Dead Run

Erica Spindler

"I'd begun to believe that maybe...that life sometimes offered up second chances. But now I wonder, was I simply a pawn in your desperate game?"

Yes, a character in Erica Spindler's Dead Run actually says this. (The ellipsis is [sic].) That should tell you pretty much all you need to know about this novel. If you're fine with brutally cheesy dialogue, then by all means, dive right in.

Of course, where one finds such dialogue, one also finds other flaws. Characterization is a big one here. While Spindler's characters-- her main ones, anyway (the minor characters are cardboard, but that's to be expected from genre writing, and we don't take points off for it here at Goat Central)-- are generally well-drawn and three-dimensional-- if not terribly complex-- their motivations are often in question. Now, that's okay if you're wondering why a character is contemplating a bit of navel fuzz while the killer is pursuing her (something that's all too common in books these days; thankfully, it never happens here, I'm just using it as an example), but when you're talking about the romance between the two lead characters, it's just not good enough. You want motivation. You want motivation that's straightforward, but subtle. You want to avoid the idiotic pratfalls that occur in every formulaic genre romance, where everything could be resolved if the characters were actually willing to open their mouths. And guess what? Every time that particular chasm opens up in the road that is Dead Run, you can see it coming all too clearly, and you know Spindler is not going to swerve to avoid it. And you will never be wrong.

The one thing she does get right is the mystery angle. Who can resist Satanic cults who are going around killing teenagers? While the evil mastermind will be obvious to you well before the book ends, Spindler does still have a trick or two up her sleeve, and she unravels them at just the right speed, leaving you a trail of doggie biscuits to snarf up while you're turning the pages looking for the clues to that last plot twist. Using the main mystery as a way to cloak a sub-mystery is a devious trick, and I am suitably impressed; I just wish it had been couched in a better-written novel.