Blind Run [Mass Market Paperback]

Patricia Lewin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 30, 2003

Ethan Decker is a specialized “Hunter” for the most secretive agency of the U.S. government, tracking down ruthless international fugitives. But when a renegade assassin kills Decker’s young son, he leaves his unsuspecting wife—to save her from the madman’s threats—and exiles himself to a remote desert in New Mexico. Then one searing day, a former member of Decker’s covert team arrives at his door, shepherding two children. She entrusts them to his protection and leaves without explanation—only to turn up dead a few miles down the road, killed by the man who murdered Decker’s son.

Suddenly the race is on: to reach his ex-wife before the ruthless assassin finds her, and to unlock the mystery behind the two children—innocents who end up as pawns in a dark conspiracy so evil that even this former spy cannot imagine the peril that lies directly in his path.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lewin makes a shaky debut with this suspense novel that combines romance, rogue assassins and children in jeopardy with a dash of futuristic science. It's been three years since ex-CIA covert operative Ethan Decker's five-year-old son was murdered by a mysterious assassin. Decker has abandoned his wife, Sydney, and his job to hole up in a trailer in the New Mexico desert. He takes refuge in booze and self-pity until two children are unexpectedly dumped in his lap by Anna Kelsey, a former member of his elite investigative team. Danny and Callie are preteen siblings on the run from the Keepers, a secretive scientific institution specializing in genetic experimentation. After Kelsey is murdered by Marco Ramirez, the same man Decker believes is responsible for his son's death, he reluctantly goes on the road with the two children forced to solve the mystery behind Anna's murder, investigate the suspicious doings of the Keepers and protect Sydney, who seems to be the assassin's next target. Despite the fast pace, abundant action and ambitious premise, there are few surprises here. The plot turns feel like a composite of television action dramas and suspense novels of yore. The characters are thin, and the dialogue could use some vitamin supplements as well ("Opportunity knocked, I acted"). The implausible feel-good ending, involving 25 children on a boat bound for Canada, adds little to this uneven effort.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Ethan Decker is living in an old trailer in the New Mexico desert, wallowing in self-pity and pain. His job as an operative for a very secret government agency is directly to blame for the death of his young son and his abandoning of his ex-wife. A member of the old team visits him with two young children in tow, and shortly thereafter she is killed in a murder that has all the markings of the assassin who killed his son. Now Ethan is desperate to protect his ex-wife, Sydney, and to find out who these children are, and why someone would be killed because of them. After Ethan rescues Sydney, they all embark on a cross-country odyssey that leads them from Champaign, Illinois, to Seattle, Washington, and finally to the island the children call home, all the while relentlessly pursued by men most likely from Ethan's old agency. Lewin's taut thriller is filled with hair-raising car chases and complex double crosses. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (December 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345443233
• ISBN-13: 978-0345443236
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.9 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,993,497 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The first question most people ask when they find out what I do is, "How did you become a writer?" They usually ask this with an incredulous look on their face, and to be honest, I never know exactly how to answer. So I laugh and just say, "It's a long story."

You see, I have a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science and spent twelve years with Big Blue (i.e. IBM, for the uninitiated). And that's not your usual path to a publishing career.

So how did I go from Computer Programming to writing thrillers?

Well, my first love has always been books. I started reading everything I could get my hands on as far back as grade school, wanting, even then, to rewrite stories my own way, either changing the endings or creating new adventures for the characters. However, I didn't actually start writing until high school. My first attempt was a serial story about a cowboy who was a cross between Cat Balou and Jesse James - the fictional character not the real outlaw. I'd write a chapter and pass it around to my friends, then write another. I never finished that story, which is probably a good thing. It was pretty bad. LOL!!

By college I'd graduated from writing westerns to science fiction short stories that bore a strong resemblance to Star Trek. Are you seeing a pattern here? I like to think that all those "takeoff" stories were just practice for the real thing.

Funny thing though, during all that time, it never occurred to me that I could write for a living. In college, I didn't even consider majoring in Journalism or English. In my mind, I needed a technical degree to be self-sufficient. So, it wasn't until I'd been working for IBM about seven years that the writing bug bit again. I attended a writer's conference in Orlando and met dozens of people writing all different types of fiction and nonfiction. That weekend changed my life. Literally.

I came home and started writing in earnest. I also joined writer's organization, attended writer's conferences, read 'how-to' books, and generally immersed myself in the publishing world. It took me five years and writing three complete manuscripts to sell my first book in June of 1993. I left IBM a year later, and as they say, the rest is history.

Now, thirteen years, twelve books, and three pseudonyms later, I'm writing supense novels for Ballantine Books and loving every minute of it. It's what I've been working toward since that first conference in Orlando.

Patricia Lewin

Author Of BLIND RUN, OUT OF REACH, and OUT OF TIME

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Non-stop action, August 23, 2005

By 

James Sneddon (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blind Run (Mass Market Paperback)

Ethan Decker left the Agency and his wife after their son was murdered in an operation gone bad. He lives secluded in the desert of New Mexico, an area as dry, arid, and lifleless as Ethan Decker feels. Then one day another agent appears on his doorstep with two children whose lives are at risk from the same man who killed Ethan's son.

When Decker's visitor is killed a few miles down the road, he is forced to flee with children he doesn't want to protect and ask for the help of an ex-wife he refuses to admit he still loves. Hunted by the police for murder and the assasin who killed his son, Ethan races from New Mexico to the mysterious Haven Island off the Northwest coast where the children had been imprisoned all their lives. But rescuing the other children held captive on Haven Island involves confronting the loss of his son, facing the child's murderer, and reliving the buried pain that caused him to abandon a life with the woman he loves.

Fast-paced and exciting, Blind Run is a quick but suspenseful novel not to be regretted by readers who like works in the vein of Iris Johansen. With and second novel, Out of Reach, already out, and a third to be released in Dec. 05, Patricia Lewin is poised to become a sensation in the world of suspense.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blind Run captivates reader's heart and thoughts, September 11, 2003

By 

Darlene Kuzmak (North Grafton, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blind Run (Hardcover)

I was intrigued with Blind Run from the moment I saw the cover! Two figures running along a boardwalk, by the ocean, in the light of a full moon, invited my fingers to open the book and to discover why they were pictured in such distress.

The cover and then the characters kept my attention as I read on. Lewin has a way of describing the scenes vividly and her characters are mulitfacited.

Ethan Decker is the kind of man that heroes are made of. He's bound to do the right thing to accomplish his goal and keep those entrusted to his care safe during dangerous times. His complex character struggles with life issues that are common to all, yet he perseveres, without compromise, to protect the innocent when danger is at the doorstep.

Lewin is to be congratulated in her attempt to have good win over evil! She takes the reader down the twisted path of intrigue and keeps the reader guessing as to the ulterior motives of each character. She has a good balance between love and hate, deception and exposure, trust and doubt.

Two members of our family were rushing to finish the book at the same time so that the rest of us could share in the suspense. The read was captivating from the first page to the last, with your mind wishing there could be more!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RUN get a copy of Blind Run!, January 11, 2006

By 

Alicia in Georgia "www.ItsaMustRead.com" (near Atlanta) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blind Run (Hardcover)

A wonderful suspense story! In the first chapter, we meet an agent who retired from life five years ago when his son was killed. A former co-agent drops two children at his trailer, and he finds her down the road, killed. The rest of the book he's running with the children from the killers, and his own past, trying to piece together what's happening. You will not want to put down this book!!