Run [Hardcover]

Shooting back Being trapped in an office with a pile of dry legal briefs tends to induce diversionary activity, which is why so many American lawyers have been forced to write popular novels on the side. Here comes another one: Douglas E. Winter and his speedy thriller, Run. The lawyer-turned-novelist, a late developer at 49, has a beard and a black turtleneck so we know he's not just another suit. And he has earned the right to jettison his tie: Run is a powerful all-nighter of a novel about a bunch of illegal arms dealers whose $2 million "milk run" between D.C. and New York becomes entangled in a political assassination and a bloodbath that Caligula would be proud of. Plots within plots open up like a set of Russian dolls, as the hero-of-sorts runs to save his life. Much of his book is unquotable in a family newspaper. Indeed, one American reviewer wrote that the book "reads like it was written from a prison cell" rather than a law office. It's an effect Winter sought out. "There is a commercial way of rendering dialogue in thrillers which is in fact not as spoken. So instead I listened to people talking here in the city." Dealing with white gunrunners who are forced to work alongside black drug dealers, Run pits gangsters v gangstas, and much of the dialogue also echoes the urban rhythms of hip-hop, pretty ambitious for a white guy from Granite City, Illinois. It is Winter's fine collection of rap music that let him pull it off. "Rap is often very angry, and I understand that, and Run is a very angry book. I wanted to borrow a little bit of that aesthetic, that feeling, that honesty. But I wonder now sometimes what people think when they read the book. There's a lot of very vicious, very nasty language right out of the gutter . . ." In some ways, though, the plot is appropriately thrilling. Run is a rant against guns: their power and the way Americans put them on a pedestal. The narrator, Burdon Lane, is a gunrunner whose cover is legitimate arms dealing and his description of various weapons borders on the lascivious. Winter, a former army officer in the reserves, understands this: "As a child growing up in America you could not help but be attracted to the romanticisation of the gunslinger that takes place: westerns, secret agents, etc. I wanted to embrace that element because the book is about the culture of guns and the whole romantic appeal of the weapon as the solution, as a signifier of power or cool." So although the book begins with the Second Amendment, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed", it actually goes out of its way to show what happens when a bullet hits a body. Thus there are victims with their legs shredded, heads messily blasted off on trains and, in a particularly stomach-churning moment, our hero sticks his finger through his armpit to check that a bullet has come out the other side. "I wanted to show what really happened, not that TV thing where people are shot and remain in one piece." Accordingly, Winter made his final scene what he thought was shocking. But as he finished it, fact surpassed fiction when 15 schoolchildren died at Columbine. One reviewer did complain that Run was a "hardboiled thriller with a liberal agenda", but Winter is unrepentant. "I'm not a great sociopolitical thinker but I wanted to offer some fresh thought on the issues around us." Winter began his writing career as a critic, then wrote non-fiction, horror and suspense in the late Eighties, while continuing his legal work. Then, in 1987, Northwest Airlines Flight 225 crashed at Detroit airport, killing everyone except one four-year-old girl. It was the second worst air disaster on American soil and Winter was sent to defend McDonnell Douglas, the airline manufacturer, after Northwest denied liability. "It was an epic nightmare. I lived on the road for more than three years, and the jury trial went on for 19 months in Detroit. It was day in, day out emotional, psychological warfare. We won, but the appeals that followed went on for five years. Again we won but towards the end, I began to develop a very severe sleep disorder. Here was the pinnacle of any litigator's career, and personally I was devastated." He suffered from deep depression, "but in the law firm no one could understand this darkness I felt inside myself. But with a good doctor, a wonderful wife and . . ." he shrugs, almost embarrassed " . . . two great dogs, it got better. I decided that the only way out of it was to take the risk and spend time writing a novel which would in some strange way try to make sense of all this carnage and tragedy. That was Run."

With Run Douglas Winter has written one of the most palpably exciting novels of recent times. Let the main character Burdon Lane draw you into the nerve shredding world of illegal gun-running, and all those that inhabit this dangerous locale. From the outset the pacing is positively manic, but Winter maintains this breakneck speed relentlessly right through until the climax. As one that rarely reads books from this genre, I found myself bowled over by Winter's noirish settings, and his fantastic dialogue. The hued shadings of the characters may appear only to serve the narrative requirements of the text, but Winter has more to say about contemporary relations in America, not just those between individuals; but also that of the individual to larger society. So, as much as I enjoyed this gritty tale of gun-running gone wrong, this book opened up the world of crime thrillers for me, and for that I remain extremely grateful. All hail Douglas Winter, the king of cool with a social conscience.

This is a book that seems to either be very well received or slammed by the people reviewing it. Personally I found it an enjoyable read. It is fast paced and entertaining. A good book to read on the beach, but not one to go down in the history books. The authour never really seems to go into any character depth. All secondary characters are given as much of an outline as the main and you often wonder where the story is supposed to be going. There is next to no background information and as a result this suffers as a book, but I think would translate wonderfully into film. The book is packed with gritty action and the pace keeps you reading it (as long as you don't want anything too in depth). If you don't read much, are looking for something you can take on holiday or to the launderette (as I did) to keep you occupied, this is great. You'll finish it in no time with little effort. If you're a serious reader, looking for something that's thought provoking, possibly to be discussed at book groups, try something else.