On the Run
by John D. MacDonald
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Description
On the Run, one of many classic novels from crime writer John D. MacDonald, the beloved author of Cape Fear and the Travis McGee series, is now available as an eBook.Sid Shanley doesn’t stay in one place very long. He has to keep moving, changing towns, jobs, and women at a moment’s notice. He thinks he’s worked out the perfect setup—no attachments, no trails, no explanations. But now a girl has caught up with him. Her name is Paula, and if he accepts her strange proposition, show more there’s a million-dollar payoff. But first Sid needs answers. Who the hell does this Paula think she is? And why should Sid give up his life, forget his past, and believe her when she promises the impossible?
Features a new Introduction by Dean Koontz
Praise for John D. MacDonald
“The great entertainer of our age, and a mesmerizing storyteller.”—Stephen King
“My favorite novelist of all time.”—Dean Koontz
“To diggers a thousand years from now, the works of John D. MacDonald would be a treasure on the order of the tomb of Tutankhamen.”—Kurt Vonnegut
“A master storyteller, a masterful suspense writer . . . John D. MacDonald is a shining example for all of us in the field. Talk about the best.”—Mary Higgins Clark. show less
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Member Reviews
An exciting beginning and end, but marred by way too much silliness in the middle. A man, on the run from a mobster whose face he ruined after finding him in bed with his wife, is lured back to visit the dying grandfather he only saw for two weeks when he was four years old. Of course, there's an inheritance involved and a lot of guilt all over the place. The love story between the man on the run and the grandfather's nurse is touching, but way over-described, with some of the sappiest writing MacDonald (at least in my experience so far) ever committed to paper. Of course, the original was published in Cosmopolitan, albeit in 1962, when it was a little bit of a different magazine from its current incarnation.
One of JDM's better novels, it's faulted by saving all the action to appear in the last score of pages.
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Author Information
229+ Works 31,961 Members
John D. MacDonald was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania on July 24, 1916. He received a B.S. from Syracuse University in 1938 and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1939. During World War II, he served in the Army. His first novel, Brass Cupcake, was published in 1950. He wrote about 70 books during his lifetime show more including the Travis McGee series, Condominium, No Deadly Drug, Nothing Can Go Wrong, and A Friendship: The Letters of Dan Rowan and John Dann MacDonald. A Flash of Green was adapted into a movie by the same name and The Excuse was adapted into a movie entitled Cape Fear. He received numerous awards including the Ben Franklin Award for the best American short story in 1955, the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere for A Key to the Suite in 1964, the Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award in 1972, the American Book Award for The Green Ripper in 1980. He died from complications of an earlier heart bypass surgery on December 28, 1986 at the age of 70. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- On the Run
- Original title
- On the Run
- Original publication date
- 1963
- People/Characters
- Sid Shanley; Paula Lettinger
- First words
- In his dreams there was light and color, remembered faces and old accusations, and in his dreams his voice seemed to go on and on, explaining, justifying himself to skeptics.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Just as he took Fergasson's outstretched hand, Shanley saw the practical nurse coming toward them across the lawn, billowing along through the summer sunlight, wearing such a tight stiff expression of satisfaction that he knew the old man had just died.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 102
- Popularity
- 315,840
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.67)
- Languages
- English, French, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
- ASINs
- 14
