Running Scared [Paperback]

Ken Douglas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 2005

Joey Sapphire wakes next to a dead man, the son of the American Ambassador to Trinidad, in a boat at anchor. It quickly dawns on her that she has to get rid of the body, because it looks like she did it and they hang murderers in Trinidad. So she weighs it down and drops it overboard. But she knows she's not safe, because the killer knows about her. She finds out that her husband Mick is blackmailing the daughter of the President of the United States and that the dead ambassador's son was Mick's partner. Now some very bad men think she is in on the plot. Joey is in trouble and she has nowhere to run.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Suave and sophisticated Mick Sapphire is a lowlife bigamist and he’s blackmailing the President of the United States, but the president doesn’t know it. Mick’s demands got as far as the first lady and she called on veteran CIA agent Paul Snelling to handle it for her, telling him she wants it kept of the books. Her husband is not to know.

Sapphire has gone to ground somewhere, so Snelling is in Trinidad, watching his wife Joey, who lives on a sailboat in the Marina there. Also he’s hired contract agent Clay Clayton to track down Sapphire. Clayton finds Sapphire in Brazil where he’s just married a local girl. He tries to apprehend him, but Sapphire gets away and Clayton flies to Trinidad to report his failure to Snelling just in time to see the new wife show up and confront the old one.

Snelling expects the women to fight, however instead they team up and decided to run Mick down and they believe he is staying in Tobago. Snelling plants sugar in Joey’s bag and has her arrested on arrival. He thinks by threatening her with years in a third world prison that she’ll talk and tell him where Mick is. However, Joey escapes, gets back to Trinidad after a harrowing sailboat ride, where she meets back up with Nina and they go to the States to confront Mike’s parents with Snelling and Clayton on their heels.

Snelling doesn’t believe the girls are in on the blackmail attempt and regrets what he’d tried to do to Joey and this bothers Clayton. He took the job with Snelling for the money, but he doesn’t know what it’s all about. However he suspects there is a whole lot more money involved than what he’s being paid and since Snelling isn’t talking, he decides to take matters into his own hands.

When the girls find a flashcard in Mick’s camera bag with compromising photos of the president’s daughter, they figure out Mick’s game and they decide to spoil it. Clayton will stop at nothing to get in on the action, but tough as he is, he’s child’s play compared to Mick, an ex-Navy seal and bomb expert.

This is the third book that Ken Douglas has done for Bootleg Press and like the first two, it’s a thriller guaranteed to keep you up throughout the night. If you give it a try we believe you’ll be back for more.

Sincerely,

Bootleg Press

From the Inside Flap

Joey Sapphire wakes next to a dead man, the son of the American Ambassador to Trinidad, in a boat at anchor. It quickly dawns on her that she has to get rid of the body, because it looks like she did it and they hang murderers in Trinidad. So she weighs it down and drops it overboard. But she knows she’s not safe, because the killer knows about her.

She finds out her husband Mick is blackmailing the daughter of the President of the United States and that the dead ambassador’s son was Mick’s partner. Now some very bad men think she is in on the plot.

Joey is in trouble and she has nowhere to run.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 340 pages
• Publisher: Bootleg Press (September 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974524654
• ISBN-13: 978-0974524658
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #211,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Street smart women, December 23, 2005

By 

Fred Camfield (Vicksburg, MS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Running Scared (Paperback)

Two men decide to get their jollies using the date rape drug. They compound that by taken photos, and make the mistake of getting involved with blackmail. They overstep themselves, and find themselves hunted by some hired guns.

Events are compounded when Joey Sapphire, the wife of one of the bad guys, goes partying when her husband is out of town. She wakes up with a dead body next to her in bed, and doesn't know how she got there. Events are further compounded when her husband decides to have a girl in every port, and illegally marries a second woman in another country - a bad mistake on his part as he does not really know the woman, and does not know about her "friends."

