SHORT REVIEW: RUTH RUN By ELIZABETH KAUFMAN

If you are after a briskly paced, morally ambivalent, crime thriller with a spiky female protagonist and an unexpected plot line, then Elizabeth Kaufman’s Ruth Run, (Penguin, 15 April 2025), is for you.

Twenty-six-year-old Ruth is a thief who excels at microchip design. She has spent the past five years siphoning more than $250 million out of the banking system by using a hacked firewall chip that only she knows how to access. Then one night an alarm goes off and she realizes she’s been discovered.

Five hours later she’s on the run, chased across California and the Mid West by a slew of government agents who see her as both a high-level national security threat and a potential intelligence asset. Teaming up with a dodgy truck driver who has secrets of his own, Ruth finds that she has stumbled into a dangerous web of corruption and terrorism.

Ruth Run is a really enjoyable crime novel that dives into the action from the first page and does not relinquish its grip on your attention until the surprising conclusion. There is not a lot of violence, but plenty of suspense, as Ruth manages to dodge authorities and play one side off against each other as she tries to stay alive and out of jail. The alternating viewpoint between Ruth and one of her pursuers, a Government agent who has been secretly watching her for years, works very well and keeps the tension at a high level. The plotting is clever, and Kaufman skilfully weaves in unexpected layers that add interest, and take the story in surprising directions.

I really liked the character of Ruth with her rough edges and flexible morality. She is not an admirable person, but Kaufman does well in making her sympathetic without underplaying the fact that she is a criminal. I also thought that the supporting characters were well developed and interesting.

My only slight reservation was the abrupt ending, which was a little unsatisfying and left some questions hanging. There is also one aspect to the ending that some may be uncomfortable with, but it is consistent with Ruth’s personality. Also some more action would not have gone astray, although the book is never dull.

In all, Ruth Run is a good quick crime read, with enough quirkiness and interest to raise it above the pack.

Ruth Run is released in the United States and the United Kingdom on 15 April 2025. It is not released in Australia, but can be purchased online. Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advanced copy of the book for review.