Pocket, $6.99, ISBN 0-671-03656-4
Romantic Suspense, 2000

Andrea Kane’s entry into the “mainstream” contemporary suspense market is a pretty decent read. Run for Your Life offers all the standard elements of a standard thriller, complete with dysfunctional heroine, an ex who is from the FBI, and lots of family secrets.

Victoria Kensington, lawyer in dire need of a life (bad childhood, neglectful father, doormat alcoholic mother, zoned-out sister, the usual), is jogging at her usual haunt one early morning when she finds her sister Aubrey haggard and ill-looking running towards her. Aubrey collapses after giving Victoria some vague message about danger. Victoria runs to seek help, only to find Aubrey gone when she returns with the cops.

Moral of the story? Bring a cellphone along when you jog.

Victoria is determined to seek out Aubrey’s whereabouts. Her mission brings her in contact with her ex, Zachary Hamilton, and together they rekindle old passions and long-forgotten visions of each other naked. There are lots of fun too involving drugs and sleazy money and gosh, the things in the Kensington family closet can be really ugly.

Did I like Run for Your Life? Quite. It’s not a bad read. The suspense is great, the romance is pretty okay, but then again, this one is also a standard suspense stuff with familiar characters. Especially Victoria, who is the standard Dysfunctional Weekly page three pin-up girl.

While not exactly groundbreaking, this story isn’t exactly bad either. It’s somewhere in the middle – readable but unmemorable.