Dead Run (Monkeewrench Series) [Abridged, Audiobook, CD] [Audio CD]

P. J. Tracy (Author), Buck Schirner (Reader)

Book Description

Series: Monkeewrench Series | Publication Date: April 21, 2005

Monkeewrench founders Grace McBride and Annie Belinsky, along with Deputy Sharon Mueller, are driving from Minneapolis to Green Bay, Wisconsin, where they believe a new serial killer is just warming up, when their car breaks down, deep in the northern woods, far away from civilization and cell towers. A walk through the forest leads them to the crossroads town of Four Corners, where they had hoped to find a landline and a mechanic, but instead find…absolutely nothing. Something terrible has happened in Four Corners, and the complete absence of life and severed phone lines in every building make it impossible to get help. Grace, her senses honed by a lifetime of justifiable paranoia, sees the sinister in every detail, and her intuition barely saves all three of them when they witness a horrifying double murder. Grace, Annie, and Sharon are suddenly running for their lives, while the rest of the Monkeewrench crew, along with Minneapolis cops Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth, strike out on a blind search to find them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the latest winner from the pseudonymous mother/daughter writing team, Tracy's quirky characters get caught up in a homegrown terrorist plot featuring ultra right-wing militiamen and three tanker trucks full of nerve gas. Having gotten rich from their gaming software, the eccentric personnel of the Minneapolis-based Monkeewrench computer company (Harley Davidson, Grace MacBride, Annie Belinski and the six-foot-seven-inch geek Roadrunner) are presently giving away their "computerized detective software" to police departments with serial killer problems. Grace, Annie and Wisconsin deputy Sharon Mueller are headed to Green Bay, where Sharon believes a serial killer has set up shop. But during a quick sightseeing detour into the Wisconsin hinterlands, Grace's Range Rover breaks down and the women have to hike through the woods for help. They end up in the town of Four Corners, which seems abandoned. The ladies don't know it yet, but that's because earlier that day a milk truck loaded with nerve gas rolled over, lost its load and wiped out everyone in town. Now the entire area is surrounded by a right-wing paramilitary bent on keeping the spill a secret by killing anyone left alive. Tracy's characters are full of quips and comedy, and yet they all have dark pasts ominously and obliquely referred to throughout the novel. The jokes, cold-blooded murders and the past secrets sometimes work at cross-purposes, but the courage and indomitable spirit of the plucky trio will win readers over as they speed through the final pages of the race-against-the-clock ending. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

...as full of real laughs as its two predecessors...and the story is even stronger. -- Chicago Tribune, April 17, 2005 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio on CD Lib Ed; Abridged edition (April 21, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596001313
• ISBN-13: 978-1596001312
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)

More About the Author

P.J. Tracy is the pseudonym of the mother-daughter writing team of Patricia Lambrecht and Traci Lambrecht. They each live in rural Minnesota, just outside of Minneapolis.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Different From the First Two, But Still Excellent!, July 22, 2005

By 

Colleen McMahon ""Omnivorous Reader"" (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Run (Hardcover)

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 and the rest of the now-familiar characters--Minneapolis detectives Maggozzi and Rolseth, the Monkeewrench geeks, and (welcome back!) Wisconsin sheriff Mike Halloran and deputy Bonar Carlson--race to their rescue as it becomes increasingly clear that not only as something horrible happened in the isolated Wisconsin town, but sinister forces are trying to make it happen again, on a larger scale.

A couple of 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 while you are caught up in it it's totally believable, and I'm okay with spending a few hours like that.

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 another book I devoured in a day, and my only disappointment is that I now have to wait until the next book comes out to spend more time with these memorable characters!

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

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast-paced, straight-up (but never straightforward) thriller, April 27, 2005

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Run (Hardcover)

P. J. Tracy first came on the scene with the tightly plotted serial killer novel MONKEEWRENCH. Tracy's sophomore effort, LIVE BAIT, although not as innovative as the first novel in the series, marked Tracy as an author to watch. Now, with DEAD RUN, Tracy offers a straight-up (but never straightforward) thriller that should propel this mother-daughter writing team into the company of the very best mystery and thriller writers.

As with the earlier novels in this loosely connected series, DEAD RUN's story alternates between Minneapolis and small-town Wisconsin. The software developers known as the Monkeewrench team have volunteered their sophisticated computer programs and their considerable expertise to help police departments solve related crimes. When Sharon Mueller, a Wisconsin police deputy now working for the FBI in Minneapolis, asks Grace MacBride and Annie Belinsky of the Monkeewrench team to help her connect the dots in a series of Green Bay murders, the three women set off on a road trip through rural Wisconsin.

Along the way, they find the grisly remnants of a mysterious event: an abandoned town, a quasi-military blockade, and a farm field filled with unspeakable horrors. Is this some kind of secret government experiment? Or is it the beginning of a new kind of war? Drawn into the mystery against their will, the three women soon find themselves actively involved not only in saving themselves, but also in preventing the potential deaths of thousands of other people.

In the meantime, terrified by the women's disappearance, the rest of the Monkeewrench crew and law enforcement agencies in two states mobilize to find the three women before it's too late. For some, such as Detective Leo Magozzi, the motivation is as much about their personal desires as it is about professional concerns: "We're not on the job. What we really are is a couple of frantic guys chasing a couple of skirts. Saving our women. Caveman stuff." Little do these frantic guys know, though, that their women are more than capable of taking care of business, sometimes surprising even themselves.

If this fast-paced, breathlessly plotted thriller has a fault, it is that it depends too much on a reader's knowledge of the earlier books in the series to fully understand and appreciate the nuances of character development and relationships explored in this third volume. Don't view this as a weakness, though; instead, use it as an excuse to pick up all three volumes in this thrilling series.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars ok plot, bad editing!, May 16, 2007

By 

C. M. Parisi "sonoran sunset" (Tucson, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Run (Hardcover)

ok plot, bad editing! they kept talking about how quiet it was but they couldn't hear a huge RV going breakneck speeds on country roads until it pulled up right in front of them? that is only one of the many inconsistencies I found. One must read it all the way through without stopping because if you stop you'll notice these things. also having never read the first two books the characters were completely faceless to me. only harley and sheriff ed pitala were explained in any way gave them 'life'. not bad for an airplane read I guess.