Dead Run (Monkeewrench Series #3) »

P. J. Tracy is the pseudonym of the mother-daughter writing team of Patricia Lambrecht and Traci Lambrecht. Winners of the Anthony, Barry, Gumshoe, and Minnesota Book awards, they both live outside Minneapolis.

First time in paperback from the New York Times bestselling author of Monkeewrench.

Computer game experts Grace MacBride and Annie Belinsk are en route to Green Bay following reports of a serial killer when their car breaks down deep in the northern woods-and near an eerily quiet town where the phone lines are dead and no one is in sight. But when they witness a double murder, they find themselves running for their lives.

Publishers Weekly

In the latest winner from the pseudonymous mother/daughter writing team, Tracy's quirky characters get caught up in a homegrown terrorist plot featuring ultra right-wing militiamen and three tanker trucks full of nerve gas. Having gotten rich from their gaming software, the eccentric personnel of the Minneapolis-based Monkeewrench computer company (Harley Davidson, Grace MacBride, Annie Belinski and the six-foot-seven-inch geek Roadrunner) are presently giving away their "computerized detective software" to police departments with serial killer problems. Grace, Annie and Wisconsin deputy Sharon Mueller are headed to Green Bay, where Sharon believes a serial killer has set up shop. But during a quick sightseeing detour into the Wisconsin hinterlands, Grace's Range Rover breaks down and the women have to hike through the woods for help. They end up in the town of Four Corners, which seems abandoned. The ladies don't know it yet, but that's because earlier that day a milk truck loaded with nerve gas rolled over, lost its load and wiped out everyone in town. Now the entire area is surrounded by a right-wing paramilitary bent on keeping the spill a secret by killing anyone left alive. Tracy's characters are full of quips and comedy, and yet they all have dark pasts ominously and obliquely referred to throughout the novel. The jokes, cold-blooded murders and the past secrets sometimes work at cross-purposes, but the courage and indomitable spirit of the plucky trio will win readers over as they speed through the final pages of the race-against-the-clock ending. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.