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Summary
Summary
The overwhelming response to Live Bait proved P. J. Tracy's second novel was no fluke. The Chicago Tribunesaid it best: "Tracy is a writer who can walk that thin line between humor and serious crime without sacrificing the needs of either side." For fans craving electric suspense, high-energy banter, and intricate plotting, the wait is over: Dead Run has arrived. Monkeewrench founders Grace MacBride and Annie Belinsky, along with Deputy Sharon Mueller, are driving from Minneapolis to Green Bay, Wisconsin, where they believe a new serial killer is just warming up, when their car breaks down, deep in the northern woods, far away from civilization and cell towers. A walk through the forest leads them to the crossroads town of Four Corners, where they had hoped to find a landline and a mechanic, but instead find . . . absolutely nothing. Something terrible has happened in Four Corners, and the complete absence of life and severed phone lines in every building make it impossible to get help. Grace, her senses honed by a lifetime of justifiable paranoia, sees the sinister in every detail, and her intuition barely saves all three of them when they witness a horrifying double murder. Grace, Annie, and Sharon are suddenly running for their lives, while the rest of the Monkeewrench crew, along with Minneapolis cops Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth, strike out on a blind search to find them.
Author Notes
P.J. Tracy is the pseudonym of mother-daughter writing duo P.J. and Traci Lambrecht, winners of the Anthony, Barry, Gumshoe, and Minnesota Book Awards. They write the Monkeewrench series, which includes Monkeewrench, Live Bait, Dead Run, Shoot to Thrill, The Sixth Idea, and Nothing Stays Buried.
P.J. Lambrecht started writing short stories for magazines in the early 1970s. Under the pen name Melinda Cross, she wrote 11 romance novels for Harlequin's Presents line. She also wrote two romance novels with her daughter. She died on December 21, 2016 at the age of 70.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In the latest winner from the pseudonymous mother/daughter writing team, Tracy's quirky characters get caught up in a homegrown terrorist plot featuring ultra right-wing militiamen and three tanker trucks full of nerve gas. Having gotten rich from their gaming software, the eccentric personnel of the Minneapolis-based Monkeewrench computer company (Harley Davidson, Grace MacBride, Annie Belinski and the six-foot-seven-inch geek Roadrunner) are presently giving away their "computerized detective software" to police departments with serial killer problems. Grace, Annie and Wisconsin deputy Sharon Mueller are headed to Green Bay, where Sharon believes a serial killer has set up shop. But during a quick sightseeing detour into the Wisconsin hinterlands, Grace's Range Rover breaks down and the women have to hike through the woods for help. They end up in the town of Four Corners, which seems abandoned. The ladies don't know it yet, but that's because earlier that day a milk truck loaded with nerve gas rolled over, lost its load and wiped out everyone in town. Now the entire area is surrounded by a right-wing paramilitary bent on keeping the spill a secret by killing anyone left alive. Tracy's characters are full of quips and comedy, and yet they all have dark pasts ominously and obliquely referred to throughout the novel. The jokes, cold-blooded murders and the past secrets sometimes work at cross-purposes, but the courage and indomitable spirit of the plucky trio will win readers over as they speed through the final pages of the race-against-the-clock ending. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The four misfit partners in the crime-gaming firm Monkeewrench, who usually specialize in serial killers (Live Bait, 2004, etc.), stumble onto something much more dangerous. Kingsford County (Wis.) Sheriff's Deputy Sharon Mueller, on loan to the Minneapolis FBI, thinks three murders in Green Bay may be the work of a single mastermind. So well-armed paranoiac Grace MacBride and queen-sized clotheshorse Annie Belinsky join her in the six-hour drive back to Green Bay. They take the scenic route, and they're a long way from the main roads when their car breaks down. Walking into little Four Corners, they find Dale's Gas open for business and Hazel's CafÉ steeped in cooking odors, but not a single person anywhere. What could have turned the place into a ghost town overnight? Gradually becoming alarmed that Annie and Grace have fallen off the radar, their Monkeewrench partners, cactus-collecting Harley Davidson and technogeek Roadrunner, realize along with the women that the answer is even more terrifying than the question. Tracy offers equal opportunity to both sexes for improbable heroics, though the women get to suffer more hairsbreadth escapes and to fire more serious weapons. By the time the dust has cleared, neither the continuing cast nor their fans are likely to trust strangers for a long time. A ruthlessly efficient straight-arrow tale that's a welcome change of pace for the Monkeewrench gang, even though both their peculiar talents and their even more peculiar personalities are seriously underemployed. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Grace McBride and company track a serial killer until their car breaks down in a deserted town. The third in the series. Simultaneous Putnam hardcover. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
