Saturday, March 28, 2020

The runner by Stephen Leather

Sally Page works for MI5 in a junior position known as a "footie" - a person who helps keep legends authentic by paying bills, shopping with loyalty cards, and keeping up a social media presence.  It's supposed to be a short term gig for a few months before agents move on to more exciting work, but Sally has been working as a footie ever since she knocked her boss back when he made advances one night.  It's not easy watching other footies come and go from their office hidden in a suburban house in Wimbledon, but Sally stubbornly remains professional and does her job, working away in the office.   It isn't easy working as a footie, the routine can be repetitive and boring, and because you work for MI5 you still have to follow all the rules of other agents and not tell anyone what you do.  

It isn't dangerous work being a footie, well not normally, that all changes when Sally goes on a coffee run and comes back to find her colleagues dead and armed men in the house.  Unarmed and not trained to work in the field, Sally does the only thing she can - she runs.  The men start to stalk and hunt her across the streets of London, and Sally's only hope is to reach the relative safety of Thames House and her colleagues.  As the men hunt her Sally runs, which may not seem like a lot, but Sally lives to run and she can run like no one they have ever seen before.  As she learns more about why the men are chasing her it does little to change the fact that Sally will need to keep running to save her life in a race against time, and against a determined enemy that thinks nothing of leaving a bloody swath of destruction in their wake.  

Thrillers can be a little hit and miss, especially if they try and be too clever - but The runner hit just the right note and was a thoroughly enjoyable and engrossing read.  Sally Page seems so ordinary, but she has a very unordinary time, dragging other people into the story along the way.  Stephen Leather has written a thriller that starts with an ordinary scene and slowly builds and develops so that you have the whole picture of what is happening, and the thrill of wondering what the ending will be.  Sally is a likeable and believable character, as are the other characters that help keep the action and storyline on track.  There are the expected characters, but they are well developed and don't come across as two dimensional or completely cliched.  

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Reviewed by Brilla

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