The detective character, Dub Walker, is not as you may expect. For starters, he's a consultant and doesn't carry a gun. He's divorced but has a very good relationship with his ex-wife, a journalists who also helps with the cases. Their relationship is so good that most of the time you wouldn't know they are not married anymore. As a former Medicine student, he has medical training and knowledge that he still remembers. This helps him understand things related to wounds and cause of death quicker than his colleagues.

The whole run away plan of the Forsters is explained and some chapters are written from their point of view. This gives the readers a better understanding of their situation and makes the turning point much more surprising, because you, as a reader, think you know everything that is going on. The important thing is that more people than you know are hiding secrets. A case that at first seems easy (for the reader; not so much for the police who don't know the Fosters' point of view) becomes more and more complicated the more you read.

Something I liked about this novel is that several lab techniques and important concepts (like GSR) are described. It's good if you already know what they are and how and when they are used, but if you don't, that won't stop you from enjoying this novel, because you get a short but very understandable explanation. ( )

I read the intriguing excerpt for Run to Ground and decided that a good southern mystery would fit right in to where my mind was at the time. Its fast paced action is set in contemporary times in Huntsville, Alabama where everyone knows each other very well either as family, friend, neighbor or through their church, charity work or employment. It would be really hard to keep a secret of harboring such hatred and malicious intent from other people in their lives.

Tim and Martha Foster lost their only child to a local pedophile, Walter Whitaker. Martha, having witnessed the abduction testified against Walter in court then watched in horror as the judge, on a legal technicality, throws out the kidnap murder charges and reduces the charges to obstructing justice and perjury with a sentence of only three years. While in prison Walter spends his time in jail taunting and threatening the Fosters, accusing them of lying, of making false accusations against him and vows revenge on them just as soon as he gets out.

On the day of Walter’s release, the town turns out in support of the Fosters and in protest that this murderer is to be released back into their community. Dub Walker, a forensics expert, author and consultant for the police, and his best friend, homicide detective T-Tommy Tortelli, are there to assist with crowd control, to ensure that the unpopular release takes place without incident. Dub’s ex-wife and TV reporter Claire McBride joins them to cover his release for the local news station. The prisoner leaves the prison gates with an “arrogant stride and a smirk on his face” when shots ring out. He is shot twice by a long range rifle, in full view of news cameras, horrified onlookers and law enforcement officers. JD Walker, the prisoner’s brother, arrives just after Dub’s attempts at CPR have failed and his brother is declared dead. JD immediately accuses the Fosters of killing his brother and sets the wheels in motion to find and kill them. The only people missing from the scene are the Fosters who apparently left town that morning, but not before leaving a confusing scene at their home.

I enjoyed the fast paced story, there was continual action and revelations as more and more evidence was unearthed, but it it did tend to read a lot like an episode of CSI, lots of forensics evidence while never really digging into the characters or fleshing them out. What I knew about them was only skin-deep and little about what made them tick. Dub is the only partial exception to this as we find his sister had been abducted and never found, leaving him wounded with feelings of guilt for not being able to save her. Knowing the feelings of rage this tragedy engenders, he’s in sympathy with the Fosters and personally wouldn’t condemn them for killing Walter…he knows he would in a minute. It was hard for me to empathize or care about what happened to the characters as I never really felt I knew them. I just couldn’t become emotionally involved. The story did; however, keep my interest as clue after clue was disclosed until the surprising conclusion.

Although this is the third in the Dub Walker series, it reads well as a standalone and I think most mystery fans will enjoy it.

Originally published on www.chapterofdreams.com ( )

This book was fast paced and impossible to predict. The characters are intriguing leaving the reader to wonder if this case is cut and dry or if there is unknown elements at play. I really enjoyed reading this suspenseful thriller.

Very good read. Kept me guessing until the very end. When Dr. Lyle retires, he won't have any problems finding a new profession. I want to read more of his fiction. ( )

Book Review & Giveaway: D.P. Lyle is an award-winning author who has written fiction and non-fiction books, as well as acted as a consultant on various well-known TV series, all about murder and forensics. So he must know something about crime, right? Run to Ground is Book #3 in his Dub Walker crime series; however, it reads quite well as a stand-alone novel. If you like a good detective novel with thriller twists and turns then you’re going to want to enter our giveaway at http://popcornreads.com/?p=4430. ( )