Running Scared

Rating:
Summary: Strong Women, Terrific Bad Guys, Super Thriller
Review: Because of my reviews of (and criticism of) Jack Priest's books (also on Bootleg Press) Mr. Priest and I have sort of become e-mail friends, computer pals from afar. From him I learned that he, along with Ken Douglas and Jack Stewart were all sailors in the Caribbean during the '90s and that they, writers all, decided to form their own publishing company. I only mention this so you'll know that when Douglas describes waves washing over the deck or the terror of a thunderstorm, you'll know that he knows what he's talking about.

What life, sailing the ocean blue. I imagine it's a life full of danger, wonder and adventure. There is certainly a lot of all three in Mr. Douglas's excellent woman in peril thriller RUNNING SCARED. Two woman are wrongly pursued, abused and falsely accused by a couple ex-CIA agents who are trying to track down their dirty, lowdown rotten, bigamist husband.

The dirty rat is blackmailing the president's daughter and has set of a plot that will lead to her death. The young women, a Brazilian ex-hooker and a South African ex-Olympic swimmer, have to smuggle themselves into the United States, then cross the county in a race against time with those CIA guys on their trail every step of the way.

I've read a couple other book by Ken Douglas and in my opinion he is going to one day be the master of the "Woman in Trouble Thriller," if there is such a genre, because he invents exciting female characters, puts them in the toughest jams imaginable and by the time they squeak out by the hair of their chinny chin chins, they're in trouble again. His women get stronger and more likeable with each fix they escape from even as the bad guys grow more evil, more wicked.

Running Scared stole away my Saturday, but you know what, I didn't miss that ole day a bit. Why would I want to go to a movie when I can sail through a lightning storm, battle a helicopter, rescue a president's daughter? You should read this book, I just know you'll love it as much as I did.

Reviewed by Stephanie Sane

Rating:
Summary: Two Women in Trouble and Running Scared
Review: Former Olympic swimmer and around the world sailor Joey Saphaire wakes on a sailboat in Trinidad, where she doesn't belong, next to a man who isn't her husband. It's dark out, she can't remember how she got there or who the man is. He's cold. Cold and dead. She realizes she'd been drugged and chains the body to an anchor and dumps it overboard, as they hang murders in Trinidad.

Unknown to Joey, she's being watched by ex-CIA man Paul Snelling, because her husband Mick, who is away, has taken some not so nice photos of the president's daughter and is blackmailing him. Mick has figured out that some pretty tough guys are hot on his tail, so he goes into hiding in Brazil, where he and Joey had been before sailing on up to Trinidad. There he marries Nina, a young woman he'd been having an affair with, but when the baddies show up, he splits, leaving Nina to deal with them alone. Nina flies to Trinidad to find her new husband and finds his old wife instead, the one he's still married to. So now the two Mrs. Saphires have a problem. With Mick gone, they are lined up in Snelling's crosshairs and he sets about making their lives miserable.

The women have to get out of the country and they are on the run, but while they're running they learn what Mick has been up to and they believe he's going to kill the president's daughter. So now they have to elude Snelling and his evil henchman, the secret service and Mick as they race the clock to try and save the girl's life.

RUNNING SCARED had my pulse running like it was out of control. There is just no let up in the frantic pace, no place where you can put the book down and take a breather. This is the kind of story you want to read when you start a vacation, because it'll take your mind right off your work, your worries and everything else. What a book.

Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne

Rating:
Summary: Okay
Review: I just can't join the others with a 5 star review, although I did read and finish Running Scared. The plot was enough to keep me going, but it was a little hard to believe.

Rating:
Summary: Spine-Tingling, Palm-Sweating-Suspense
Review: I read this on a flight between Miami and Los Angeles and was so absorbed in the book, that the flight passed in no time at all. The story takes place in the Caribbean, where I was on holiday, only not down south in Trinidad. I spent my two weeks sailing around glorious St. Martin, still the descriptions were so good that Mr. Douglas might have been writing about where I was.

The story is about Joey Sapphire, who lives on a sailboat with her no-good, rotten-to-the core husband Mick. Only she doesn't know just how rotten he is, she thinks he's a nice guy. He's supposed to be in America, visiting his parents over the Christmas holidays and while he's gone, one of his friends drugs Joey, but before he can do anything to her, he's murdered by an ex CIA type, who is working for the First Lady. It seems Mick and his friend are trying to blackmail the President with some lewd photos taken of the First Daughter when she was drugged by them.

From the first chapter, where Joey wakes up next to the dead man, the book is non-stop, spine-tingling, palm-sweating suspense. I couldn't stop reading and that worked out good for me, because I'm not too fond of flying. Mr. Douglas had me on that sailboat, in that storm, so wrapped up in his book, that that flight just melted away.

