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** spoiler alert ** This book is magnificently paced (so to speak), and the end has a nice (unspoken) circle to the beginning, not the compulsion to run but the kinder fates of Holly and Rachel relative to Dryden's wife and daughter.

I have three gripes about regional glitches: the first is Tulane University is still, 10 years out, recovering after devastating hurricane Katrina shut it down most of a year. Dissing Tulane is gratuitous and nasty. Second, what's north of Tulsa is less farmland and more hills, casinos, ranch land, and oil country. So "a farm north of Tulsa" doesn't work for me. The idea that an Oklahoma cancer patient go to Amarillo instead of Tulsa, since Amarillo is only half the population of Tulsa also doesn't make much sense.

Although I've given the glitches a paragraph, the writing, characterizations, technology, and changes in dialogue/action due to mind-reading in The Runner are masterful. I am looking forward to reading more of Patrick Lee's books.