After writing one of my favorite stand-alone Close To The Bone novellas AN EYE FOR AN EYE, crime author Paul Heatley recently wrote a prequel and a sequel for this book. Hoping for the same kind of violent, character-driven plot I found in AN EYE FOR AN EYE, I grabbed a copy of THE RUNNER (or the prequel if you will). And I wasn’t disappointed.
This series is set in Newcastle, England—and Jackson Stobbart's job involves holding illicit drug money for the local Doyle crime family. But when Stobbart's girlfriend Cathy crazily snatches the money and vanishes from town, all hell breaks loose. Racing against Davey Hoy, the Doyle family muscle, Stobbart knows if he doesn't find them first, the end of his life and Cathy's will be a bloody and violent mess. Scrambling for clues to her whereabouts, he visits their old haunts and searches his addled memory for leads to her past … desperate to find her trail.
Painfully aware the merciless Doyles will stop at nothing to recover their ill-gotten gains, Jackson must also decide: How far is he willing to go?
THE RUNNER certainly provided me with a hot fast ride.
Highly Recommended.
