Run to Death

Peter Duluth Mystery #7

by Patrick Quentin

She was the sort of blonde that rolls off the assembly lines in Hollywood or Broadway, but could start a riot her in Mexico. she was young and beautiful, too young to be hitch-hiking alone in the wilds of tropical Yucatan. But there was something else about her, and it was not long after Peter Duluth had given her a lift that he realized what it was: the girl was running for her life.

Later, in Mexico City, it was Peter himself who was running--from enemies he did not know. But he learned, there and in New Orleans, that danger is never behind you, but ahead. And that sometimes you have to run toward death in order to escape it....

Genres: Mystery, Crime

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1948

About the author

Patrick Quentin, Q. Patrick and Jonathan Stagge were pen names under which Hugh Callingham Wheeler (19 March 1912 – 26 July 1987), Richard Wilson Webb (August 1901 – December 1966), Martha Mott Kelley (30 April 1906–2005) and Mary Louise White Aswell (3 June 1902 – 24 December 1984) wrote detective fiction. In some foreign countries their books have been published under the variant Quentin Patrick. Most of the stories were written by Webb and Wheeler in collaboration, or by Wheeler alone. Their most famous creation is the amateur sleuth Peter Duluth. In 1963, the story collection The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow was given a Special Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America.

AKA:
Πάτρικ Κουέντιν (Greek)

Reviews

[Nora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting female characters are got rid of with unusual speed. Beautiful women all fall for the male protagonist. There is some slight homoeroticism, with a Mexican boy whose face looks like a flower.

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would make a great film noir with a femme fatale, an "exotic" location, and everything.

[Michael Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice, old-fashioned mystery with some tricky goings-on that trip up readers in terms of who might be "good" and who might be "bad." Not a cozy in the strictest definition, but I felt cozy while reading this mystery set in Mexico among some tourists who are not always what they seem.

[Kornel]

bro akkora overthinker hogy megoldott egy orszagokon ativelo balhet

[Jiří Pavlovský · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pokračuju ve svém retro koutku a dohánění Patricka Quentina. U nás hodně vycházel po dvou, takže najednou hodnotím dva jeho romány, z opačné strany spektra a kvality

Smrt ve škole… je divná. Je to skoro dobrodružný příběh pro mladé jinochy, kdyby se tam s celkem milou lhostejností ti mladí jinoši nevraždili. Je to až skoro jako z nějakého skeče Monty Pythonů, kdy na škole umírají děti a kantoři (a i rodiče těch dětí) na to koukali spíš jako na nepříjemnou patálii. Plus si člověk opravdu uvědomí, že Patrick Quentin (ať už pod tím jménem zrovna psal kdokoliv) není detektivkář, je autor thrillerů. (Ale může hrát i roli to, že jak už je to starší, člověk automaticky vytipuje nejméně podezřelou osobu a ta bude pachatelem.)

Ono ani v druhém příběhu, Do náruče smrti (Run to Death), nemůžete čekat zapeklitou záhadu. Ale příběh to dohání obrovským tempem. Výhoda starých knížek je v tom, že není nutné se držet reality, skutečných emocí a prostě všeho, co přidává knize na stránkách. Opět se vrací Peter Dulluth, který se zaplete do něčeho, čemu sám nerozumí… a kvůli čemu po něm jdou. Kdo, to úplně přesně neví. Tady se hodně zábavně a dobře pracuje s jojo efektem, kdy je sice omezený počet postav, ale pořád se střídá jejich důvěryhodnost s nedůvěryhodností. Hrdina někoho podezřívá, pak se stane něco, na základě čeho mu začne věřit, aby se vzápětí přihodilo něco, po čem je jasné, že je to padouch… než se to zase změní. Je to překvapivě zábavné a vyvolává to správně paranoidní pocity.
Jasně, je to jednoduchý a přímočarý, ale svým retro způsobem překvapivě zábavný. Má to tempo a daří se tu poměrně jednoduchými způsoby vyvolávat napětí.

[Jenny Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first taste of Peter Duluth, my first Patrick Quentin book.
This however, is not the first book in the series, so don't read it first.

Peter finds himself spending time away from his wife, Iris, down in Mexico. While he is getting gas he spots a young blonde woman. She seems a bit off, maybe a little afraid. He ends up chatting with her, and offers to give her a ride once they find out that they are staying in the same hotel. You learn a little bit of information about who she is, why she is in town, and that she is running from someone.

Things escalate pretty quickly, as they tend to do in a murder mystery. Peter meets a handful of crazy characters, and ends up running for his own life. In the end the murderer is revealed, and it wasn't someone I anticipated at all. Which is one of the reasons I love my Peter Duluth mysteries.