This spy thriller by former CIA analyst Karen Cleveland was amazing! In YOU CAN RUN, CIA analyst Jill Bailey is in the middle of checking a potential new source in Syria when she receives as terrifying message. Her son has been taken and if she doesn’t do exactly as instructed, she’ll never see him again. The book is told in dual POV, the other one being Alex Charles, a reporter for the Washington Post who receives an explosive tip. When Alex and Jill team up, they quickly realize this conspiracy runs far deeper than they imagined. I LOVED the fast-paced writing style and twists that came with every chapter—all the way up to the end. This is the third Karen Cleveland spy thriller I’ve read, and they’ve all been fabulous. Every time I thought I had this one figured out, nope! She kept me guessing 😊. Recommended for lovers of spy thrillers! ( )

The end of this mystery/thriller made me smile with satisfaction. That’s an accomplishment! Read my full review here. ( )

Twisty Rethink Required
Review of the Random House Audio audiobook edition released simultaneously with the Ballantine Books hardcover (August 2021)

I enjoyed Karen Cleveland's two previous espionage thrillers Need to Know (2018) and Keep You Close (2019), so listening to her latest, You Can Run (2021), was an instinctive pick. In retrospect, Need to Know stands out more in my mind, especially for its twist ending which forced you to reconsider everything that had gone on before it. In fact, Cleveland pulled off the rather fantastic extra brain-bending squeeze of the "single-final-word" twist, which I can't remember any other author doing previously.

So even going into You Can Run I was expecting some sort of twist ending to come, and was watching closely for hints along the way. Cleveland still managed to surprise me in the end. The thing was that the twist wasn't perhaps quite as satisfactory as her previous ones. It left me feeling somewhat baffled as to what had happened previously and whether there had been any conspiracy at all or whether it was a manufactured one (or you could say a conspiracy to manufacture a false conspiracy). Saying much more would be a spoiler though, so I'll be interested in reading other reviews to see what they thought. This didn't quite merit an Unsatisfactory Ending Alert ™, but it flirted with it.

Basically, CIA analyst Jill Bailey is blackmailed with threats to her family and relaxes her vetting process for a new espionage source as a result. Rather than allow herself to be blackmailed further, she quits her job and moves her family away. Things come back to haunt her when investigative journalist Alex Charles receives an anonymous tip putting her on the trail of the possible breach of security. Bailey and Charles are forced to team up in order to uncover the heart of the conspiracy, which puts both of them and their families in danger. What they discover and what is 'real' may not necessarily be the same thing.

The narration performances in this audiobook edition by Devon Sorvari (as CIA analyst Jill Bailey) and Mia Ellis (as journalist Alex (Alexandra) Charles) were fine. The chapters mostly alternated between the two roles/voices. ( )

A story of treachery, espionage and deception

“You Can Run” is about spies, counter spies, spies spying on each other until it is hard to know just who is working for whom. But more than that, why are they doing this? The story begins in a first person present tense narrative by Jill who pulls readers into the events; she makes everything urgent, consuming, dangerous. Events go back and forth in time, the opening, four years later, and then one week earlier. In later chapters, the story continues with Jill’s accounts alternating with those of another character, Alex.

Jill works for the CIA as a background investigator screening operatives, a searcher for facts and discrepancies. She talks to herself, second-guessing her own every move, watching everyone, terrified about a threat she has received. She quits her job, changes her name, and moves across several states, but she finds that she can run, but she cannot escape. Into her paranoid existence comes another, Alex, also a searcher for facts, but a journalist looking for that one big Pulitzer winning story.

Tension and anxiety pour from every page as these two unlikely partners seek to uncover a story of treachery, espionage and deception. There is not just a small band of criminals behind this; it involves a foreign intelligence and the corruption might just reach to the highest levels of this country’s government. The pace is frantic and it is impossible to know whom to trust.

“You Can Run” is filled with suspense, action, and non-stop twists and turns. You will not catch your breath until the end. I received a review copy of “You Can Run” from Karen Cleveland, Random House Publishing Group, and Ballantine Books. As the clock ticks, everything becomes more frantic, and yes, it ends with a HUGE bombshell, but everyone lives happily ever after …….or do they ( )