Skeleton Run

On a terrible night twenty years in the past, four teenage boys caused a car wreck that took the life of a young mother and then left her infant to die in the smashed car. The boys kept the secret for all those years and now as adults they have careers and political aspirations that they can’t risk upsetting. When one of them dies, a blackmailer crawls out of the woodwork and their secret is at risk of being exposed. One of the men, a senator, feels guilt over his actions and confesses to a political supporter, but the supporter has poured way too much money into his candidate to risk his own agenda. This secret will never see the light of day…and neither will anyone who tries to expose it

Great read.

Review: SKELETON RUN by John DeBoer

A page-turning suspense thriller focusing on how actions (and crimes, and ugly secrets) from the past can overshadow, and even derail, the present and the future, SKELETON RUN is engrossing. This is the first book by this author I've read, and definitely an encouragement to read more. Mr. DeBoer is an intriguing writer, weaving many seemingly disparate threads into one coherent, fascinating, tapestry.

We all have secrets we either choose to keep to ourselves or amongst a trusted few. Alan Granger, governor of Pennsylvania, has a big one: when he was a teenager, him and three friends were in a car crash that left the mother of a baby dead. They fled the scene so they could cover their asses, leaving the baby behind, hoping help would arrive before it was too late. Fast forward twenty years, and there’s the chance this secret will go public. Alan and his friends have a chance encounter with the wife of the man they left behind in the car wreck with his dead mother all those years ago. She ends up extorting money from them to keep her quiet about what they did, but that’s not the only problem. Jump ahead in time a little, and Alan is running for president. A billionaire named Wendell Logan is funding his entire campaign, and he’ll stop at no costs to keep Alan’s skeleton in the closet, making sure it never sees the light of day.

I feel that lately I’ve been reading a lot of books that either take place in Pennsylvania or were written by authors that live in Pennsylvania. Kinda cool, considering that when I choose to read those books I’m not aware of that fact. It was neat to see some towns mentioned in this novel that I’m familiar with.

I enjoy fast paced thrillers, and while I wouldn’t really consider Skeleton Run to be that exhilarating, I still enjoyed it. It wasn’t that suspenseful and I never really felt “on edge” while reading it, it was more of a “Alan and his friends try to keep their big secret hushed while trouble finds them and they need to figure out what’s the best course of action” type of scenario. While it was necessary to tell the story, I felt that the story did jump around a little too much, but that could partially be due to the fact that I have a little more trouble than the average person at keeping track of who’s who and what’s going on. I did, however, enjoy seeing how the story panned out and whether or not Alan became president of the United Sates.

All in all, I’d say it was a decent read, but not one of my favorites.

I have no strong feelings about this book, one way or another. It is well written, moves along at a steady book, but for some reason it just didn't engage me.

Twenty years ago, four teenage boys caused an accident that left a woman dead, then fled from the scene, leaving her baby in the back seat of the car. They make a pledge never to reveal what they did. Ever since, they've guarded the secret that would have ruined their lives and destroyed their careers. But when, on his deathbed, one of them reveals the secret, a blackmailer makes contact. Now, everything that matters to them is at stake.

If you like political thrillers, this will probably push your buttons, but I think, had I realised how much of this book was centred on politics, I probably would not have chosen to read it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Red Adept Publishing and author John De Boer for the gift of this book in exchange for an honest review.