Rating:
Summary: My Fingers Burned Through the Pages!
Review: I'd read "Desperation Moon" by Ken Douglas about four months ago and I liked it very much, so I bought "Running Scared", but you know how it goes, things came up. Then I got stuck on Harlan Coben, Dennis Lehane and James Lee Burke and somehow "Running Scared" got put on the back burner. Well, I've read it now and I have to tell you, it's every bit as good as the books by those other guys. I was up all night with a tub of Starbucks Coffee Almond Fudge, gorging myself as my fingers burned through the pages of this delicious thriller. It's a good thing I had that ice cream to cool them down.

South African Olympic swimming medalist Joey Sapphire is sailing around the world with her new husband, Mick. He is a snake in the grass if ever there was one. She is a little naive. They are stopped for awhile in Trinidad and Mick is supposed to be in America, visiting his parents over Christmas and Joey is alone, taking care of the boat. She goes to a Christmas party, has a little too much to drink and wakes on a strange boat next to a dead man, who just happens to be the son of the American Ambassador.

Joey is in trouble deep. She's afraid to call the cops, because they hang people for murder in Trinidad. So she weighs the body down and deep sixes it. However, she soon realizes she's not as safe as she'd thought, because there is a killer on the lose who probably knows or can figure out what she has done.

To make matters worse, a couple days later a young Brazilian hottie named Nina shows up, claiming to be Mrs. Mick Sapphire, a title Joey thought she had the exclusive rites to. But before she can confront Mick about this other wife, she's arrested on trumped up drug charges and her only friend appears to be that other woman her husband married, who also happens to be pregnant.

And that's just the beginning of this thriller that has two women running from the Caribbean to California with a deadly stop off in Arizona that will absolutely get your pulse racing like it's never raced before. If you're in the mood for a thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat, then this book is for you.

Rating:
Summary: My Fingers Burned Through the Pages!
Review: I'd read "Desperation Moon" by Ken Douglas awhile back and I liked it very much, so I bought "Running Scared", but you know how it goes, things came up. Then I got stuck on Harlan Coben, Dennis Lehane and James Lee Burke and somehow "Running Scared" got put on the back burner. Well, I've read it now and I have to tell you, it's every bit as good as the books by those other guys. I was up all night with a tub of Starbucks Coffee Almond Fudge, gorging myself as my fingers burned through the pages of this delicious thriller. It's a good thing I had that ice cream to cool them down.

South African Olympic swimming medalist Joey Sapphire is sailing around the world with her new husband, Mick. He is a snake in the grass if ever there was one. She is a little naive. They are stopped for awhile in Trinidad and Mick is supposed to be in America, visiting his parents over Christmas and Joey is alone, taking care of the boat. She goes to a Christmas party, has a little too much to drink and wakes on a strange boat next to a dead man, who just happens to be the son of the American Ambassador.

Joey is in trouble deep. She's afraid to call the cops, because they hang people for murder in Trinidad. So she weighs the body down and deep sixes it. However, she soon realizes she's not as safe as she'd thought, because there is a killer on the lose who probably knows or can figure out what she has done.

To make matters worse, a couple days later a young Brazilian hottie named Nina shows up, claiming to be Mrs. Mick Sapphire, a title Joey thought she had the exclusive rites to. But before she can confront Mick about this other wife, she's arrested on trumped up drug charges and her only friend appears to be that other woman her husband married, who also happens to be pregnant.

And that's just the beginning of this thriller that has two women running from the Caribbean to California with a deadly stop off in Arizona that will absolutely get your pulse racing like it's never raced before. If you're in the mood for a thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat, then this book is for you.

Rating:
Summary: Two Brave Women are Running Scared
Review: Joey Sapphire is sailing around the world with her husband Mick. Currently they are in Trinidad. Joey is alone with the boat while Mick has flown home to visit his parent for Christmas. Joey attends a Christmas party and wakes up next to a strange man on a strange boat. In just seconds she figures out the man is dead and then she knows that she's in big trouble, because they hang murderers in Trinidad.

She weighs the body down and drops it overboard. She thinks she's safe, but then she knows the killer must know about her. She barley gets time to wonder if she got away with the body disposal when Nina Brava, a young Brazilian woman shows up at her boat claiming to be Mick's new wife. It appears dear hubby hadn't gone home at all, instead he'd flown south and found a new bride without bothering to tell the old one.

Nina tells Joey about how Mick was chased out of their honeymoon bed by a rough criminal type and Joey tells Nina about the dead man in Davy Jones's locker. Together, they figure out Mick is up to some kind of no good. What they don't know is that the killer of the guy who is now fish food has been hired by the American First Lady because Mick is blackmailing her daughter and the killer believes one or perhaps both of them may be in on it.

