BOOK REVIEW
The Runaway by Nick Petrie
A thriller
I’ve just finished reading this thriller (e-book version), and really enjoyed it. I rather liked what someone (unfortunately I can’t remember who) said of one of the books about “that woman” that they “couldn’t wait to put it down”.
This book was the opposite. I found myself looking for an excuse to read another chapter (which invariably became five or six chapters).
This is the seventh title in the Peter Ash series by Nick Petrie. For those who enjoy the Jack Reacher novels, but haven’t as yet made acquaintance with Peter Ash, I put my neck in the guillotine neck groove and state that you vill enjoy zis series (and that is an order)!
For those unacquainted with Peter Ash, here is a little background (with acknowledgements to the Fantastic Fiction website, which is excellent for keeping up to date with new and forthcoming books).
Intro to The Drifter, the first in the Peter Ash series:
Eight years a soldier, Peter Ash came home from Iraq and Afghanistan with only one souvenir: what he calls ‘white static’, a buzzing claustrophobia due to post-traumatic stress that has driven him to spend a year roaming the Pacific coast’s mountains and forests, sleeping under the stars.
But when a friend from the Marines commits suicide, Ash returns to civilization to help the man’s widow and two young children. While repairing her dilapidated porch, he makes two unwelcome discoveries: The first is a dog, the meanest, ugliest dog he’s ever laid eyes on, guarding a suitcase; the second unwelcome surprise is the suitcase’s contents – $400,000 in cash and four slabs of plastic explosive.
Just what was his friend caught up in during his final days? Ash will find that the demons of war aren’t easy to leave behind…”
Nick Petrie is an easy writer to read; perhaps not the humour that you will find in series such as “Jack Reacher”, but every bit as entertaining. Peter Ash doesn’t regularly hospitalise groups of thuggish belligerents in Jack Reacher style, but he deals effectively with the bad guys, even if sometimes by a narrow margin, and he even makes a very occasional error of judgement.
A brief synopsis of The Runaway:
War veteran Peter Ash is driving through northern Nebraska when he encounters a young pregnant woman alone on a gravel road, her car dead. Peter offers her a lift, but what begins as an act of kindness soon turns into a deadly cat-and-mouse chase across the lonely highways with the woman’s vicious ex-cop husband hot on their trail. The pregnant woman has seen something she was never meant to see… but protecting her might prove to be more than Peter can handle.
In order to save the woman and himself, Peter must use everything he has learned during his time as a Marine, including his knowledge of human nature, in order to escape a ruthless killer with instincts and skills that match – and perhaps exceed – Peter’s own.
Here are a few comments by the experts (not the computer modeller kind):
Praise for the Peter Ash Series
“Lots of characters get compared to my own Jack Reacher, but Peter Ash is the real deal.” – Lee Child
“Nonstop action at a machine gun pace.” – C.J. Box
“The hype about Nick Petrie is real – he’s just that damn good!” – Mark Greaney
“If you’re not already on the Peter Ash train, jump aboard now. Nick Petrie is doing headliner work.” – Robert Crais
“For me, no crime-fiction character has ever measured up to Jack Reacher – until, that is, I met Peter Ash.” – Entertainment Weekly
“Nick Petrie proves himself to be a maestro, wielding his keyboard with all the deftness of a master conductor’s baton.” – Providence Journal
I thought that this book, The Runaway, was the best yet. Nick Petrie is a great writer and I hope that he has a lot more Peter Ash books still to be unleashed.
Title: The Runaway by Nick Petrie
Publisher: G P Putnam’s Sons
ISBN: 9780525535515 (ebook)
The previous titles in the Peter Ash series are:
1. The Drifter (2016)
2. Burning Bright (2017)
3. Light it Up (2018)
4. Tear it Down (2019)
5. The Wild One (2020)
6. The Breaker (2021)
