synopsis from 

Chloe Dow was as beautiful as she was … a bitch (at least in the eyes of her peers). But still, she did not deserve to meet such a tragic end.

The community is shocked by her death and DI Singh has been entrusted with the task to bring the perpetrator of her crime to justice…If only, teenager Garvie Smith kept his nose out of it, it would make his job a lot easier.

Unfortunately, Garvie who is a brilliant mind and equally the greatest underachiever in his school was yet to have his mind stimulated until the case of Chloe Dow came along to DI Singh’s dismay.

“Running Girl” is a very well balanced piece of literature with the right amount of crime ingredients mixed in with YA elements. It is well paced, heavy with mystery and enough clues dropped along the way with a good build up to the culminating moment revealing the murderer, which by the way I did not suspect at all!!.

What I enjoyed the most however was watching the frosty relationship between Garvie and DI Singh thawing into one of friendship and mutual respect. Those two definitely formed an unlikely duo, and were complete polar opposites. Outside of the obvious adult vs teenager elements, we get to know a DI Singh with a rather rigid and method-based approach to investigation which ends up to be completely blown out by a young man’s keen sense of observation.

The layers under the plot however raised some rather interesting questions. One of them being “Do you know your own child?”, a topic which was rather well illustrated through Chloe’s behaviour and the energy and effort she put into appearing older then her age completely oblivious to any potential dangers this could bring forth.

The second one which would also unsettle any parent is “Can you tell when your child needs help? Can you read the signs? Again, a point which was demonstrated through Chloe’s relationship with her mother.

I will end my review by adding that “Running Girl” is highly entertaining and rooted in a very real setting that most readers can relate to. Fans of “Panther” by David Owen or “The Art of Being Normal” by Lisa Williamson, although touching upon very different topics, will recognise that very same palpable feel present in those novels.

I am happy to recommend this read to all and I am looking forward to reading the second installment in this series.

LaChouett

Thanking team ED Public Relations and David Flicking Books for providing me with a copy of this novel.