There is a lot of sailing action when Joey finds herself on the run using a stolen sailboat, and more action as Joey and her new found friend try to elude the hired guns, getting some help along the way including some help from a very large dog that has taken a liking to Joey's friend.

Needless to say, the bad guys are dealt with, and the women position themselves for a new life.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Running scared to stay alive..., April 15, 2008

By 

Thomas Duff "Duffbert" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Running Scared (Paperback)

Another Ken Douglas novel showed up a couple of weeks ago... Running Scared. He writes a really good crime/mystery novel, and I'm grateful to the person who turned me on to his writing. In Running Scared, he places a couple of women in the Caribbean who are being set up for a major crime which they didn't commit (nor do they know why).

Joey's day starts off pretty badly when she wakes up on a sailboat, covered with blood, next to a guy she doesn't remember. She can't ask him either, as his throat has been cut. She doesn't fancy her chances with the authorities since she can't explain what happened. She figures that dumping the body overboard and feigning ignorance might be her best bet. But it becomes apparent that whoever killed the guy in the first place is tracking her also, and she's not sure what she can do about it. Meanwhile, her husband Mick is pursuing a life and agenda that involves marrying a young Brazilian girl, Nina, he got pregnant. When the two women discover and meet each other on board Mick's boat, fireworks should fly. But after comparing notes and stories, they both realize that Mick is true scum, and is probably involved in something highly illegal... maybe even murder. Their best bet is to team up, try to make it to the States, and meet with Mick's parents to get to the bottom of everything. The problem is that a pair of killers seem to be on their trail, often arriving within hours or minutes of where they are at any given time. It is taking every last bit of energy they have (and then some) to stay alive long enough to find answers...

Douglas does a great job of building his characters and giving them life in the pages of the novel. Nina Brava's character is especially engaging, as you watch her shift between her young enthusiasm and her abusive past. You don't find out the real driving force behind all the killings and crimes until pretty late in the novel. I would have preferred learn a little more a little earlier, as it would have likely cranked up my reading speed as I raced to find out how it would end. But even so, it's not something that affected my enjoyment by much.

This is another one of those "leave yourself some reading time" books, as you'll end up spending more time than you probably had allocated. :)

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Action, Suspense, More Action, More Suspense, August 24, 2004

By 

Ruthie Ramirez (San Diego) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Running Scared (Paperback)

When Joey Sapphire, who lives on a sailboat in the Caribbean, wakes up next to a dead man, she knows she's in trouble. She's in Trinidad, a country that hangs murderers, she's afraid, so she drags the body up on deck, weighs it down and drops it overboard. She has no memory of going to bed with the dead man, doesn't know who he is. She must have been drugged. She wishes her husband Mick had never gone home to America to spend Christmas with his parents.

When Nina Brava, a young woman who owns part of an internet café in a Brazilian seaside town, learns that the American who got her pregnant has come back, she is happy beyond belief. But when her lover is attacked and flees, leaving her alone with the attacker, she is devastated. What kind of man runs out on his woman in those kind of circumstances.

Unknown to Nina, her runaway lover is none other that Joey's husband Mick. Mick is blackmailing Suzi Walcott, the daughter of the President of the United States and is on the run from the ex-CIA men the American First Lady has put on his trail. Now with him gone, Nina and Joey are the only link they have to the blackmailer and the goods he has on Suzi. The two young woman are nothing more than victims of a double-dealing, slimy, two-timing crud, but the CIA toughs don't know this and they are out for blood, leaving two innocent young women running scared.

When I find a author I like, I tend to read five or six books by him or her before moving on to something else. I just finished five in a row by Elizabeth Lowell, ending with her very Good RUNNING SCARED, so when I saw this book with the same title, I was intrigued. I bought it at the same time I did Ms. Lowell's, read hers, then Mr. Douglas's. Now I'm going to go onto a couple more by Mr. Douglas. He writes with attention, flair and a fast-paced style that I like and I think you'll like it too.