The Run is part of the series of books with Will Lee at the center. Briefly put The Run is about Will deciding to run for the presidency of the United States. this wouldn’t be much of a book if that was all there was to it so things must be spiced up a little. Enter Joe Adams current vice president and current favourite to take the presidency in the upcoming elections. Joe has decided not to run again and he lets Will in on the secret, but wait there’s more, Will’s wife is in the CIA, Will’s life was under threat from a right wing militia group (are there any left wing militia groups?).
For fans of The West Wing it’s hard not to like Will Lee who seems modeled on Jed Bartlett (though actually predates him as a character creation). The simple impossibility of a straight talking and honest politician actually holding office in the U.S.A. is probably the most difficult part of suspending disbelief while reading Wood’s The Run. The Run is not a bad book. It is a quick and engaging read but that is all it is. There is no real depth to it though the idealism of a candidate actually running on issues and principles is one which appeals.
The small amount of tension in The Run is the result of the vice president’s decision not to run for the highest office in the land but delaying that announcement. While that might cause some tension in the real world it is a very small hook on which to hang 400 pages of story telling. The caricatures of those on the political right are so broad that they boarder on the laughable. This political “thriller” isn’t quite a thriller though it does have a nice little surprise for you at the end of the story. The Run is definitely a book for fans of Stuart Woods or the Will Lee character beyond that there isn’t really a whole lot of appeal.
The Run
Stuart Woods
Harper Torch 2001 400 pages
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