Runaway

by Ed McBain

Johnny Lane is outside the Apollo when he sees Luis, and rage floods his veins. Every tough in Harlem knows that Luis tried to rape Johnny's girl, and that means he has to die. Johnny comes out swinging, but Luis is wearing brass knuckles, and he almost kills Johnny before the fight gets broken up. A few weeks later, as a brutal winter settles over New York, Johnny is walking down the street when he hears the gunfire. Luis has been shot dead. Johnny runs without thinking, because it's bad news for a black man to get caught near a corpse, but the cops catch up with him anyway. He didn't shoot Luis, but he had a motive, and that's good enough for the New York Police Department. Cornered, alone, and helpless, Johnny has no choice but to find the real killer—or spend the rest of his life on the run from the cops, his friends, and his girl. A hardboiled story of a friendless man hunted by the police, Runaway is vintage Ed McBain. It's a story of life on the margins of a merciless city, from an author who knew the dark side of New York better than anyone.

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 1954

About the author

"Ed McBain" is one of the pen names of American author and screenwriter Salvatore Albert Lombino (1926-2005), who legally adopted the name Evan Hunter in 1952.

While successful and well known as Evan Hunter, he was even better known as Ed McBain, a name he used for most of his crime fiction, beginning in 1956.

He also used the pen names John Abbott, Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, Ezra Hannon, Dean Hudson, Evan Hunter, and Richard Marsten.

Reviews

[David Highton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story of a young black man from Harlem on the run for a murder he did not commit and the characters he engages with while avoiding the police. McBain brings the same eloquent writing to his descriptions of New York as he does to his fictional Isola in the 87th Precinct series. The police play a small part in this story in comparison with the other players involved, particularly the beautiful dancer girlfriend of the fugitive

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Johnny Lane is out and about on the dark and dangerous streets of nighttime 1950's Harlem when he hears a gunshot and takes off running. He knows the cops will be looking for a shooter. After slowing to a walk and settling into a park bench where he hopes he won't be accosted by cops, he finds himself in that exact situation. Seeing in their faces that they aren't listening to his pleas of innocence, and learning that the murder victim is a piece of human garbage named Luis whom he had conflict with before, he slugs a cop and takes his car and then is on the run for his life.

"Runaway Black" (1954) was originally written by Richard Marsten and the version I read shows Ed McBain as the author, with both being pseudonyms of the actual author Ed Hunter. If you are familiar with the 87th Precinct series, this manic adventure in the ugly streets of a disgusting city bears some similar tones and themes around vice, crime, racism, and dirty cops in NYC/Isola.

Verdict: "Runaway Black" reads like a trippy back-alley twisted gauntlet through hell as Johnny tries to stay alive, dodge the law, find aid, find his girl, and find the real killer, in a crime-ridden 1950's NYC environment. Really not the most riveting read, and certainly not up to the entertaining standards McBain will set with his later 87th Precinct novels, but I'm a sucker for a short chase movie or book and "Runaway" fit the bill this afternoon.

Jeff's Rating: 3 / 5 (Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: R

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as I can tell, this was originally published in 1954. It is a sympathetic account of a young black man on the run from the police in New York. Some of the writing may appear to be dated when looking through the eyes of 21st century sensibilities. A contemporary audience might struggle with some of the terminology used. There’s so few ratings of this book on GR to measure this, but I would imagine that some readers would see racist and sexist undertones throughout. However, I think that at the heart of it, McBain gives an insight into life on the margins and the deprivations of poverty. There a couple scenes of genuine terror towards the end of this book that I think will stay with me.

[Rog Harrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Copy I read was credited to Ed McBain.