CRYPTONYM BLOG

The manhunt thriller, or chase novel, is the purest form of adventure story. The tale of a fleeing man in peril is the most basic of plots and yet the most enthralling. The chase novel does not require the intricacies of its mystery or crime siblings, for it is jeopardy rather than curiosity which drives the story’s momentum.

Here I discuss nine chase novels from the classic to the modern. Some of these books influenced my own offering to this style of thriller: THE FILE. If you do not already own these books, I urge you to read them. They represent very important contributions to the broad library of suspense stories. Don’t miss out.

KIDNAPPED (1886) – Robert Louis Stevenson

Tricked out of his inheritance by his uncle and hidden aboard a brig bound for the Carolinas, David Balfour encounters Highlander Alan Breck Stewart after a collision with a boat at sea. When the brig, Covenant, is wrecked on a reef near Mull, Balfour manages to reach land and then attempts to find safety and shelter.

Balfour and his companion are reunited but thought responsible for the murder of one of Stewart’s sworn enemies, Colin Roy Campbell of Glenure, also known as the Red Fox. Their desperate flight across the Highlands, hunted by red-coat soldiers in enemy territory, begins urgently halfway through the novel.

KIDNAPPED is set in the summer of 1751 and makes use of historical events and characters, albeit with creative and chronological licence. The author’s descriptions of the landscape and its dangers are, to this day, unsurpassed. The shifting moods in Balfour and Stewart’s friendship are also masterfully written.

While some of the Scots dialect words may present a challenge, the story is a masterpiece. The book has been reproduced in copies of varying quality, so buy the Vintage facsimile edition, the Penguin Classics edition (with glossary and historical notes), or this compendium which includes the sequel CATRIONA.

ROGUE MALE (1939) – Geoffrey Household

Captured while aiming a rifle at a European dictator, the unnamed narrator of ROGUE MALE is tortured and then flung over a cliff. His persecutors expect his smashed body to be found and interpreted as a terrible accident, but the rogue male survives after falling into marshy ground and eventually escapes to England.

The story unfolds over three acts – there are no chapters in Household’s iconic novel – and it is written as a journal recounting the protagonist’s experiences. Brutal incidents are never described directly. Instead, Household reveals their horror afterwards; it’s the absence of description which makes them so vivid.

The symbolism of burrowing into the earth and emerging reborn as more animal than human is a recurring theme, although the main character lives by both instinct and cunning. His adversary, an agent who calls himself Major Quive-Smith, forces the rogue male to admit the truths which he has hidden from himself.

ROGUE MALE is a great novel that not only tells a cracking adventure story but also delves into the mind of its protagonist with extraordinary precision and nuance. The descriptions of Dorset are beautiful and stand in marked contrast to the cruel aspects of the book. It concludes with a bold and ingenious escape.

ROGUE JUSTICE (1982) – Geoffrey Household

The main story of ROGUE JUSTICE starts in 1942, three years after the events of ROGUE MALE, but the missing years are recounted. Having stolen the identity documents of Quive-Smith, the hunter returned to Europe for another assassination attempt, seeking revenge for the torture and murder of his betrothed.

The protagonist is named in the sequel as Raymond Ingelram. His target is confirmed as Adolf Hitler, and the deceased Quive-Smith is identified as an Eton-educated Prussian named Von Lauen. The adventure starts with the captured Ingelram escaping from prison during the historical RAF raids on Rostock.

Having failed to get close to Hitler by pretending to be a Nazi propagandist during the three years before his detention, Ingelram sets out on a personal bloody war with the goal of joining the British Army. But his fanciful deceptions in Germany mean he is untrusted by his countrymen who believe him to be a Nazi spy.

Ingelram travels from Poland to Greece, aligning with partisans and killing Gestapo officers and German soldiers. His false identities are circulated and the authorities are put on alert. But his goal is ultimately death and reunion with his love. The conclusion in Africa is as dramatic as the fugitive’s evasion flight.

FIRST BLOOD (1972) – David Morrell

A man named Rambo arrives in a Kentucky town and is promptly moved on by Wilfred Logan Teasle, the police chief. Rambo’s been through this sort of hassle too often, and this time he’s had enough of being pushed around. Chief Teasle has no idea the vagrant is a decorated Vietnam veteran and Green Beret.

Haunted by months of torture and captivity, Rambo snaps when arrested and manhandled by the police. He kills an officer and escapes into the hills. Instead of waiting for the state police to assist, Teasle leads his men after Rambo on an ill-fated mission. The manhunt escalates after Teasle barely makes it back alive.

FIRST BLOOD is an extraordinary landmark novel in the thriller genre. It’s far more than a violent action story, for it explores the pain of trauma and mirrors the political divides in America during the Vietnam War. The influence of Household can be seen in its pages, but this remarkable work is certainly not derivative.

If an aspiring suspense writer could only choose one book to study, FIRST BLOOD should be it. It is relentless in its momentum and a masterclass in the key thriller elements of conflict and jeopardy. It has one of the cleverest opening paragraphs I’ve ever read. And it’s not even my favourite David Morrell book.

TESTAMENT (1975) – David Morrell

The protagonist of Morrell’s TESTAMENT is Reuben Bourne, a writer who incurs the wrath of the leader of a far-right paramilitary group after penning the article he wasn’t meant to write. Bourne’s family is attacked and a pursuit ensues. The greater part of the book follows Bourne’s attempts to survive in the mountains.

