Camaro Run: Camaro Espinoza #1

Camaro Espinoza #0.1

by Sam Hawken

Camaro Espinoza spent twelve years in the Army, and now she’s out. Riding cross-country, she makes a stop in Las Vegas, where a chance meeting leads to a situation where it’s fight or die. Pursued by the police and by killers for an implacable Mexican drug cartel, she flees to the desert because what happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas.

73 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 6, 2014

About the author

Sam Hawken is the best-selling and Crime Writers Association Dagger-nominated author of the Camaro Espinoza thriller series, as well as the critically acclaimed Borderland Trilogy.

Reviews

[Gareth Spark · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems a long time ago now when I first picked up a copy of Sam Hawken's inimitable "The dead women of Juarez" in Whitby town library. I was on the hunt for new voices, new worlds, and in spite of the old adage, I was drawn to the cover, with its 'dia de la muerté' skulls and intriguing title. I was not disappointed. Hawken writes with exactitude, a bone-dry and stark beauty, and the world captured in the book, with its haunted, beaten up characters, headache-grey morality and sense of doom, in a rigorous and almost medieval sense, was a hell of a wild ride.
I determined, after that, to read anything of his I could get my literary claws into; you don't so much read a Sam Hawken book as live it, suffer and hope and dream and weep with it. The man writes a scene, cops staking out an apartment on a winter's dawn in Baltimore, and you feel it; you shiver in a busted old car seat warmed by nothing but the bitter coffee in your hand, caffeine vapors mixing with your breath as you peer through frosted windows into the frigid light. He writes an illegal dogfight and you would swear you'd been there; the stench of blood and bitter sweat, the rip of fur, the clamor of men hollering and yelling in the dusty-concrete pit now spattered with viscera.
It is not just about his descriptive skill however. He writes with rare gravity and authority about the numbing effects of violence, about the compromises good people make with a brutal, relentlessly amoral world. He is a moralist, par excellence; to dismiss him merely as a "crime writer" is to play the market's game of reducing all art to a label, a genre, to join with the big publishers and relegate the novel to the Entertainment industry. I have faith in the novel and I am not ready yet to mourn its passing; it still has a job to do. Hawken proves definitively that beneath the umbrella many critics deem 'genre' fiction, some of the most exciting literary achievements, some of the most meaningful too, are being wrought.
This brings me to the release of Hawken's latest, "Camaro Run"; the first in a series of novellas Hawken has written dealing with the adventures of the titular Camaro Espinoza, Iraq war veteran and ex-army medic, a woman of secrets, haunted by the past and prepared to do anything to survive, to last another day, free from all ties.

Camaro arrives in Las Vegas from who knows where on a blistering afternoon, and an encounter with a man met at a casino becomes a life or death struggle. Camaro witnesses the murder of her hook up by a gang of crooks pursuing a mysterious parcel, and soon she is hell for leather out of town, chased by the murderers, the cops and a Mexican Cartel, with nothing but her wits and ruthlessness between death and herself.
Camaro is a female riposte to the lumbering male violence of Jack Reacher; a similarly haunted character fresh out the military, but with a humour and intelligence that lifts hers above Lee Child's clunking revenge tales. Camaro is out to survive, at all costs, and maintain her liberty; she is an American death goddess, the goddess of outlaws, beautiful, alluring, and deadly; and you would be thrice a fool if you missed her story.
The book is written in a more sharply paced style than Hawken's prior works, but is the better for it when capturing the sudden reversals and quick thinking that mark Camaro out as a personality. Hawken's created a great character here, and I for one would love to see Camaro stake out some territory in the popular imagination...perhaps even on screen (HBO, I'm looking at you).
I recommend the book, indeed, all his work, thoroughly, and think it a great shame that he is not yet judged in the front rank of letters. I hope that "Camaro Run" will start a change in his literary and popular estimation. It's available now on Amazon. In fact, should you own a kindle you can start reading it in less than a minute; so what you waiting for?


Sam Hawken

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This, my first Sam Hawken book, is also the launch title in his series of four novellas (and a planned novel) about title character Camaro Espinoza, a ballsy, Harley-riding tough gal who takes seriously her vow to “defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic” — with lethal force as necessary.

And Camaro Run gets down to business almost immediately, and that’s where it stays, steering a pretty relentless course for the duration of the read. Good. That’s what I expected, and that’s what I got: a couple of hours of no-nonsense action.

In truth, this isn’t the sort of book to which I normally gravitate. That’s not because I look down on pulp books (I have read a small number); rather, it’s because I’m not entrenched enough in the various genres to know who’s writing them well enough for me to spend my cash and time on a title.

I also generally like to challenge myself with my reads whenever possible.

That said, shit if I don’t like something fun once in a while! And just as for every few Haneke films, I might need a Die Hard (but only movies 1, 2, or 3; not the new ones), the same is true for my book choices.

So, if I say pulpy, if I say trashy, if I say easy-reading, I don’t mean them negatively. For me, there is nothing wrong with a “good trashy, pulpy, easy-reading action yarn”. Which is exactly what Camaro Run is. Embrace that, and run with Camaro. She’s a firecracker!

[Brian Southworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I decided to read this latest entry by Sam Hawken I expected a gritty, fast-paced adventure. Camaro Run delivered! I was sucked into this world from page one and it didn't disappoint. A suspenseful, adrenaline rushed quick read that left me wanting more! can't wait for the next installment.

[Ross Cumming · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's no beating about the bush with Sam Hawken's latest novella and from page one you are immediately drawn into the world of Camaro Espinoza. At 93 pages, the story is lean (and mean) with very little fat, as there is no time to dwell on her past, apart from an isolated chapter well into the novella. What I also liked about the story is that the two main characters are women and they are not clichés but strong minded individuals who have to rely on each others strengths. The dialogues great and there's action aplenty. My only criticism is that it's a bit short but hey ho, there are another three Camaro novellas ( the next of which is Crossfire and I've already started it) and a novel to come.