Customer Reviews

The Runner: A Novel

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Having greatly enjoyed Reich's debut novel Numbered Account, I really looked forward to his next one. Although I had some doubts when I read that it involved a story about an American hunting a former SS-officer right after World War II, I couldn't resist. But I shouldn't have worried! The story is extremely captivating and especially the backdrop of the summer of 1945 provides a very interesting setting. The story is about an American lawyer, Devlin Judge, who decides to hunt down the SS-officer that killed his brother, Erich Seyss. Seyss is a former Olympian runner (which is not really relevant for the story) and also a master in impersonating the enemy (which is more interesting and proves instrumental in some interesting turns of events). Since Seyss just escaped, the story quickly turns into a cat-and-mouse game with a real conspiracy and a very interesting interpretation of Patton's actions!

Having read some of the reviews listed below, I am a bit surprised by some of them. Why do readers get so worked up by some minor factual errors that are not relevant for the story? Do they read a book to catch the writer in some mistakes, rather than enjoying the story? And, being a European, it is amusing to see how Americans get all upset since they feel that the memory of one of America's great hero's (Patton) gets soiled, while other readers feel the book is anti-German. Actually, Reich explained how Patton's actions in the book are based on real facts (okay, the story is fiction, but hadn't you noticed that?)and the book is overall quite neutral about either Americans, Germans or Russians. All groups contain both good and bad people; it is almost like real life!

Devlin Judge is a very enjoyable protagonist. One with a mission, a conscience, but also with doubts, self criticism and able to make mistakes. So, if you enjoy a good thriller with a very likable and believable hero, read this one!

This book is every bit as good as his first, "Numbered Account", in fact I liked it even more.

Mr. Reich does not take the easy way out by using basic Historical fact and fictionalizing the balance of his book. The result is still Fiction, but researched with a Historian's eye, and some clever "what if?" scenarios. The result is a hybrid that is truly interesting and not just entertainment. I believe this allowed him to bring "The Runner" to readers that is fresh book, even though the main event it is based upon is not.

The book has some nice plot twists, what makes them so slick, is that they are not so transparent that they reveal the balance of the book when the first hint appears. When you think you may have the story line solved, another bit comes along, and Mr. Reich pulls the carpet from beneath you.

Mr. Reich is no one time winner. If this second effort is any indicator of the future, the next dozen will only continue his success.

Buy it. No regrets.

Danial Silva did this kind of novel well - a World War II piece where we know the outcome from reading history, but not how it came about...the nitty gritty...the dirty little secrets. Christopher Reich takes it to the same level with this effort. By the time the central character in the book, Devlin Judge, gets to page 298, a question has occurred to him...and to most readers, I suspect..."Why were members of the American military assisting a fugitive SS officer and a scion of Germany's most powerful industrial family to carry out a heinous scheme whose success would ensure only personal heartbreak, national mourning and political instability?" The answer takes many more pages and involves a very plausable conclusion. This book is a departure from the previous notable first effort by the author, Numbered Account, but it stands on its own as a first class piece of writing which I recommend without hesitation.

I was first introduced to Christopher Reich when I saw him on a morning talk show touting his first book, Numbered Account. I was immediately interested because it was a thriller involving money laundering in Swiss bank accounts. The thing that interested me was that Reich lived in Switzerland for a time so his descriptions of Europe would be first-hand. In his second book, Reich takes us on a tour of post-war Germany. His research is excellent combining actual historical facts with fiction. Sometimes he's so good that I actually get the two confused and start believing that what he has fictionalized is actually true. In this cat and mouse chase, the cat eventually becomes the mouse as Devlin Judge, in his persuit of "The White Lion", Erich Seuss, eventually becomes the hunted. Seuss was responsible for a wartime massacre that killed Judge's brother, a priest and Judge is out to avenge his murder. My only complaint about this book is that Judge is a mediocre protagonist and even when he comes upon his prey, he can't capitalize on it. He is also the worst shot in any of the books I've read. Reich remains one of those authors whose books I will buy the day they are introduced and will read immediately. For those of you who are lovers of Nelson DeMille or my other two favorites, Douglas Kennedy and John Gilstrap, this is a book along those lines.

