The Runaway

At the start of Thriller Award winner Petrie’s gripping seventh novel featuring Marine vet Peter Ash (after 2021’s The Breaker), 19-year-old Helene Johansen seizes the chance to escape her dreary life in Coldwater, Mont., by hitching a ride with Roy Wiley, a charming stranger who stops to fill up his truck at the gas station where she works. Months later, Ash is driving through rural Nebraska when he comes across a vacant car and a pregnant Helene by the side of the road. Since her impulsive decision, Helene has discovered Roy is the leader of a team of professional thieves and a cold-blooded killer, but only after falling for and marrying him. She’s willing to do whatever she has to, to protect herself and her unborn child. She gladly accepts Ash’s help, but she later abandons him to his fate when Roy and his crew corner them in the remote countryside and she pretends to have gone with Ash unwillingly. Ash escapes, and a nail-biting chase across the northern Great Plains ensues. Shifting points of view serve to heighten the suspense. This adrenaline-fueled ride will keep readers turning the pages. Agent: Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Literary. (Jan.)