This was my second time with this author. I was already approved for this one. Again, I really struggled with these characters. I struggled to care about them. I could not keep my mind on the books. It felt for most of the book not much was really happening. I didn't realize this was the middle of a series and that didn't help but I didn't enjoy it enough to go back to the start. Just not much kind of read.

Louise gets a call from her son that older kids have broken up the party and are beating the mother and chasing the daughter. Tragedy strike and now
Louise is looking for the older kids involved while working another case where the husband and father is murdered at home. This is earlier in the series so she also has family issues as she learns how to be a mom.
Goodreads

Absolutely love anything by Sara Blaedel. Exciting plots and great characters. Louise Rick is one of my favourite protagonists and I love seeing her relationship with Jonah deepen as much as I love watching her kick a** solving crime.

Very fast paced and very intriguing. I enjoyed how it kept me hooked and it was an original story. Nowadays so many books read the same. Highly recommend

Let me begin by saying that although this is listed as book number five - I had no trouble figuring out who is who.

This is the final novel I will read by this author. I've tried. And I've said it before and I will say it again. I am sure this author and this novel will appeal to a variety of people. She has strong characters, she has a decent writing style. However, her stories are just lacking for me, in the things that make a thriller novel good. They are tedious - and yes police work often is - but as I've come to learn with the novels I have ready by this author - even the parts that are supposed to be "OH MY I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING - are anti-climatic, and her stories end abruptly often leaving me feeling as though I missed something.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

Most of the series I read, and there are a lot, it doesn't necessarily matter in which order you read them. Yes, there are subtle things you miss, but they don't take away from the individual book's plot or even storyline, you can catch up.

I'm finding this isn't 100% one of those. The stories are often interconnected, the characters rotate enough, and some of the relationships ebb and flow that it is best to read them in order. This time I read the one after this one, The Stolen Angel, first and was a teeny tiny bit lost on some things until I read this one. Of course, this is all complicated with Scandinavian writers, their translations, and their publishers releasing them out of order. (WHY OH WHY DO THEY DO THAT? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD< HELP US U.S. READERS HELP YOU BRING YOUR AUTHORS TO THE TOP HERE BY DOING THEM IN ORDER AND DO NOT CHANGE THE TITLES WILLY NILLY!) Jo Nesbo and his work is the biggest culprit I can think of that do this until this one caught me unawares as well.

Anyway, Sara Blaedel has quickly made it to the top two on my charts, next to Nesbo, even with this handicap. I'm starting to think that I need to learn to read Norwegian and Danish just for this two authors like I brushed up on my Spanish for Juan Gomez-Jurado so I can get my hands on their books in order and sooner. (Yes, I am that insane and devoted to Gomez-Juardo that I will sit there with my high school and community Spanish along with the translation dictionary to pull it off.)

What is even more wonderful and powerful is that this is a female author. Yay! Not that I'm some crazy feminist, but it is nice to see powerful yet vulnerable female characters portrayed realistically as police detective Louise Rick and her reporter friend, Camilla Lind are. You won't find me saying that women and men are exactly the same because we aren't and Blaedel knows that. What's even better is that she shows how women choose various life paths that have little to do with their gender. They aren't all locked down to the stereotypical roles of women. News flash, we aren't all cookie cutters either, just as I would assume that men aren't either. Not being a guy, I don't know and try not to make that assumption.

Okay, The Running Girl. There are really two running girls in this book. The victim of a horrific crime and one of the main characters, reporter Camilla Lind. One is in the bloom of life and has what should be a great day, a special celebration, turn into hell and Camilla is running from life and a near breakdown by taking two months off to take her son on an extended vacation in the states. If you look deeper, there are more running girls/women in the story as well, but that would be spoiling it.

Sigrid is a friend of both Louise's foster son and Camilla's son and when her party goes terribly awry, Louise is called in and it only get's worse when the girl's mother is accused of the murder of two of the culprits via arson. She has to dig to get at the truth because she doesn't think the girl's mother is guilty. Also, poor Camilla is thousands of miles away and while she is closer to the mother, she can only do so much from so far away especially in her already fragile condition with her son in tow.

There's another case that starts to seem tangentially related in which a husband and father is murdered and the thugs responsible continue to go after the wife and her baby saying that her husband owed him money. The wife is clueless and no real help in the investigation so it takes the help of a unique forensic accountant to assist in unraveling the mystery. She's nearly on the run from what she doesn't know or understand.

Then there is the Icelandic mother who is the mother of one of the thugs involved in everything and she knows more than she is telling, but is it related to either of the cases?

I'm probably making it sound more complicated than it seemed on paper by trying to point out how perfect the English title is. You won't get lost, trust me.

Lastly, while in California, Camilla makes a connection that will be vital in the next book of the series, The Stolen Angel. It's a small, not even B plot, more of a C or D plot, yet makes sense of the connection later, as I said.

What I enjoy about Blaedel is that she understands that life is messy. Being a woman is complicated and everyone has an opinion about it. Also, there are times that we don't choose a life, it chooses us and there is a period of fighting that, then a period of adjustment, and finally an acceptance. She writes real women, who face real things, and Lousie Rick, as a cop, still gets her damn job done and the perps punished. We're complicated and Blaedel gets that along with telling great crime dramas that keep you turning pages long after you should have turned the lights off.

Kudos, again.

This is a good read, but not my favorite from this series. It was depressing and lacking the interesting storylines to grab your attention. I do really like this series and Louise Rick and look forward to future books.