This is one of those feasts for devotees of conspiracies. If you are a true paranoid you will have no problem in relating to a tale where most of the members of the U.S. Army are traitors. Then again I was in the Navy, so I really don't know what goes on in the Army.

Our story begins in Germany during the chaos of mid 1945. Our hero is an Army major, Devlin Judge, who is chasing down vicious ex SS major Erich Seyss who was responsible for the murder of Judge's brother. It appears that Seyss has been employed to conduct one last operation for the greater glory of Germany. He is to wreak some sort of havoc at the Potsdam conference to be attended by Truman, Stalin, and Churchill.

Go ahead, your turn. You fill in the story blanks. That's right our hero is right on the heels of the villain but can't quite catch him. A pretty woman enters the story. People that should be trusted really let us down. Excitement mounts as we near the Potsdam city limits. Stalin and his new friends eat borscht unaware that danger threatens.

I'm not trying to imply that the book is a bad one. It really isn't. The post WWII Germany setting is quite interesting. The story hums along just fine with lots of thrills and spills engineered to keep you awake an extra hour at night. The only problem is that the plot doesn't vary much from the standard formula for stories involving the good guy who is one step behind the bad guy who is about to destroy the world as we know it.

Oh yes, there's that strange ballistics lesson that we are given. Our villain has just shot a man in the head in order to steal his uniform. Author Reich states "It had been a clean shot, barrel pressed to skin so as not to risk bloodying the uniform." I guess when you shoot an officer in the head the bullet just rattles around inside the skull instead of exiting, and soiling those nice khakis with blood and brain fragments

Christopher Reich has written a sleek, high-octane thriller with a wonderful historical backdrop. Unfolding amidst the shattered ruins of Europe in the immediate wake of World War II, "The Runner" tells the story of Devlin Judge, an American lawyer working the Nuremberg trial who goes on a vendetta to hunt down the escaped Nazi war criminal who murdered his brother.

Judge's personal quest is just part of the story as he gradually unravels a sinister plot that will undoubtedly plunge the world into a third global conflict. Some of history's biggest players make an appearance in the book: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. General George S. Patton is a central figure in the story... and a shady one at that.

The pace is steady and the narrartive solid. In the tradition of "Numbered Account," Reich has penned a "thinking man's" thriller. His protagonists are real people; not action hero cardboard cutouts. Reich is proving himself a suspense writer of the top order.

This is a real page-turner, with an old Nazi still a threat, and the hero having to stop him. The top two "surviving Nazis" novels I've read have been "The Boys from Brazil" and "The Shape: A Novel of International Suspense." And "The Runner" is right up there with those two.

As much as I love both the unusual setting (post-war Germany) and the thrilling tension throughout the book, the multitude of inexcusable mistakes spoiled the enjoyment of this novel somewhat, at least for for me. Even though as a native German speaker I usually couldn't care less whenever international authors use the odd foreign language phrase incorrectly, Mr. Reich (who's presumably spent a few years in Switzerland) does not get a single German phrase right in this book; sometimes it's so bad that the remarks don't even make sense. Sorry, but this gets really annoying once you're past page 100 or so. On top of that, there are some pretty strange factual errors as well, mainly of geographical nature that could've been avoided by simply checking a cheap map.

Other than that, "The Runner" is a good thriller, comparable to "The Needle" by British author Ken Follett (who is a much better researcher, though). Next time Mr. Reich should hand his novel over to an editor who knows his business if he intends to venture out into a foreign setting again.

Very imaginative if not a little far fetched. It's a real pageturner and a fun read with some history gossip thrown in.

I thought this book was right there with his first (Numbered Account) as a gripping tale with interesting characters. I even enjoyed the detailed descriptions (decryed by some other reviewers) although I DID get distracted at times by flaws in those details. I felt it was too bad he didn't get the book better researched prior to publishing.

One example: A couple of times (first on page 42) Reich refers to Erich Seyss' favorite beer. He states that Seyss still prefers Hacker-Pschorr. The setting is 1945. Hackerbrau and Pschorrbrau didn't merge until something like 1972 and kept separate labels going for a few years beyond that.

I like to be able to follow a story geographically and found that the reference points given for some of the travel described in the book didn't seem right.

But these are minor points that most American readers will never notice. I, myself, enjoyed the book very much. I couldn't quite bring myself to give it a full 5 stars but I felt it deserved more than a 4.