Its fluid style, unexpected twists and
turns, along with its excellent descriptive passages will keep you awake well
into the night! (Review by Barry Meehan)
“How far would you go to bring her back?”
is the tagline for this Harlen Coben novel. The ‘her” referred to is Simon
Greene’s daughter, who ran away from home and University and has become hooked
on some pretty dangerous drugs.
The story opens in Central Park, alongside
the John Lennon ‘Imagine’ memorial. Simon has it on good authority that his
daughter has been performing there as a street muso, playing rather bad
versions of John Lennon’s music and he has come to the Park to try and convince
her to return home after a stint in rehab, even though his wife has – for some
reason unknown to Simon, or us – told him to leave their daughter to her own
devices and vagrant lifestyle.
The girl he finds in the Park has matted,
clumped hair and sunken cheekbones, is filthy dirty and very definitely damaged.
But it is Simon’s daughter, Paige, and he attempts to convince her to go with
him and return to the bosom of the family. Unfortunately, Paige’s boyfriend
intervenes and a fracas ensues, ending with Simon being arrested by the NYPD on
a charge of assault.
So begins a long and arduous journey for
Simon as he attempts to track down his daughter and discover what damaging
event turned her into what she has become. Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code describes Harlan Coben as
‘The modern master of the hook and twist’, and there are twists a-plenty in
this absorbing novel, which takes Simon on his determined quest. One can
certainly understand his passion for trying to rehabilitate his daughter – what
decent father wouldn’t do exactly the same? He follows her trail into a dark
and dangerous world where nothing and nowhere is safe.
The story moves along at a frantic pace
involving disbelieving detectives, private investigators, professional
assassins, a pretty scary religious cult, the adoption scene and much more.
Harlen Coben is definitely one of the
premier authors of today’s literary world, and ‘Run Away’ is one of his best
and well worth a read. Its fluid style, unexpected twists and turns, along with
its excellent descriptive passages will keep you awake well into the night!
Run
Away is published by Penguin Random House South
Africa – ISBN 9781780894263, Recommended Retail Price R270. – Barry Meehan
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