The Runner: A Novel

Reich, Christopher

ISBN 10: 0553456660 ISBN 13: 9780553456660

Publisher: Random House Audio, 2000

Synopsis

Read by Stephen Lang
4 Cassettes, 6 hours

Set in Germany just after the end of World War II, The Runner is the story of Devlin Judge, an American lawyer and member of the International Military Tribunal set up to try Nazi war criminals.  A former New York City cop, Judge is after Erich Seyss. Nicknamed "the white lion," Seyss is a former member of Hitler's SS who escaped from an American POW camp just before he was to have his day in court.  
In his pursuit, Judge enlists the help of Ingrid Bach, the beautiful daughter of one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and Seyss's former fiancé.  Tortured by his own demons and hindered by the dark political forces blocking him at every pass, Judge struggles to stay on Seyss's tail.  As the chase accelerates, the stakes become greater too --for Seyss, for Judge, and ultimately for the world at large as this game of "cat and mouse" soon becomes a race to save the future of Europe.

About this title

Review:

Set against the backdrop of post-World War II Germany, The Runner is the story of Devlin Judge, an ex-New York City detective turned lawyer on the hunt for Nazi SS soldier Erich Seyss, recently escaped from an American POW camp. Seyss, a former Olympic track star known as "The White Lion," is responsible for myriad heinous war crimes, including the murder of a platoon of unarmed American prisoners--one of whom was Judge's own brother. Initially a member of the International Legal Tribunal, set to try former Nazis for crimes against humanity, Judge begs for the opportunity to track Seyss down. With only a week in which to do so, his hunt for the cold-blooded killer leads Judge to a race not only for his own life but for the future of Europe itself. Judge is pursuing a killer, but he is also chasing the ghosts of guilt, having decided not to enlist in the hopes of advancing his legal career: "Erich Seyss was his confession and his penance, his expiation and absolution, all tucked into a black-and-silver uniform with a death's-head embroidered on its collar and his brother's blood on its cuff."

The Runner lacks the crackling tension of Numbered Account, Christopher Reich's first novel. Even the moments of crucial conflict, or of bloody disaster, seem wan and pallid. The novel is, paradoxically, handicapped by Reich's respect for historical detail: his interest in presenting the grim realities of postwar existence leads him into extensive descriptions of place and time that fail to merge with the story he spins. These "set pieces" stand awkwardly apart, like dour history professors coaxed into supervising the machinations of rambunctious students. Reich's general fidelity to detail also means that the moments in which he temporarily throws accuracy to the wind are painfully apparent: how on earth would Judge, a well-fed and well-dressed American, manage to look as if he belonged in a German work-group detail? And when would any three-star general ever tolerate the gum-cracking insouciance of Judge's driver Darren Honey, a sergeant with no regard for military hierarchy? Oddly enough, the authorial liberties Reich takes with General George Patton, saddling him with a megalomaniac's hatred of the Russians and a schemer's plot to redraw the boundaries of postwar Europe, are largely successful and add a welcome note of barely contained evil.

The Runner works best as a moving meditation on personal and social disjunction: Judge, Seyss, Patton, and the rest are desperately engaged in deciphering the proper place for prewar rules in the postwar chaos--and in confronting the uneasy suspicion that perhaps, after all, there is no place for them or for their beliefs. Judge must move past his easy assumption that the Allied victory was not "just a symbol of superior might but of superior morality": "Overnight, he'd become the hunted, not the hunter.... At some point during the last twenty-four hours, he'd crossed over an interior median into unknown waters. He'd abandoned the rigid structure of his previous life, renounced his worship of authority, and forsworn his devotion to rules and regulation. He'd tossed Hoyle to the wind, and he didn't care." --Kelly Flynn

From the Back Cover:

"This is a wonderfully well written book, a sophisticated story of political intrigue, conspiracy, and treachery. Reich's evocation of post-war Germany in ruins has an uncanny sense of you-are-there; a trip into virtual reality--the author is a master of moody atmosphere and historic detail. A fascinating look at the world that existed between the hot war and the cold war, populated by larger-than-life characters who gamble for incredibly high stakes."

--Nelson DeMille, author of Lion's Game

Praise for Numbered Account:

"Smart and sophisticated--.--.--.--Wonderfully credible."
--The New York Times

"Reich keeps things moving at breakneck speed."
--The Wall Street Journal

"Fascinating--.--.--.--The tension crackles."
--People

"Chilling detail, suspense, and intrigue."
--The Denver Post

"Big story--.--.--.--Big enjoyment--.--.--.--A completely different kind of thriller."         --Newsday

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Audio
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0553456660
• ISBN 13: 9780553456660
• Binding: Audio CD