This book is so intense and so creepy (those kids are terrifying). With every new bit of information, I would think "OK, I definitely know who's responsible" but the next chapter and its reveal would turn everything on its head.

But as with any series, this one succeeds because of Louise Rick. I love her. I know that she's prickly, but she is also fantastic. (My only complaint is that Camilla was largely absent; she and her son were on vacation. I'm just a lot happier when she and Louise are together and solving cases as friends do. Fortunately, because I've read the later books, I know that she comes back.)

Highly recommended.

A solid and absorbing police procedural featuring Detective Louise Rick. Set in Copenhagen, the descriptive writing makes the city come alive to the reader. In this novel, Louise is called to a party that her 12-year-old foster son, Jonas, is attending with schoolmates when thugs crash it and intimidate the guests. While running for help for her mom, Britt, Signe Fasting-Thomsen ran out into the road in front of a van and was hit. With both mother and daughter in the hospital and the father out of town, Louise and her fellow police try to find the older boys who invaded the party. Meanwhile, the beating death of a man needs solving and a warehouse is burned down. Are these events connected?

This complex story takes time to unravel as the many layers are revealed slowly through solid investigative work. Louise juggles both her professional responsibilites and her personal issues with Jonas and her current sort of boyfriend. Not always a job done well. Camilla Lind and her son have taken off to the US for a couple of months and the two friends keep in touch through emails and calls as Britt Fasting-Thomsen is known to her as well. So basically, the usual characters having continuing roles in this novel.

There are 9 books in the Louise Rick series thus far. I've read 7 -- completely out of order -- as this was #5. Fortunately there is usually enough backstory that I can catch up, or follow -- and enough time has passed between reading one and another -- so I don't feel too out of it. My preference would be to read a series in order, but I think it's because of the way the translations are being released in the USA. In fact, sometimes I feel totally confused as to where a book fits into the series!
Regardless, I enjoy them and will continue to snap them up as they are available here.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for access to the e-book ARC to read and review.

Thank you Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for the eARC.
This is the latest in the Detective Louise Rick series and hopefully not the last. Sara Blaedel has started a new series, but I hope we will hear more about Louise, Camilla, Jonas and the puppy...please let him keep the puppy!
Louise is in the midst of investigating the murder of a young father who has left behind a shell shocked widow and their little baby girl when she gets a panicked call from Jonas. He's at a class party when a group of violent youths show up, trashing the venue and leaving one girl dead and her mother badly beaten. When Louise gets there, it's absolute mayhem with crying children in total shock.
Louise believes the 2 cases are linked somehow. She believes one of the powerful biker gangs had the young father murdered, maybe by the youths, who seem to be wannabe bikers. But interviewing both groups proves almost impossible and to make things even more difficult, the youths' meeting place is set on fire, leaving 2 dead. The beaten mother from the kids party is accused of arson and murder. It's believed she took revenge after the death of her daughter, which has left her an shell shocked, barely able to function. Louise doesn't believe she did it, but how does she prove it?
Camilla and her son Marcus are on a 2-month trip in the US, seeing the sights in California. After their recent harrowing experiences (read the previous book!), that left Camilla near a nervous breakdown, she decided the 2 of them needed a break. But she still gets one interview in, an important one, even though she wasn't sure she would continue as a journalist.
The crimes in this book are thought provoking and the heartbreak they leave in their wake is quite moving. The author has a very empathetic way of letting us know what it's like to be the survivor after a murder.
I love both Louise and Camilla and the way the book ended has me itching to read another one, please do us all a favor and write a follow up, Sara!

Sara Blaedel's The Running Girl is the latest in her Detective Louise Rick series set in Copenhagen.

Louise is caring for Jonas, supposedly on a temporary basis, after his father's murder. They have a good relationship, but Louise still considers her care of Jonas temporary.

Jonas attends a farewell party for a classmate that is interrupted by a gang of older teenagers and calls Louise in a panic as the violence erupts. Louise gets there as quickly as possible, but the circumstances have deteriorated, and she arrives at the scene of a traffic accident in which one of Jonas' friends, running for help, has been hit by a car.

Louise is involved in another case, that gradually seems to link up to the party invasion.

Intense and engrossing.

NetGalley/Grand Central Publishing

Crime/Suspense. Jan. 2, 2018. Print length: 448 pages.

In this story Louise Rick finally has her life put on hold when she has s boy who's mother died of cancer and his father died before his eyes came to live with her. She's become lenient towards Jonas and allows him to go to a party that's broken up by some older boys. They kicked the mother and put her in a hospital for some time while this was happening they chased a girl who ran in front of a car and was killed. Jonas had Louise on the phone at the time all this was happening. There are several other stories that tie into this one and Louise has to figure out the who done it's. It's extremely interesting because of all the negative things that happen along the way.
All this time Camilla's on vacation and texting from America while she's visiting places with her son. She's the injured mothers friend from way back. She puts them on the right track and ends up with the story of her career. Something for everyone.

For Detective Louie Rick, crime comes a little too close to home in this novel. Her son, Jonas is at a party when a group of thugs, intent on stealing money, booze and drugs breaks in. He calls his mother for help, and when Louise gets there, she finds a teen who has been run down by a car. The girl’s mother is, understandably angry and out for revenge. So when a local gang is targeted with violence, the mother is the first and best suspect. Only Louise believes otherwise, and it’s up to her to find the real guilty party before another terrible injustice occurs. Blaedel is excellent at creating stories that work on you – like a slow simmer leading up to a steady boil