Girl on the Run by Carolyn Arnold – a Review

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Description:
Shivers tear through her, but she must be brave—for herself, for her future. She grips her coat tighter and steps into the night and the cold, pouring rain. Never to be seen again.

An ordinary Monday morning commute turns deadly when a gunman opens fire in the local train station. Detective Madison Knight rushes to the scene, but she’s too late for the victims. Two women were fatally wounded, including an expectant mother, and one is fighting for her life. But it’s the face of one of the dead that has Madison seeing a ghost from her past. She looks just like Madison’s college friend Courtney Middleton, who vanished over fifteen years ago. If it is her, where has she been all these years, and does her resurfacing have anything to do with the shooting?

Eyewitnesses say that a young woman triggered the incident, but both the shooter and the girl seem to have evaporated into thin air. Mounting evidence suggests they may be part of a drug-trafficking operation, the girl being one of their runners. But Madison’s not so sure the girl is the hardened criminal she appears to be.

As Madison races to track down the young woman, more people turn up murdered, and there’s still no sign of the girl. Is her body out there to find or is she on the run? If the latter, is it due to fear or guilt? Could it simply be that the shooting victims were caught in the crosshairs of organized crime? Madison’s not sure, but she can’t shake her niggling suspicion: what if it was something more than that?

Review:

Girl on the Run by Carolyn Arnold is the 11^th book in her wonderful Detective Madison Knight series.  As I have noted a number of times in previous reviews, Carolyn Arnold always gives us exciting suspenseful murder mysteries, led by a great detective like Madison Knight; and Arnold’s knowledge of police procedurals makes these investigations perfect.

Madison, our heroine, is a tough detective for the Stiles Police Department, who will let nothing stand in her way to find the guilty.   She and her partner Terry, are called to the scene of a shooting at the Liberty Station, where two women are dead and one injured.  After interviewing people at the scene, they learn that a young women triggered the incident when she took some things behind the coffee counter, and those on line complained; only to see a man shoot at the ladies on line.  Both the girl and the shooter are no longer on the scene, and Madison and Terry begin a complex trail that will lead to drug trafficking and revenge.

What follows is an exciting, tense, action filled thriller with many suspects, as well as twists and surprising turns.   While interviewing some of the victim’s families, Madison will find herself shocked at a picture of someone in her past, who supposedly died 15 years ago.  Which will lead to Madison going over and above to revisit what happened all those years ago, and how it effects the murders of the present.  With the new evidence, as well as other murders, the last ¼ of the book was amazing with twists that Madison discovered, which we did not expect.

Girl on the Run was another fantastic, exciting, tense, riveting police procedural, so very well written by Carolyn Arnold.  Madison Knight is a great detective, though I thought she seemed a bit annoying early on; with that said, I dislike her Sergeant and still not crazy about her partner, Terry.  I do like her significant other, Troy, as well as the dog, Hershey.  If you enjoy mysteries, police procedurals, a tough as nails cop, then you need to be reading this series, as Carolyn Arnold is one of the best in police procedure stories.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy supplied for review