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The Runner

The Runner

List Price: $7.99
Your Price: $7.19
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Say no to hate !
Review: Yet another hate mongering bigot author trying to cash in on the Germanophobia money pit!Say NO to hate, don't buy this book!

I know you would never have the guts to print this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Terrific
Review: Since reading Numbered Account, I have been eagerly awaiting another book by Christopher Reich. The Runner is very well written and keeps you turning the pages to see how it turns out. For those who like non stop action, this is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good reading
Review: Amazed how historicaly and geographically accurate this author is. You would expect that he lived in Germany for years and privately new the main characters met in the novel.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Reich Does It Again
Review: I was first introduced to Christopher Reich when I saw him on a morning talk show touting his first book, Numbered Account. I was immediately interested because it was a thriller involving money laundering in Swiss bank accounts. The thing that interested me was that Reich lived in Switzerland for a time so his descriptions of Europe would be first-hand. In his second book, Reich takes us on a tour of post-war Germany. His research is excellent combining actual historical facts with fiction. Sometimes he's so good that I actually get the two confused and start believing that what he has fictionalized is actually true. In this cat and mouse chase, the cat eventually becomes the mouse as Devlin Judge, in his persuit of "The White Lion", Erich Seuss, eventually becomes the hunted. Seuss was responsible for a wartime massacre that killed Judge's brother, a priest and Judge is out to avenge his murder. My only complaint about this book is that Judge is a mediocre protagonist and even when he comes upon his prey, he can't capitalize on it. He is also the worst shot in any of the books I've read. Reich remains one of those authors whose books I will buy the day they are introduced and will read immediately. For those of you who are lovers of Nelson DeMille or my other two favorites, Douglas Kennedy and John Gilstrap, this is a book along those lines.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Mediocre
Review: Reichs' first novel that took place in Switzerland was pretty exciting, but I felt this one was not nearly as exciting. It seemed very jammed with facts and details, lots of research that got in the way of the story. I also didn't believe that the hero who's supposed to prosecute cases at Nuremberg would drop everything to chase an escaped Nazi POW.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Intelligent and Exciting
Review: It is not very often that I find myself enjoying a book as much as THE RUNNER and at the same time feeling that I learned through the use of vivid detail and obvious research about history in the process. Chris Reich does an outstanding job of building a great plot and story through use of historical detail and character development. All the research sure paid off as the book is both intelligent and exciting from front to back.

The main characters are complicated and believable. Some of the characters like Patton are historical and you find the two wound tightly together to tell a compelling story. Judging from the two books that Reich has written to date he will have a very successful future. Everybody has a few authors where you wait for their next book, Reich has been added to my list.

Highly recommended.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Been there, done that. . . Way too familiar
Review: Not a terrible book, but it's marred by the feeling of familiarity -- it's been done by better writers (Ken Follett, Jack Higgins, others) and seems not just derivative but sort of rote. The author is a workmanlike prose stylist with a tendency to overuse big words; the characters are pretty thin and not so easy to identify with. The author's first book at least had the virtue of a setting (inside a Swiss bank) that we hadn't really seen much of before. This one's OK, but I recommend instead getting a copy of "Eye of the Needle."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent historical fiction
Review: The American major informs former SS officer Erich "The White Lion" Siegried Seyss that he would be tried as a war criminal for murdering at least seventy Americans. Though Erich is still recovering from surgery needed after taking a Russian bullet, he will be transferred to a detention cell until his War Crimes trial occurs. However, instead of the obvious justice of the victors, Erich manages to escape from the POW camp.

Brooklyn attorney Devlin Judge is assigned to the prosecution team, but becomes irate when he learns the "White Lion" has escaped. Devlin wants to recapture Erich who killed his brother. His reluctant superiors give Devlin a week to hunt the White Lion. Devlin begins his quest through a countryside that is in total ruin with Allies occupation everywhere. Unbeknownst to Devlin is that another agenda plans to use Seyss as a catalyst and if necessary eliminating the obsessed American if he interferes.

THE RUNNER is an excellent historical fiction that brings to life Occupied Germany just after WW II. The story line is fats-paced, filled with action, and provides interwoven historical tidbits that make the countryside picturesquely in a gloomy way seem alive. The charcaters are fully developed so that the audience not only understands their motives, but that of the countries they represent. Christopher Reich shows why his previous work NUMBERED ACCOUNT was a New York Times best seller with what is sure to be labeled one of the top five historical fictions of the year.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Runner
Review: It's exciting to find a new author like Christopher Reich, who writes in the genre of Ken Follett and Robert Ludlum (at least the way Robert Ludlum used to write). I really liked this book-couldn't put it down. I especially liked the Patton scenes (hilarious) and could feel the "heat" between Ingrid and Judge when they finally meet. This book would make a great movie! Christopher Reich is an extremely talented writer and I wholeheartedly recommend the book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Reich Strikes Again!
Review: This book is every bit as good as his first, "Numbered Account", in fact I liked it even more.

Mr. Reich does not take the easy way out by using basic Historical fact and fictionalizing the balance of his book. The result is still Fiction, but researched with a Historian's eye, and some clever "what if?" scenarios. The result is a hybrid that is truly interesting and not just entertainment. I believe this allowed him to bring "The Runner" to readers that is fresh book, even though the main event it is based upon is not.

The book has some nice plot twists, what makes them so slick, is that they are not so transparent that they reveal the balance of the book when the first hint appears. When you think you may have the story line solved, another bit comes along, and Mr. Reich pulls the carpet from beneath you.

Mr. Reich is no one time winner. If this second effort is any indicator of the future, the next dozen will only continue his success.

Buy it. No regrets.


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