Search - Dead Run (Monkeewrench, Bk 3)

Great book with an interesting, scary premise. I could barely put it down. I'm glad I discovered the mother-daughter team of PJ Tracy. You will want to start with Monkeewrench, the first in the series, and read them all in order (Dead Run is the 3rd. There are 4 books in the series with a new one due sometime this year - 2009).

Oh wow! I can see why this is the favorite book of the series for most, as it's fantastic! The Monkeewrench team are back in a doozy of a thriller. Grace McBride and Annie Belinsky are traveling to Green Bay, Wisconsin with deputy Sharon Mueller to assist locals with finding a serial killer using their new software. They get lost on the way and stumble onto the mysteriously empty town of Four Corners, where they unwittingly witness the brutal murders of two civilians by military men. They need to get out to tell someone but the whole town is surrounded and they are being hunted.

Meanwhile Detectives Leo Magozzi and his partner team up with Sheriff Halloran and the rest of the Monkeewrench team to try to find the women. When more people turn up missing in the same area and the Feds keep everyone, including local law enforcement, away without telling them why, they suspect something bigger than unsolved murders and missing persons is up. But they have no idea HOW big...

It was great to have the Monkeewrench team back in the thick of things instead of on the periphery, and this novel starts with a bang and doesn't let the tension up as it races through to its nerve-wracking climax. Fantastic premise brilliantly executed - I don't see how they can top this one but I sure hope they keep trying!

This series continues to suprise me. Except for some occasional dialogue that seems to work a bit hard at being funny, the books just get better and better. Don't get me wrong. It does have humor and usually it's very natural but sometimes just a little awkward. That criticism is outweighed however, by the original plotting, superb writing and generally tight and realistic dialogue. Very hard to put down.

Here's one section, from the p.o.v. of an 8 year old: "He was straddling his old bike across the street from the cafe, staring through the plate-glass window, watching Hazel's broad back hunch and move over the grill plate behind the counter. Even through the dust-streaked window, he could see that great pile of too-black hair wobbling on top of her head, and when she turned aournd to plop a plate down on the counter in front of a customer, he saw the loose skin of remembered chins cascading down over the place where her neck was supposed to be." Writing just doesn't get much more vivid than that. :)

Highly recommended but also recommended that you read this series in order: Monkeewrench, followed by Live Bait, followed by Dead Run.

The third outing for the Monkeewrench crew finds Grace, Annie and Sharon (Wisconsin deputy from the first book, now on loan to the FBI) traveling from Minneapolis to Green Bay, Wisconsin. Along the way their car breaks down and they stumble into a town where everyone has mysteriously vanished, and progressively more sinister developments are taking place.

Unlike the first two books which were more whodunnit mysteries, this is straight up slam-bang suspense as the three women pool all their considerable resources to survive their predicament. The rest of the now familiar characters, Minneapolis detectives Maggozzi and Rolseth, the Monkeewrench geeks, with Wisconsin sheriff Mike Halloran and deputy Bonar Carlson race to the rescue.

It becomes increasingly clear that not only has something horrible happened in the isolated Wisconsin town, but sinister forces are trying to make it happen again, on a larger scale.

Some reviews have pointed out the preposterousness of the plot, and it is one of those books that you read breathlessly and then put down and think, now waaaaiit a minute, that is kind of unbelievable. But, these days of terrorism maybe not so unbelievable. There are whackos out there!

Again, the characters are what drew me in and kept me involved with the story. The development of their intertwining plotlines, like Magozzi's slowly blooming romance with Grace and Sharon's with Mike Halloran, makes this more than a routinely forgettable thriller. The idea of three women kicking ass and getting themselves out of their predicament, plus the touches of humor amid the suspense and horror, are just icing on the cake.

This is a book I devoured in a couple of days. If I had more time in one day I'd have finished it in a day!