Review of ‘Run Girl’

Posted on February 1, 2017 Updated on January 24, 2017

The U.S. Secretary of State is in Europe on a delicate peace mission. Her precocious granddaughter, who was with her, runs away and ends up in London. FBI Special Agent Ingrid Skyberg, in London for a training course, is pulled out of training and tasked with finding the girl before her grandmother finds out she’s missing.

Run Girl by Eva Hudson is a novella introducing the main character, Ingrid Skyberg, a legal attaché (the title for FBI agents assigned to embassies) in London. It’s fast-paced, as one would expect of a mystery novella, as it follows Ingrid’s efforts to corral the unruly teenager and get her back safe and sound to her grandmother. Getting all the action conveyed in such a short format, though, has its drawbacks. It makes the story a bit choppy. In addition, some of the action, such as embassy entry procedures, is incorrect. For example, cell phones would not be collected from visitors after they enter a meeting room, but before. Also, the first point of contact for Americans in trouble overseas is a State Department consular officer, not the legal attaché.

Despite these drawbacks in the book, apparent only to people who’ve traveled abroad a lot probably, the concept is sound, and with time I think this could develop into an interesting series.

I give this initial offering three stars. I received a free copy of this book.