cover image Murder on the Run

Murder on the Run

Gloria White. Dell Publishing Company, $5.5 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-440-20983-6

The satisfying momentum never flags from this first novel's opening moment when PI Ronnie Ventana's early morning jog turns into a race for her life. Having witnessed a man hurl another into the San Francisco Bay, Ventana soon recognizes the perpetrator as Pete August, an ex-cop and private investigator so well-connected as to be virtually untouchable--especially when the police fail to recover the victim's body. Colorful characters--including Ventana's salty PI mentor Blackie Coogan, August's beauteous lady friend Judge Martha Coyle and a coterie of seedy informers and enforcers--all contribute surprises as the action breezes along. Despite frosty noncooperation from the police, Ventana seems to have all the angles figured until another eyewitness surfaces, a child whose testimony makes her rethink the entire case. Then a report of a long-ago rape leads Ventana to her final encounter with the murderer and to a neatly tied unexpected ending. Readers will want more of Ventana, an appealing protagonist who engages in intelligent, stylish sleuthing. (July)