Eleven stars. No complaints. Bullets for the bad guys. THIS is how you write a thriller!
I finished The Runaway by Nick Petrie at approximately 1 a.m., and I have one thing to say: OH. HOLY. MOLY.
Five stars? Please. I need eleven. And possibly a nap.
Helene is nineteen, alone in the world, and working the overnight shift at a gas station in a tiny Montana town. Her boss is a predator, her prospects are dismal, and she has nowhere to turn. Then a seemingly kind stranger wearing a John Deere hat walks into the store, hands her some money, and tells her she's better than this place. He offers her a way out.
Unfortunately, sometimes the man offering you a lifeline is actually handing you a noose.
Fast-forward to the present. Helene is heavily pregnant, terrified, and running for her life. Her car breaks down, and along comes Peter Ash, who has never encountered a person in trouble he could bring himself to walk away from. Naturally, he stops to help.
And just like that, Peter has stepped into her nightmare.
Roy Wiley, the man Helene is fleeing, is one of the most convincingly evil villains I've encountered in a long time. He's charming, calculating, manipulative, and absolutely terrifying. He's the kind of man who makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up before you can figure out why. He could teach a graduate-level course in evil.
Now, I generally dislike alternating timelines, so when Petrie started bouncing between "Then" and "Now," I was initially disappointed. Silly me. I should have known better. Petrie used those timelines brilliantly, gradually revealing the depth of Helene's predicament while ratcheting up the tension in the present. The more I learned about Roy, the more desperately I wanted Peter to rescue Helene. There were moments when I actually caught myself holding my breath. Every time I thought things couldn't possibly get worse, Petrie said, "Hold my beer," and proceeded to prove me spectacularly wrong.
The pacing was phenomenal. The isolated rural setting made the danger frighteningly believable. Help isn't just around the corner when you're miles from civilization, and even the police need time to arrive. Petrie used that isolation to full advantage without resorting to ridiculous coincidences or characters making spectacularly stupid decisions.
Peter Ash was, as always, magnificent. Honest as the day is long, compassionate, resourceful, and willing to risk his own life to help someone else. Even when the odds were terrible, his decisions were intelligent and calculated. He didn't survive dangerous situations through convenient plot twists and dumb luck. He fought his way through them using his brains, his experience, and sheer determination.
Helene made some terrible choices, but she's nineteen, inexperienced, and desperately vulnerable. Petrie made me understand how she ended up in her situation, even when I wanted to sit her down and discuss thinking things through first.
The ending was PERFECT. Every loose end tied up, justice served, and not a shred of disappointment on my part. I may have cheered. There may have been some enthusiastic commentary about certain people getting exactly what they deserved. I may have startled my cat.
I couldn't put this book down. I lost sleep, held my breath, worried about characters I knew perfectly well were fictional, and finished the whole thing wanting to stand up and applaud. This book should be a movie. I'd buy a ticket tomorrow.
If you love intelligent, relentless thrillers with believable action, a genuinely terrifying villain, and a protagonist who actually uses his brain, read this book.
Eleven stars. I'm aware the rating system only goes to five. That's Goodreads' problem, not mine.
