‘Runner’ by Thomas Perry

  OK, I admit it. I’ve never read anything by Thomas Perry. Until now.
  For several years, I was the books editor at a Florida newspaper, and I never got around to reading his stuff. He was one of the authors on my “gotta-read-sometime” list but various, untimely projects kept me busy, and I ended up donating his books to the local library for some other bespectacled bookworm to consume.
  Other readers kept telling me how good he was. But as books editor (I‘m sure R-J books maven Lindsey Losnedahl can attest), you don’t have enough time to read half the titles that cross your desk in a given week. Perry was one of my long-running casualties.
  Recently, though, I finally got a chance to read his latest, “Runner.” And boy, I wish I would’ve jumped on the Perry bandwagon earlier.
  “Runner” is exciting, tightly plotted and full of surprises. Unlike some other thrillers out there, it’s not overwritten, i.e. heavy on  description and dialogue.
  Perry grabs you and never lets you go. And the best part it, the story is mostly believable. It doesn’t have outrageous car chases, bloody violence or steamy sex. It’s an old-school suspense story that relies on the good guys trying to outfox the villains — and not always winning.
  Judging by a rough survey of Internet reader reaction, “Runner” is good but not Perry’s best. If this isn’t Perry’s best, I can’t wait to read his previous works.
  “Runner” marks the return of Native American guide Jane Whitefield. She’s part of a clandestine network that helps people, particularly women, in distress. Think of a modern-day Underground Railroad. Whitefield has had numerous adventures where she helped others and almost got killed for doing it. So she retired, assumed the identity of Jane McKinnon and settled for a comfortable life with her doctor husband in Amherst, N.Y.
  “Runner” begins nine years later with Whitefield enjoying life helping her husband and volunteering at a local hospital. Christine Monahan has come to upstate New York from San Diego to look for Whitefield. She’s pregnant, in trouble and has nowhere else to go.
  A group of professional assassins has chased Monahan down to the hospital, where Whitefield is working at an event. They set off a bomb, injuring many. Monahan finds Whitefield, and they barely escape. Thus begins a cross-country adventure that involves a lot of driving, hiding under assumed identities and the occasional violent conflict with the bad guys.
  Monahan has fled California after getting knocked up by an abusive, wealthy businessman in San Diego, who stands to inherit the large family business empire. She worked for him and got involved in a brief romantic relationship. But she didn’t want to marry him, so she escaped. The businessman, now angry and desperately wanting a son, sends the assassins after her.
  The story is rarely boring, although there are several dry procedural scenes embedded into the plot (Jane loads her gun, waits in line at the airport, etc.) and some of the action in the late chapters stretches the imagination. But Perry makes us care about the characters and never takes his focus off of Jane. She’s smart, quiet, tough, well-prepared and thus very dangerous to her enemies.
  “It helps to learn to think the way your enemies do. You spend less time being surprised,“ Jane tells Christine early in the chase.
  I can’t wait to read about her past — and future — adventures.