Runner

When a new job falls his way, Chance jumps at the opportunity, becoming a runner who picks up strange packages on a daily route and delivers them to a shady man at the marina. Chase knows how much he will earn--what he doesn't know is how much he will pay.

Suspenseful, fast-paced, and poignant, this novel avoids easy answers as it examines issues of terrorism and patriotism, fear and courage, and the lives of privilege and poverty.

For a kid desperate to escape poverty, the job seems perfect. But what's really inside the packages he runs?

• A High-Stakes Thriller: Seventeen-year-old Chance is a runner, but this daily route involves more than just exercise--it involves mysterious packages, a shady deal, and dangers he can't comprehend.
• Moral Dilemma: The cash is good, a lifeline for him and his alcoholic father. But when Chance suspects he's a pawn in a much larger, deadlier game, he has to decide how much his integrity is worth.
• Poverty and Privilege: A gritty look at life on the margins, contrasting a teen living on a broken-down sailboat with the seemingly perfect lives of his classmates.
• A Patriotic Question: In a world shaped by terrorism, Chance is forced to confront what patriotism really means and where his loyalties truly lie.