The Running Woman [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Patricia Carlon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1999

The acclaimed author of "The Souvenir", called "one of the best Australian crime writers" by the "Times Literary Supplement", offers a new tale of intrigue and mystery. When witnesses to the possible drowning murder of young girl ignore pleas by the police to come forward, the authorities shift their investigation in the direction of newcomer Gabriel Endicott.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Running Woman, a perfectly turned vessel full of taut psychological suspense, should wake readers up to the talents of Australia's Patricia Carlon, who belongs on the same shelf as Ruth Rendell, P. D. James, and Minette Walters. Who was the woman in white that witnesses saw running from the scene when a 14-year-old girl fell from a wooden bridge and drowned in a flooded creek in a rural Australian town? Early on we meet Gabriel Endicott, a young widow with lots of money and some emotional problems, and begin to suspect, like her sensible cousin Phil, that she was the running woman. But gradually we begin to realize that something else is going on--that Phil isn't all that he seems, that the girl who drowned was a nasty piece of work, and that Gabriel is in great danger. Carlon plays on our nerve endings like a superb cellist, as she did in her previous books, The Souvenir and The Whispering Wall. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

After a teenaged girl tumbles into a flooded creek and drowns, a witness claims she saw a woman in white running from the area. This news transmogrifies through gossip into the possibility of murder. Unfortunately for Gabriel Endicott, a new widow living near the creek, the girl's parents use the innuendo to blackmail her. In her self-defense and without much concern about consequences, Gabriel interrogates everyone involved, including her ever-helpful cousin Phil. Gabriel's emotional state becomes more confused as police zero in on her as a suspect. Great psychological suspense from the gifted Australian author of The Whispering Wait (LJ 9/1/96).
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 270 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786216719
• ISBN-13: 978-0786216710
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,218,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, March 9, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Running Woman (Paperback)

A teenage girl drowns during a storm and the hunt is on to find the killer, of whom there is only a brief description. An atmospheric and intriguing thriller. Perhaps a bit more demanding of the reader than most, but the extra effort pays dividend. The book has a real sense of menace and excellent characterisation.

Perfect book for a cold winter's night by the fire reading. Carlon is a cross between Christie and Du Maurier. I only wish more of her works were in print.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Dangerous gossip and a fatal rumor mill, June 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Running Woman (Hardcover)

Reviewers are always so ready to compare a newly discovered writer to those currently writing. Carlon's crime novels (originally written in the 1960s and early 1970s) certainly call to mind Rendell and Walters, but I found that she has much more in common with those of her past contemporaries Patricia Highsmith, Charlotte Armstrong and Margaret Millar. All these women wrote superior suspense novels and mysteries that dealt with seamy characters, vengeful plots and twists of fate that often left the protagonist at the mercy of a cruel world. The Running Woman is a story of the fear people succumb to when faced with rumor and lies. What will people think of me? How will I live my life surrounded by neighbors who cast their eyes down upon me, judging me for something I didn't do? Gabriel is caught from the start when the parents of a drowned girl insist she was seen fleeing from the scene and, because Gabriel can't swim, is held responsible for the girl's death. What follows is a relentless maze of lies, rumors, gossip with the continually moving fingers of the townspeople pointing at anyone but themselves and their crazed need to discover the identity of the woman in white seen running from the creek. Does she even exist?

Readers may tire of the feud between Gabriel and her frighteningly disbelieving cousin, Phil. But it is worth plowing ahead to the point where Gabriel is left alone in the house while Phil (at last beginning to defend his relative) goes out in search of the truth. And in the meantime, Gabriel falls victim (literally) to a terrifying trap that leaves one breathless and practically crying out to Phil to save her.

2.0 out of 5 stars Good idea but not realized well, April 17, 2002

By 

jt52 "jt52" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Running Woman (Hardcover)

The Running Woman has fundamentally a very good concept for a psychological thriller. The bottom line, though, is that Carlon does not have the chops (the technique) to pull off the trick. I wouldn't advise a reader to seek out this book and don't think it belongs in the classic category of detective novels.

The first problem is that Carlon fails to pull off that key distinction necessary in a novel in which the protagonist spends much of the first half confused by events: making that character confused but not dim. Unfortunately, the protagonist, Gabriel, comes off as the latter.

Another major problem is that there are dark hints that the entire mystery is connected to the death of Gabriel's husband a few months earlier. I am just amazed that Carlon did not pursue the angle and just let the whole matter drop.

On a more detailled level, Carlon's writing is often confusing and full of cloying conversational tactics. None of the characters emerges as fully drawn or, for that matter, particularly interesting. Following the details of the crucial incident, which happens prior to the book's opening, is also confusing. This isn't necessarily a mistake -- the book's tension, at least in the beginning, depends on a level of confusion and misremembering what initially doesn't appear to be a very important hour -- but I couldn't help but feel that, again, there is a key distinction between confusing the reader and presenting a clear picture of confused memories.

In sum, a disappointing effort. It makes one realize just how difficult it is to write an effective thriller.