Morrell intended to write a disturbing novel, and he succeeded. The book is brutal and cruel and doesn’t follow the usual thriller structure. If the reader expects equilibrium to be restored to Bourne’s life at the end of the story, he will be troubled that it is not, especially after the ruthless momentum of the final stages.

To ensure authenticity when describing survival techniques, Morrell took part in a wilderness course in Wyoming. An intriguing aspect of TESTAMENT is the untrained Bourne trying to recall the skills he researched for his novels. Morrell includes a passage from FIRST BLOOD and attributes it to Bourne.

Bourne, of course, is unlike Rambo. Thriller protagonists are either trained and proficient or completely ill-equipped for the situations they face. There is merit in writing the first sort, but the latter presents an equally intriguing scenario. Morrell, the master novelist, is adept at creating both types of character.

DIRTY WHITE BOYS (1994) – Stephen Hunter

Knowing he’s about to be killed in a revenge attack, brutal rapist and murderer Lamar James Pye escapes from Oklahoma’s McAlester State Penitentiary with his retarded cousin Odell Warren Pye and pathetic but artistic cellmate Richard Franklin Peed. Lamar decides his first task is to acquire some weaponry.

Sergeant Russell ‘Bud’ Pewtie of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol is one of the officers called out to assist with the manhunt. Partnered with Ted Pepper, a man whose heart isn’t in the job, Bud stumbles across the gang during an incident which ends with a fatality. Bud survives and hopes to never run into Lamar again.

Things don’t turn out that way, of course, and Pewtie tries to figure out the significance of some drawings sketched for Lamar by Richard. Lamar is a clever and calculating criminal, and eventually forces Bud into a violent and deadly confrontation. DIRTY WHITE BOYS has a great plot and superbly crafted characters.

It wouldn’t be a Stephen Hunter book without loads of guns and shooting, but the author never allows the technical details to slow down a good story. The twisted and intriguing relationships between the various characters give the novel its depth. DIRTY WHITE BOYS is a fine story with lots of action and suspense.

THE RUNNING BOY (2009) – Dan Pollock

Recluse Ethan Dean sees a young boy in mortal danger and, against his better judgement, forces himself to go to the child’s aid. The boy, Andy, is pursued by Russian thugs. Caught up in the manhunt, Dean calls the only person he can trust for help, Monine Kokuska, his website designer and potential love interest.

A clever aspect of THE RUNNING BOY is how Pollock starts the story six months into the chase. It allows for a dramatic beginning at the point when Dean is thrust into the action. The background story about how Andy witnessed a horrible incident and fled from Russia with the help of a journalist subsequently unfolds.

There is plenty of jeopardy throughout the book, particularly in the first third which recounts a continuous escape and evasion scenario involving boats, a hang glider and lots of running. The events of the novel cure Dean of his chronic anxiety rather quickly, but the compressed timeline could unfurl no other way.

THE RUNNING BOY is an entertaining fast read with a plot that feels a lot like a screenplay caper, and the author’s notes about the book reveal cinematic influences, but there’s enough depth to provide a decent foundation for the action. A fair balance is struck between the comedic antics and the violent scenes.

THE PASSENGER (2016) – Lisa Lutz

Tanya Dubois goes on the run after finding the dead body of her husband, knowing that talking to the authorities would put her in danger. She’s been hiding from her past for years, and the only option she can take after the unfortunate demise of her husband is to reinvent herself with a new identity once more.

An encounter with a woman known as Blue, who appears to have as much to be frightened of as Tanya, causes an intriguing turn of events. After asking an old contact to create a new persona for her, Tanya is attacked and fears for her life. Blue’s intervention leads to an uneasy loyalty between the two women.

The protagonist moves on but cannot stay in one place for long. As details about her past are revealed, she finds herself tiring of her fake lives and is drawn toward the home she left a decade ago. Her weariness is artfully described. This is a dramatic tale which combines tragedy, dark humour, suspense and mystery.

THE PASSENGER puts a clever spin on the manhunt genre. Although the protagonist is at physical risk, and her evasion flight is comparable to the best chase novels, it is her past which is the true hunter. This is a unique and finely plotted book. The last sentence is probably the most perfect end to a book I’ve read.

THE CHASE (2021) – Candice Fox

Hundreds of inmates in a Nevada correctional facility are set free when the families of prison staff, travelling in a bus to Pronghorn’s inmates-versus-wardens annual softball game, are pinned down by a sniper. It’s a dramatic start to a good book which successfully weaves together several well-structured story threads.

Prison officer Celine Osbourne gets into conflict with US marshal Trinity Parker, who leads the operation to round up the escapers. Parker is unimpressed with Osbourne’s fixation on capturing inmate John Kradle. The Osbourne-Kradle narrative is the main theme of the book. Their backstories are strongly constructed.

The characters are generally well drawn, including the dangerous prisoners who could have so easily become predictable in a thriller of this type. It’s therefore a little surprising that Parker, who bullies and humiliates fellow law enforcement officers, is less convincing as an only-in-the-movies stereotype.

Incidents involving the escapers are dotted throughout Kradle’s story, reminding the reader of Parker’s mission, and there’s a parallel plot about an imminent white supremacist terror attack. Even though Fox tests the reader’s suspension of disbelief more than once, THE CHASE is a very enjoyable book.

I’ve enjoyed reviewing these great manhunt novels for this post. The themes which define a good chase novel are as old as the hills. You can go back thirty or a hundred and thirty years and find common ground. The threads which bind these novels continue to influence contemporary stories. More in part two.