Runaway by Anne Laughlin

Publisher:         Bold Strokes Books

Jan Roberts and Maddy Harrington have something in common.  They’re both runaways.  The difference is that Jan escaped years ago from her father’s survival camp in Idaho so that she could have a more normal life.  Now she’s a private investigator in Chicago who is hired to find a naïve, wealthy girl who ran away from parents and a life she hated to create what she thought was going to be a utopia.  Just as Jan begins the case, the company she works for is sold to a British security firm and she gets a new boss.  Catherine Engstrom is a former British government agent with some secrets of her own and there is a powerful attraction between them. 

Jan has to deal with two dilemmas.  She’s not used to trusting other people and she doesn’t want to trust Catherine, but she can’t help herself, even when she finds out that Catherine is forbidden fruit.  At the same time, the hunt for Maddy is taking the women into Idaho among the militia groups and survivalists that Jan wants desperately to avoid.  Both situations pose great danger for Jan.

Runaway starts as a very strong book, then dies at the end.  The prologue has a real hook to draw the reader into the story as Jan struggles to escape from her father’s control.  That edge continues into the rest of the book as Laughlin alternates between scenes of Jan and Catherine looking for Maddy and those of what Maddy is experiencing.  It becomes clear quickly that Maddy has involved herself in something entirely different from what she was expecting and the reader is allowed to feel her disillusionment as it mounts.  Likewise, Jan’s confusion about her feelings for Catherine and her concerns about possibly confronting her father again come through very strongly and add tension to what is going on.   The fact that there are some passionate scenes between Jan and Catherine doesn’t hurt the book.

In the last forty pages though, the book goes flat.  It’s like a balloon that someone has suddenly let the air out of.  The tension is mounting and things are headed for a climax and then everything becomes totally unbelievable and even trite.  Everything suddenly ends, everyone goes home and that’s it.  Anne Laughlin is a better writer than this.  The reader might almost think that she was running out of time for a deadline, so decided just to cut the book off.  It’s unfortunate because, up to that point, she had an interesting book.

Runaway is fine for entertaining reading……except for the end.  It isn’t a waste of the reader’s time, but once you see what the book could have been, the conclusion is that much more disappointing.  Read this one with caution.

Sometimes Quickly by Anne Laughlin

Publisher:                P.D. Publishing


Sometimes Quickly is the story of five women, four of them searching for greater meaning in their lives and one who is intent on disrupting them. Peg Ryan is a recovering alcoholic and a prominent attorney, who made a mistake many years ago, but now her life has stabilized and she's ready to share it with someone. She meets Allison Mitchell, the head of a real estate firm, by accident – literally. Peg runs into the rear end of a car being driven by Camille Bardon and Allison is the passenger. The attraction between Peg and Allison is instantaneous, a fact which doesn't please Camille at all.
Meanwhile, Peg's best friend Morgan, a police detective, meets Laura, the head of a company that is developing innovative software that will allow the FDA to approve drugs more quickly. Morgan is trying to establish a relationship with Laura who can only focus on the problems her company is having. 

Camille is the bane of all of them. She stalks Allison, launches a blackmail scheme against Peg and her company, which specializes in industrial espionage, and is slowly destroying Laura's chances of receiving approval of its program by the FDA. The mystery is whether the other women will realize who is at the root of all of their problems before she has a chance to destroy them.

Sometimes Quickly is an appropriate name for this book because everything happens at a rapid pace, perhaps a little too rapid. The story moves from peak to peak with very little action in between that would allow the reader to digest what is happening. The result of this is a book that holds the reader's attention, but has a rushed feel to it. The incidents could have been fleshed out more, which would have made the book longer and kept it from feeling like things were developing too fast. 

However, at its heart, Sometimes Quickly has a good story with strong personalities. Allison comes off as the surprising character when she shows a strength that isn't anticipated and Morgan is inspiring in her determination to find out what is going on at Laura's company. Even the evil Camille comes across very clearly, although the reader will easily conclude that she has some serious mental health issues.

Laughlin has mastered the skill of character development. Now she needs to work on developing her plot more fully. The end of this book indicates that there will be another one, so she should get a chance to correct the weaknesses.

Sometimes Quickly is an excellent fast read.

Veritas by Anne Laughlin

Publisher:              Bold Strokes Books

Beth Ellis has charted a very controlled life in academia as far away as possible from the legal bordello her mother runs in Nevada.  She thought that being made the dean of Grafton College would elevate her career, instead she has to deal with an unpopular and pompous new college president, budget cutbacks and tenure battles with the professors.  When the president pushes her to insure that an incompetent professor receives tenure, Beth is ready to return to the classroom.  The murder of the professor forces Beth to mount a defense of the school's reputation and brings her into contact with the new police chief Sally Sullivan.  Sally left the Chicago police to return to her hometown and be near her parents.  Things were very routine and unexciting until dead bodies start showing up.  As Sally and Beth work together to try to solve the mystery of what is going on at the college, they find they are drawn together, but they're on very different pages.  Beth is really satisfied with casual relationships and one night stands, but Sally is looking for something more meaningful in her life.  Whether or not they can find a way to bring their goals in sync is as big a mystery as who is killing college employees.

Veritas is Anne Laughlin's second novel and it shows what most readers hope for, this writer is improving as she writes.  It's clear that Laughlin is developing her ability to draw her characters more completely and to develop a story in a way that it unfolds instead of rushing to a conclusion.  She is especially adept in this story at developing the mystery, giving hints, but managing to keep the identity of the killer hidden until almost the end of the book.  Beth's character is better developed than Sally's, but there is enough revealed about Sally to sustain the story.  A sign of Laughlin's improvement is the fact that Veritas was a winner of the 2010 Golden Crown Literary Society Award for Mystery.  Although there is a romance in the book, it actually plays a minor role and this is more of a true mystery.

Veritas is a very solid read.  It's a good story with interesting characters and sustains the aspects of the mystery throughout the novel.  The cover picture is excellent and will draw readers to the book by itself.  They'll be pleased to find that the book is well worth reading.