Lucy Hawkings' sophomore release RUN FOR YOUR LIFE
ventures into the world of art and antiquity buying and
selling. Fleur Bonner, daughter of an aging rock star,
sells antiquities for a less than credible dealer.
Looking for a little adventure and because she has a hard
time saying no, Fleur joins a fledging running club to
train for the London Marathon. Her two worlds collide
when Fleur finds herself center stage in a case involving
fraudulent art sales. Will Fleur extricate herself,
salvage her career, and finish the marathon?
I was frustrated when reading RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. At
first, I thought my anxiety stemmed from the novel being
chick-lit, British style. It took a while to become
accustomed to the voice. My problem, not Ms. Hawkings'.
Eventually, I grew comfortable with the writing style but
I remained frustrated. About halfway though, I found I
still had trouble finishing the book. I realized it was
because I didn't particularly care for the main character,
Fleur. She just didn't interest me, not nearly as much as
any one of the lineup of quirky secondary characters.
Fleur is surrounded by a number of characters who through
their personalities and odd habits endear themselves to
the reader: Roz, the overweight but insecure court of the
clerk; Sean, the ex-boyfriend now happily in love with
someone else; Peter, the lawyer who fell in love with Roz
at first sight; Alice, the snobby woman whose husband has
abandoned her and her children; Snook, the assistant
turned detective wannabe; and Jed, the less than devoted
dad and rock star whose best days are long gone, among
others.
What did interest me, and kept me turning pages until the
end, was the plot twists and turns related to the art
world theft and setup. The novel frequently went in
unexpected directions that made me think it would have
been a great book had Fleur not been so placid. Perhaps
the plot wouldn't have worked as well, i.e. some of the
circumstances that Fleur encountered might have been less
believable had she had more backbone, but I guess I simply
prefer my heroines a little more feisty.
Thirty-something Fleur Bonner has a career selling fake
antiques, a London flat with no central heating, and no
focus. She agrees to train for the London marathon, joining
the misfits, the lost, and the lonely who make up the
Battersea Park New Runner’s Club, hoping it may provide a
welcome change in her unfulfilling life. But then her boss
disappears, and it appears that her job may actually be a
front for art forgery. She quickly goes from girl-about-town
to jailbird, not understanding what happened and why. Maybe
those “misfits” from the Battersea Park New Runner’s Club
can provide some answers. . .
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