Customer Reviews

Dead Run

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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

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.

Grace, Annie and Sharon are on their way to lend their expertise to a serial killer case when their car breaks down and they stumble into a deserted town. It just so happens that the small population has been decimated by nerve gas and a right-wing militia group is determined to keep the incident from becoming public knowledge.

"Dead Run" certainly gets off to a great start, culminating in the three women witnessing a particularly brutal double murder. But things soon start to fall apart from that moment on. Basically, what started out as a decent thriller began resembling some bizarre cross between a B-grade action movie and a "Secret Seven" Enid Blyton novel. When "the boys" started pooling their resources to track down the women, the whole thing just started seeming silly. Main reason being - we the reader knew what sort of predicament the women were in! Following the boys around as they catch up to what we already know isn't particularly enthralling. And when Harvey (Grace's dog) suddenly started using his previously never mentioned supersniffer powers of detection, I was nearly ready to throw the book across the room. Was this a joke? Did the writers of two previous top-notch serial killer thrillers really come up with this pap?

I can't give this one star - there are some well-staged sequences of suspense. If this had been the focus of the story, I wouldn't have minded the lack of plot complications. But "Dead Run" is far more suited to the sort of $3.95 novel you pick up at the chemist as opposed to the major release it got.

I'm surprised to see so many glowing reviews of this book because I thought it was pretty bad. Okay, it's readable and moderately exciting, but the plot is crazy, and the characters are so lifeless they might as well be made out of cardboard. It's a shame, because Monkeewrench (which was called Want to Play? in the UK) was fantastic, even if the solution was completely unbelievable. The sequel was okay but nothing special. If people give this five stars, how do they rank the latest Michael Connelly, or John Sandford, or Jodi Compton? They're all so infinitely superior to this.

I too didn't enjoy this one as much as the previous efforts. Plot seemed contrived, a little slow moving and overall, compared to the previous two, a little disapointing.Sure, they just happen to be driving through the boonies and uncover a plot by militants to lay waste to parts of the country. Yeah, right. Give me a break. This is a talented writing duo, but I think they missed the mark on this one.

I was so disappointed with this book. The sales blurb made it sound like one of those books I would read in one sitting; instead I had to force myself to keep going. The characters never became real for me and the narrative didn't flow and was stilted. In addition the whole thing was so unbelievable - even taking the point above about the Twin Towers. In short, I wanted a good read and got a mediocre one. Maybe if I had read the other books first, I would have liked this better. As it is I won't be buying the previous ones.

This is another novel about the "Monkeewrench " crew and the Minneapolis and Wisconsin cops with whom they co-operate to do down the bad guys .It differs from the previous series entries in being more thrillerish and less of a murder mystery.Indeed there are no mystery elements in the book and what we get is a good chase thriller.

The women from Monkeewrench -the Rubensesque Annie and the edgy Grace -are travelling by car to Green Bay from Minneapolis accompanied by a cop , Sharon Mueller ,when their car breaks down in a mobile phone and radio"dead zone ".They make their way on foot to the small town of Four Corners ,Wisconsin which they find is deserted and whose phone lines have been cut ,They then witness what seems to be the shooting of a local citizen by a National Guardsman.In fact .the killer is a member of a right wing militia group which is planning a nerve gas attack on selected targets .There has been a leakage in the area and the group is seeking to isolate the area and press ahead with the planned attack

We then get interlocking plots as the women seek to evade the militia and escape while their colleagues and the law enforcement agencies try tolocate them and foil the baddies

The authors take time to introduce us to the inhabitants of the town torn apart by the plot and this helps readers feel more empathy than if they had just been faceless victims and there is an nice vein of humour in the relationships between the cops and the somewhat unorthodox computer geeks they are partnered with .The tension build nicely and this is a good solid entry in a consistently entertaining series

3rd in the Monkeewrench series, this installment features the women on a road trip. Until they get stranded, of course, and wind up in the middle of nowhere by a town where everyone's missing and there is no cell phone coverage. Their history boded well for them in this situation as they creep and crawl in and around the town to avoid the mysterious men with guns. When they happen upon a pond full of floating dead cows, they don't know what to think. In a strange series of events, the men piece together the missing pieces and ride to the rescue - which the women are close to getting anyway. I love this author (mother/daughter team) although I think her original work - MONKEEWRENCH - is her best. SNOW BLIND is next out at the end of December.

I agree with another writer that the story premise was unrealistic and far fetched. But what a pleasant surprise -- they made it work beautifully. I've read all three books so far and looking forward to the next.