science fiction demands), it is more plausible than many conspiracy thrillers. This one twists the formula a bit by pitting two defense contractors against each other. Rachel is caught in the middle.

As its title implies, pace is the key to The Runner. The novel is fun and easy to read because it moves so quickly. That's essential because if the action stopped to take a breath, the reader might be put off by how unlikely the story is. There isn't much character development (Dryden is a clone of dozens of other ultra-competent heroes with military/clandestine training) and to the extent that Rachel was given a personality, I didn't quite believe it. The story won't prompt deep thoughts, but this isn't that kind of book. As fast moving entertainment, it succeeds. The ending is predictable but it's the ending I wanted, so that's nothing to complain about.

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