When you pick up an Iris Johansen novel you are never sure where
she will take you, but you can be certain that it will be a
deliciously exciting journey with exceptional traveling companions.
ON THE RUN is proof positive that whether she is writing about
forensic sculpting, cadaver dogs, arson investigators or horse
whisperers, Johansen has done her homework and is able to transport
the reader directly into the center of their adventures.

Grace Archer, a former covert government agent, is living quietly
on a horse farm in Tallanville, Alabama, with her daughter Frankie,
and Charlie, the farm's octogenarian owner. She has worked hard to
put her violent past behind her and raise Frankie to be a
well-rounded child despite the eight-year-old's prodigy tendencies.
Yet there are many unfinished pieces of business that lurk in the
background, poised to disrupt and threaten not only her peaceful
existence but her very life. As a single parent (Frankie's father
being one of the unfinished pieces of business) Grace is fiercely
protective and remains vigilant to anything that might harm her
daughter. Then, late one night, a phone call comes that sends Grace
and Frankie running from the very nightmare that Grace has secretly
dreaded for the past eight years.

Paul Marvot has put a price of eight million dollars on Grace and
Frankie, difficult for any bounty hunter to resist. He is
heartless, single-minded, and will let nothing stand in his way. It
was his treachery that drove Grace into hiding eight years ago and
now he is determined to have her under his control.

What would seem like an impossible series of events in the hands of
a less skilled writer is seamlessly integrated by this master
storyteller. Elements from Grace's past, people whom she loved and
hated, locations and memories all build to converge in the middle
of the Sahara desert, where a ruthless enemy will stop at nothing
to get what he wants.

As we have come to expect from Johansen, her characters are larger
than life. They can go for days without food or sleep and still
have enough brain power and energy to kick the stuffing out of the
bad guys when the time is right. Of course, there is also a love
story for the romantics among us who enjoy a little hanky-panky
with our suspense and mayhem. ON THE RUN is another great read by
Iris Johansen that satisfies on every level.