Book Title: See Her Run
Author: Peggy Townsend
REVIEWED BY: DENNIS
Series: Aloa Snow #1
Genres: Police Procedural, Crime Fiction
Goodreads
Pub Date: 06/01/18
3.5 STARS
Running for her life could leave her breathless.
A former reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Aloa Snow knows what it means to be down and out. Once highly respected, she’s now blackballed, in debt, and dealing with the echoes of an eating disorder. Until she gets one more shot to prove that she has what it takes—with a story some would die for…
After the body of a promising young athlete, Hayley Poole, is recovered in the Nevada desert, authorities rule it a suicide. But when Aloa discovers that the girl’s boyfriend died in a similar accident only months before, her investigative instincts are on high alert. It turns out the girl was on the run from secrets that could kill.
This case is murder for Aloa, and Hayley won’t be the last one to suffer. Someone very powerful forced Hayley to run for her life. Now Aloa must do the same.
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I am torn between 3 and 4 stars, so I’ll just average the ranking and give it a 3.5. See Her Run is an original crime-fiction novel in the same vein of Two Girls Down or The Cuckoo’s Calling. In this story, we meet Aloa Snow, a struggling private detective and journalist who has been universally shunned from her industry because of a mysteriously dark past. Aloa is the typical struggling American in today’s vastly difficult economy, hoping to save her family’s house from repossession. One day, she gets a phone call from a man from her past with a deal she cannot refuse. A woman has been found dead in the desert and police have ruled it a suicide. However, people are not convinced and many are ruling this as something more sinister. When Aloa begins investigating, everything is leading her down the wrong turn. As she gets more immersed into the case, Aloa is introduced to a world that she has never seen. In a world where political agendas and power players are reigning supreme, Aloa needs to crack the case before someone stops her.
See Her Run was very refreshing to pick up for many reasons. The first reason behind the originality of the story is that we have a flawed protagonist that many can relate to. We don’t have an unreliable narrator, but we have a narrator with troubles and demons that can play a part in her psyche. Aloa is not only trying to figure out what happened with the case she is working on, but she is also trying to figure out life and her problems. In life, we all tend to have our own struggles play a part in how we handle stress and decision-making. One critique that I had with this story was that Aloe was not extremely likable nor unlikable. She really was just middle of the line for me and although she didn’t lack any depth or relatability, I wanted something more to differentiate her from the rest. However, we do meet a group of secondary characters that I truly enjoy. Seriously, I absolutely LOVED THEM. I was living for Erik’s pizazz and personality; I loved the Brain Farm group (they really reminded me The Lone Gunmen from X-Files mixed with the Hells Angels); and I felt that Hank Tremblay was the rich asshole that we all hate, but desperately need for these types of stories.
Peggy Townsend has a very interesting backstory and is a very successful newspaper reporter. I can’t help but see similarities between her and Aloe Snow, which makes me want to know MORE. Thank you Amazon Publishing for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
