If I Run

Terri Blackstock. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2016. 318 pages. (Paperback).

Wow! It has been a while since I read a Terri Blackstock mystery and I’m not sure whether this one was the best yet, or I just forgot how good she is. And this one was good. I have read many, many mysteries in my lifetime (it’s my favorite genre), but “If I Run” kept me guessing through the entire book. I don’t want to diminish your enjoyment of the book if you decide to read it so I will tread carefully here.

I was intrigued from the opening sentences: “There’s blood on the bottom of my shoes. I rinse the soles, knowing the police will trace the impression of the rubber pattern and determine that they’re Skechers. They’ll find the charge for the shoe store on my credit card, proving they’re mine.” How can you put the book down after that? You have to know whose blood it was and why she can’t just call the police to report whatever has just happened. But no — she can’t.

And the book keeps the reader off balance and needing to know to the very end. The.Very. End.

Blackstock is a prolific Christian writer who just keeps hitting home runs with book after book.

I hear she’s just come out with another one. Guess who’ll be reading it as soon as I get my hands on it?

Reviewed by Martine Bates Fairbanks, Ed.D.