Run For Your Life by CM Sutter

 Run For Your Life is the first in a police procedural series starring homicide detective Mitch Cannon.

 

Mitch and his partner Devon Rue are busy. There has been a spate of shootings, but no one seems to have any info for them. So Mitch is looking forward to having a date with Liza and just being able to take his mind off the murders. Liza turns out to be a bit odd though, but Mitch is roped into agreeing to go to a silent auction with her a few days later.

 

These plans are abruptly put on hold though when Mitch’s sister Marie goes missing, and it looks like she has been kidnapped. As Mitch is helping the investigating team with the case, Devon agrees to go to the auction with Liza in Mitch’s place, and both Devon and Liza then also go missing.

 

With the kidnapper calling Mitch and saying “ticktock, ticktock”, Mitch knows time is running out. But with no solid evidence or real clues, where does he start?

 

I really wanted to enjoy this book as the writing started off well and the blurb sounded interesting. But no. It was not what I expected. *Spoilers ahead*

The twist was not a twist and you could see it coming from quite early on, the way that the “bad guys” explained the reasons behind the kidnappings to each other in a conversation (that each already knew) was a massive info dump, and the fact that the dog (a puppy) in the story basically gets left alone in the house without self-filling food/water bowls and no way of going out while Mitch is out for hours just didn’t do it for me. Even when Marie is recovering and Mitch wants her to try hypnosis to help find Devon she isn’t keen as she doesn’t believe in it and is afraid the hypnotist will make her do something funny. Surely she’d do anything she could to help? Devon did save her life, after all.

 

I did read the book in one sitting as I wanted to see how it would end, and I applaud that the book was well proofed. The writing is good, but there is a lot of telling and not showing and what irked me was the lack of section breaks. A day or location would go into the next right on the next line and there was no point in which to take a breath.

 

I thought the ending was not believable and even though I’ll give this three stars for an average book, I won’t be reading any more of the series.