Review of "Runner in the Dark," by Ed Gorman

 Review of

Runner in the Dark, by Ed Gorman ISBN 0743498100

Five out of five stars

Great, intense hostage scene at the end

  David and Roy Gerard are the kind of men that will make opponents of capital punishment change their minds. Both are ruthless, brutal killers that have a history of meting out death to others. Roy is in prison and scheduled to be executed. David is free and has concocted an elaborate plan to free his brother moments before he is to be killed by the state.

 Jessica Dennis is an attractive woman that prosecuted Roy, achieving the death sentence. This makes her a prime target for retribution, so she is part of the plan. There is to be a debate in a television studio between Jessica and an aged priest named Josek, where the topic is to be the morality of capital punishment.

 David Gerard’s plan is to take control of the studio as the debate is to start and trade the lives of the hostages for the life of his brother. David has access to a great deal of money that allows him to hire several other men willing to kill others in order to free Roy.

 The backgrounds of all the players, from the priest to the governor to some of the cops to the villains are all developed as the action moves towards the climactic event of the hostage taking. The focus bounces from character to character during this event as the characters of both sides maneuver towards the goal of having the incident end with what they consider a success.

 Gorman proves to be a master of incrementally moving several simultaneous threads of actions towards a conclusion of the hostage crisis. The tension builds slowly and effectively and includes some paths that sputter out into nothing. There is a definitive conclusion that can be described as a happy ending. Not what you would have expected even ten to fifteen pages from the end.

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