The Light Runner
Reviewed By Ian Banks June 6, 2025
Author Ally Walker
Distributor: Amazon
ISBN: 978-1966981060
Publisher: Red Rabbit Press
Release Date: 6 June 2025
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Billed as a metaphysical thriller, The Light Runner is all of that as well as a captivating journey into the world of alternate reality and what seems to be so is not but is the reality.
After the death of his wife Hannah in a brutal carpark killing Captain Oliver Haskell has voluntarily admitted himself to the Bainbridge Psychiatric Hospital, his budding career in politics now nothing more than a dream.
Ella Kramer is a new graduate Doctor assigned to the case even though it is complex. Her lover is the Head Psychiatrist at Bainbridge, and she is stunned when he tells her she is handling the case. She does not believe she has the developed experience to be able to deal with this complex case effectively.
Detective Paul Moran is assigned to the high-profile case as Hannah had been a research scientist having created a drug which benefitted mentally distressed people. Her murder makes him wonder why she was targeted and who did the targeting. He goes on gut instinct and often uses the help of his partners clairvoyance to clarify difficult issues and solve challenging cases.
As Ella struggles to understand what has happened and why, she begins to talk to and listen to the other patients at the Hospital, particularly a man called Don, who even in his confused state of mind seems to be insistent about Haskell, repeatedly calling out the word ‘Van’ repeatedly. Something about the man disturbs him profoundly.
As the pages turn in this riveting thriller the many levels of reality are presented which at times calls for serious concentration, especially when Ella begins to realise that whatever is going on in Bainbridge is far from normal; all the patients in B Block somehow seem to be connected to Oliver Haskell and what was once considered as reality, is now a distortion of every form of reality she ever knew or understood.
Ally Walker has in her first novel The Light Runner created an alternate reality that is all too real, blending seamlessly past and present as each of the clearly defined characters present their own reality but hide behind the façade they have created.
Book one in The Reality Series, The Light Runner introduces a new talent to the metaphysical genre of literature in Ally Walker and launches what promises to be a riveting series in a genre that perfectly captures the conundrum that is humanity.