Then Joey is arrested for drug smuggling and Nina is attacked. Joey escapes, Nina recovers, but ex-CIA types are hot on their trail and the girls are terrified.

And thus begins the desperate journey of Joey and Nina as they flee into the United States to try and save the life of the President's daughter and to do that they have to get to her before Mick does, but can they live long enough to get there in time.

This is my second book by Ken Douglas and I loved it every bit as much as the first one. Highly recommended. I especially liked the two strong women and how they dealt with the guys chasing them. Nina is one heck of a character. Joey is something special too.

Reviewed by Lenore Douglass

Rating:
Summary: What a great book! (...)
Review: Just finished reading this book and all I have to say is it rocked! Very suspenceful and every page is action packed fun. Joey and Nina are the 2 coolest gals around and their lives are in danger. It seems that Joeys husband has gone and married Nina while still being married to Joey, Nina confronts Joey and they instantly bond and become friends, but all is not well. Joeys husband is blackmailing the president of the US's daughter. The rest is page turning fun. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Two Young Women are Running for Their Lives
Review: Like with a couple other reviews I've done, I feel obligated to declare my bias toward a book as I'm married to the writer. That said, I loved RUNNING SCARED. Of course if I didn't say that, Ken would probably accidently on purpose bump into me the next time we're at sea and I'd be swimming with the sharks. Not really. I write a lot of reviews here, so it only seems fitting that I tell a little about Ken's books and that I get my two cents in before the other reviewers have their say. After all, I got to read the book first, I should be the first one to review it, don't you think?

Joey Sapphire and her husband Mick are stopped for awhile in Trinidad, a break in their sailing cruise around the world. Mick is in the United States, visiting his wealthy parents, Joey is staying with "Satisfaction," their boat. Well, she's supposed to be staying on their boat, but when she wakes with a hangover, she finds herself in a strange bed, on a strange boat, next to a strange man. A strange dead man. Plus she has no memory of the night before or how she got there.

After she subdues her panic, she realizes she has to get rid of the body, because she has no alibi and they hang murderers in Trinidad. She drags the dead guy on deck, weighs the body down and rolls it overboard, then swims to shore. However she knows she's not completely safe, as the killer knows about her.

Meanwhile, her slime ball husband, who is supposed to be in the States, is in a seaside town in Brazil, where he's marrying young and pretty Nina Brava. Mick has gotten a hold of some dirty pictures of the President's daughter and is blackmailing her father. However, he sensed he was being followed when he was in the States, so he fled to "Satisfaction's" last port of call, where he had had an affair. He knew Nina would take him in and he could hide out there, and if he has to marry her for a few months of safety, so be it. He doesn't even care that he'd gotten her pregnant, but then I did say that he's a slime ball.

However, Mick used a credit card to buy his plane ticket and the ex-CIA guys the first lady has hired to find him and get the pictures back are on to him. There's a fight and Mick, being the kind of guy he is, flees again, leaving Nina in the lurch.

Nina flies to Trinidad thinking she'll find Mick on "Satisfaction," but instead she finds Joey, who Mick had told her he'd divorced. Joey is equally shocked. However the two woman know they are in trouble, so they put their heads together to try and figure out what's going on. They don' t know the first lady's hired killer is responsible for the dead guy on the boat, that the dead guy was Mick's partner, that he'd drugged Joey and was taking pictures, like he and Mick had done with the president's daughter when she was in Trinidad for a sailboat race. They only know that they are in trouble, so they decide to track down Mick, without knowing the CIA killers are watching their every move.

And there you have the gist of the beginning of this super story of two women on the run. It seems something bad is happening to them at every turn, but they don't give up, despite the fact that Nina loses her baby and Joey gets arrested on a trumped up drug charge in Tobago. These are girls on a mission and as the mission toughens, so do the girls. Danger closes, the girls escape. More danger ahead, the girls turn just in time and then they face the ultimate challenge. Life or death. So easy to keep on running, but sometimes you have to stop, make a stand and damn the consequences.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Rating:
Summary: A Super Woman in Trouble Thriller
Review: RUNNING SCARED is a super women in trouble thriller that had me reading the night away and although the ending wasn't exactly like I'd guessed, I pretty much figured out where the book was going about half way through. That's not necessarily a bad thing though, because it's not a mystery, but a thriller.

Like my sister, who also reviewed this book, I liked the strong female characters, but I was sort of put off when Nina was attacked and lost her baby, for me the book lost a star right there. Other than that though, I enjoyed how Mr. Douglas kept piling on the troubles and how Joey and Nina kept getting out of the tight spots by a cat's whisker.

Also like my sister, I can hardly wait to read the next Ken Douglas thriller, but I'll keep my fingers crossed against anymore violence against women. I really think women can be in trouble and get out of it without getting beat up too much.

Reviewed by Leeann Douglass