Run the Risk [Import] [Paperback]

Scott Frost (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Headline (August 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0755333926
• ISBN-13: 978-0755333929
• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 1.1 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,325,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Everything is sweetened by risk.' Alexander Smith, December 20, 2010

By 

michael a. draper (Guilford, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Run the Risk (Hardcover)

Lt. Alex Delillo, of the L.A. police department homicide squad, is investigating the killing of an owner of a local Los Angeles florist. She and her partner arrive at the home of one of the florist shop's employees, to question him. However, the door is rigged with explosives. Alex's partner is hospitalized but is expected to recover.

Just prior to the report of the murder, Alex's teenage daughter, Lacy, created a near riot at a beauty pagent when she removed two cyllinders from beneath her gown and informed the audience that they were poisonioning the planet just for a parade.

Believing that the cyllinders contained poison, the crowd panicked. Alex and other police calmed the drown and Lacy admitted that the cyllinders only contained insecticide. Alex is furious and wonders how her daughter has changed so quickly from the daughter she knew six months ago, who was most comfortable in jeans and T-shirts.

With Alex's partner injured, she begins working with Detective Dylon Harrison who was in the bomb squad. Maybe it's a needed quality to have in the unit he's in but Harrison has a calming influence on Alex, and, as we will later see, he also has this beneficial quality with victims.

Soon after a body is found in a remote area and identification shows him to be a member of the Mexican army. Los Angeles officials speculate that he may have brought bomb making material to the area.

Lacy goes missing and Alex and Harrison search the home of a part time employee at the florist. Here, they find a man strapped to a chair with bombs set to explode. Harrison disarms the bomb and the man admits that Lacy has been kidnapped by the man who set the explosives.

All of the exciting action is described realistically and the author, Scott Frost, draws the reader into the investigation and we become deeply concerned with the killer's plan to set off the explosives and Lt. Dilillo's attempt to stop him and save her daughter.

Readers will enjoy this thrilling book which was nominated for an Edgar Award.

3 1/2 stars moved up to 4 based on sympathetic characters, dealing with environmental issues and parent teenage child relationships.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very promising and suspenseful debut thriller, June 5, 2007

By 

Bookphile (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Run the Risk (Paperback)

A gripping, fantastic debut from the former X-Files and Twin Peaks script writer. This book is everything a suspense novel ought to be. The characters are wonderful, vivid, and realistic and the mystery is taut and suspenseful and leaves the reader with some serious moral questions at its conclusion. I give this one high, high praise and look forward to reading the author's next novel.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars More like an Action Movie than a Crime Novel, August 6, 2006

By 

Thriller Lover (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Run the Risk (Paperback)

This novel was nominated for the Edgar Award for Best First Mystery/Crime novel of 2005, so I thought I would give it a shot. I was somewhat disappointed with it.

Los Angeles homicide detective Alex Delillo's daughter is kidnapped by a serial killer who likes to murder people with explosive devices. The novel basically deals with Delillo's race against time to save her daughter and catch the mad killer.

This book is fast-paced and decently written, but at the expense of character development. In many ways, this book resembles a non-stop action movie. The characters literally run from one implausable action scene (often involving a ticking bomb and an explosion) to another. The book never slows down and allows us to get to know these people. Many of the characters therefore end up rather sketchy and bland.

I also found the daughter character in this novel to be highly annoying, which is unfortunate since we are supposed to fear for her life. There are also many loose ends in RUN THE RISK that are not wrapped up in the ending.

Overall, I give this book a very mild recommendation. I would only recommend this novel to people looking for a good action read.