Review: Run Away by Laura Salters

Run Away

Laura Salters

New Adult Mystery Thriller
May 19, 2015
Publisher:  HarperCollins
Imprint: WitnessImpulse Standalone

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"Ignorance is bliss...until there’s blood involved."

Drenched in blood and sitting in the sweltering interview room of a Thai police station, Kayla Finch knows that Sam, the love of her life, is dead. It doesn’t matter that there’s no body.All that blood can only mean one thing.

It isn’t the first time Kayla’s had blood on her hands. After finding her brother dead by his own hand, she tried to outrun her grief by escaping to Thailand. Heart-broken, the last thing she expected was to find love on the smoggy streets of Bangkok. But everyone Kayla loves seems to wind up dead.

Returning home to England, Kayla is left with a barely-functioning family, a string of gruesome nightmares and the niggling feeling that nothing is as it seems. And as she confronts her brother’s suicide, she starts to suspect that something is very wrong.

Three months. Two tragedies. One connection: there’s more to both cases than anyone is willing to admit. And Kayla’s determined to uncover the truth ...no matter what the cost.

Read A Sample

I received this book from the author in exchange for an honest review

Run Away was definitely a wild ride. This new adult mystery was addicting and almost impossible to put down once started. I didn't see the twist at the end-- which was refreshing. The story alternated between past and present in a way that I thought would make it disjointed, and yet it just worked so well. Somehow the past and present seem to blend rather seamlessly.

After her brother committed suicide, Kayla headed to Thailand to escape. There she met up with a rather interesting group of individuals, including Sam. The story began with Kayla sitting in a Bangkok police station trying to explain why she was covered in the now missing Sam's blood. When she returned home to England, she tried to cope with her inability to process the two eerily similar events and her own presence at both scenes. The author alternated between past events and Kayla's present struggles, creating a compelling story.

The pacing of the novel was rather fast, though there were some times in the middle that didn't move quite fast enough for my taste. Be prepared for an overall tone of depression-- Kayla was really suffering in her own way. I think the scenes in Thailand were my favorite. The group Kayla traveled with were fun to read about. I liked how the author sprinkled in clues but never too much, which kept me guessing.

This novel is not for the faint of heart. Some of the subject matter was disturbing. Not only that, but the author was quite skilled with macabre descriptions. There were times when I wondered why the author was spending so much time on a certain subject, but by the end, it was all clear. And that ending. Talk about a twist. I'm still rather shocked, and I don't shock easily.

About the Author

Laura Salters is a twenty-something magazine journalist from the northernmost town in England. RUN AWAY is her first novel.

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