Listen free for 30 days

Preview
  • Runaway

  • Written by: Peter May
  • Narrated by: Peter Forbes
  • Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (18 ratings)

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Runaway

Written by: Peter May
Narrated by: Peter Forbes
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $48.31

Buy Now for $48.31

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

"Five of us had run away that fateful night just over a month before. Only three of us would be going home. And nothing, nothing would ever be the same again."

Glasgow, 1965. Headstrong teenager Jack Mackay cannot allow for even the possibility of a life of predictability and routine. The 17-year-old has just one destination on his mind - London - and successfully convinces his four friends and fellow bandmates to join him in abandoning their homes to pursue a goal of musical stardom.

Glasgow, 2015. Jack Mackay dares not look back on a life of failure and mediocrity. The heavy-hearted 67-year-old is still haunted by what might have been. His recollections of the terrible events that befell him and his friends some 50 years earlier, and how he did not act when it mattered most, are memories he has tried to escape his entire adult life.

London, 2015. A man lies dead in a one-room flat. His killer looks on, remorseless. What started with five teenagers following a dream five decades before has been transformed over the intervening decades into a waking nightmare that might just consume them all.

Runaway is a tense crime thriller spanning a half century of friendships solidified and severed, dreams shared and shattered, passions ignited and extinguished, all set against the backdrop of two unique cities at two unique and transformational periods of recent history.

©2016 Peter May (P)2016 Hachette Audio
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What the critics say

"A terrific read suffused with nostalgia and the burden of long suppressed guilt." ( The Sunday Times)
"An outstanding novel that speaks directly to the little voice within each of us: the voice that in our quieter moments sometimes asks 'What if?'" ( Undiscovered Scotland)
"The scents of regret and squandered promise suffuse this well-crafted crime novel, about a group of senior Glaswegians attempting to make amends for past sins." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Runaway

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    13
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Runaway

Love every book I have read & listen to by Peter May. Having lived in Scotland for part of my life I find that each book I read I am visiting every place again. Looking forward to the next one.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great listen

Great storyline, wonderful narration. Do I love Peter May's books or do I love Peter Forbes' narration? It's a toss-up!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Big themes

Great story about friendship, youth, love.
I can’t say enough good things about this Peter May novel. And the narration is faultless.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding

This is a tremendous story, especially for readers who remember the U.K. of the Swinging Sixties. And the narrator does a top-notch job as well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Melancholic, regrets, I've had a few.

Contains spoilers.
Wow, dark and depressing rides from Glasgow to London and back twice, once in 1965 and again present day. I found it hard to empathize with any of the main characters here unlike many of Peter May's other stories, they have so many faults. The author's use of pathos is outstanding but then I'm of the same age as Jack (and Peter May) so I get many of the hooks and references. It is a mystery but that aspect of the story almost takes a back seat at times. Runaway is a little different in style from his usual crime puzzles where one is trying to figure it out all the way through to the end.
The narrative certainly takes a while to get going and doesn't immediately seize you by the lapels in the way of the Lewis trilogy. I found some episodes in the famous five's adventures to be rather redundant and unnecessary, for example the account of the Lake District mugging and the tedious bus trip from Leeds to an M1 service station. However, the climactic ending makes it all worth while although it stretches credibility a little. I found the whole "Jobby Jeff" thing extremely irritating and puerile, probably because a Scottish boy in my school used the same expression with the same effect on the rest of the class. It wasn't until the end that I realized this was probably a way for PM to build innocence and vulnerability in that character.
May makes use of alternating first and third person narration, a technique he uses frequently in other books. This lends itself well to the skills of the superb narrator, Peter Forbes who again brings it all to life and makes certain sagging parts less boring (although you can always increase speed to x1.75 in these bits and PF's diction is so good you can hear every word!).
Accounts of the swinging sixties and its music are interesting and populated by composite or pastiche characters based on famous persons of the time. The psychiatrist, JP, is clearly based on Ronnie Laing, the famous Glaswegian anti-psychiatry psychiatrist who did not however take his own life but did have issues with depression and alcohol. The Dr Robert of Kensington character seems to be based on a composite of Robert Fraser , the Beatles and Stones art dealer and friend ,(died from HIV), and Stephen Ward, the society osteopath famed for the Profumo scandal who did take a fatal barbiturate OD.
Overall worth a listen, particularly if you are familiar with the period. Not one of PM's best and certainly has a slightly different pace than the tightly crafted mysteries of Enzo or the Hebrides.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Ver good story!

Another wonderful book by Peter May and, as usual narrated excellently by Peter Forbes. No hesitation in recommending this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!