Rune Trilogy Books In Order

Publication Order of Rune Books

Rune Trilogy is a series of mystery suspense novels written by Jeffrey Deaver. The series follows the exploits of a young girl who solves crimes.

+The Story

The Rune Trilogy often surprises fans of Jeffrey Deaver. The author is best known for ‘The Bone Collector’ and the various other novels starring Lincoln Rhyme. And those books are pretty gritty and serious in their tone.

That is not the case for the Rune Trilogy series which could be accurately described as a young adult mystery. It isn’t just the story that catches Deaver’s fans off guard but his writing style.

Deaver writes primarily dark content. He isn’t macabre per say but his subject matter tends to leave his readers thinking. The Rune books are strangely light in their approach. But none of that should come as a surprise when one realizes that the Rune Trilogy was actually Jeffrey Deaver’s first undertaking as a writer.

‘Manhattan Is My Beat’, the first Rune Trilogy book was also Deaver’s first ever novel. And it definitely shows. The book is nowhere near as polished as the author’s other work.

The story told within follows the exploits of Rune, the protagonist of the series. At twenty years of age, Rune has only recently moved to Manhattan. She has a relatively comfortable abode and she has also secured employment at a video store.

Rune’s favorite customer is an old man who always rents the same video. When the old man dies and is discovered by Rune, while the authorities think he was the victim of a robbery gone wrong, Rune turns her attention to his favorite video.

She becomes convinced that it could hold the key to finding his killer and she wastes no time in pursuing her hunch.

Rune is one of the more popular aspects of the Rune Trilogy. She is a lovely, sassy, energetic young lady. A central aspect of her character is her love of movies. Rune only gets the job at the video store because it allows her to feed her passion for old movies.

The girl has her sights set on a future as a filmmaker and every step she takes is designed to bring her closer to her goal. It is for that reason that she eventually becomes an assistant cameraperson at a local news station.

Rune’s biggest asset is her knowledge of movies. It so happens that all the trouble into which Rune stumbles has a movie aspect to it. And she definitely stumbles into a lot of trouble.

Rune isn’t a private investigator. She doesn’t augment her income by finding and stopping bad guys in her spare time. Rather, she just keeps ending up in the wrong place at the wrong place.

And rather than walking away, Rune keeps choosing to get involved in the business of others. That particular attribute can be imputed to the heroine’s carefree spirit. Deaver definitely writes Rune as a wild child of sorts.

She prefers to let spontaneity rule her life. Rather than laying out her plans and strategies, Rune will go wherever the wind happens to take her. And if that wind is blowing her towards a murder investigation with a cinematic angle to it, Rune will follow.

The heroine’s spunky attitude tends to endear her to some readers. Other readers are not amused by her obsession with fairy tales and have complained that that particular attribute makes her appear a little too childish.

But while the character of Rune can get a little divisive, most readers appreciate the ridiculously rapid pace of the books in this series, not to mention the numerous plot twists and turns.

It is also pretty easy to observe the transformations in Deaver’s writing abilities as the series progresses. With each book, the author’s technique seems to refine. He gets better at describing his settings and fleshing out the personalities of his characters.

The Rune Trilogy is often recommended to fans of Jeffrey Deaver who would like to appreciate the evolution of his writing abilities.

+The Author

Jeffrey Deaver is an American author that writes mystery and crime novels. Deaver studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He eventually added a law degree from Fordham University to his resume.

He both practiced law and journalism at different points in his life before finally getting into writing and publishing.

The author’s books have earned him accolades like the Steel Dagger and Nero Wolfe Awards.

+Manhattan is My Beat

Rune is a 20-year-old young lady having the time of her life. She came to Manhattan with her purple hair and poetic imagination not that long ago. She already found a comfortable abode in the form of a Tribeca loft and you will not find her complaining about her job at a video store.

Rune loves cinema and there is no better place for her to feed her love for old movies. Rune gets on splendidly with Mr. Kelly. Kelly is a lonely old man who also loves movies, and he’s definitely Rune’s favorite customer.

Rune notices that Mr. Kelly keeps renting ‘Manhattan Is My Beat’ over and over again. The movie was based on an actual bank heist that was never solved.

When Rune is sent to Mr. Kelly’s apartment to pick up the tape, she is shocked to find him dead. The police want to throw the blame on a couple of robbers but Rune isn’t so sure. She has a hunch that Kelly’s murder is connected to his beloved noir classic.

So she begins to study its black and white frames even as she combs the streets of New York for clues, certain that she has what it takes to find a killer.

+Death of a Blue Movie Star

Rune is back and this time she’s working as a camerawoman. Rune has always dreamed of a future as a filmmaker and she pursues that dream with fervor this time when she decides to produce a documentary in her free time.

Rune’s adventure starts when an adult theater is blown up. Rune tries to cover the event by interviewing a porn star. When that porn star ends up dead, Rune refuses to be put off.

She decides to document the porn star’s life, using the project as a means of investigating her murder.