Editors Picks. Discover the best books of July. Explore more
Kindle Unlimited
Unlimited reading. Over 2 million titles. Learn more
OR
$6.12

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Price includes tax, if applicable
You've subscribed to ! We will pre-order your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your memberships & subscriptions
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer—no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera, scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Desolation Run Kindle Edition

4.1 out of 5 stars 1,098 ratings

off $80 on eligible NAB Visa Cards. Enter code NAB10 at checkout. Discount by Amazon. Terms  off $80 on eligible NAB Visa Cards. Promo code NAB10 is saved to your account. Discount by Amazon. Terms  
off $60 with PayTo. Code PAYTOPD. Discount by Amazon. Terms  off $60 with PayTo. Code PAYTOPD. Discount by Amazon. Terms  
Three escaped convicts and a runaway girl search for a hidden fortune in stolen military payroll, while being pursued by a nationwide police manhunt, an enraged ex-husband, and a psychotic prison investigator bent on revenge...

70-something Oreny “Big” Johnson has a problem. Actually, he has two. Or maybe three. The first is that he’ll be dead from cancer, less than a year, which doesn’t particularly concern him: “The things I’ve been through, dying is just one more page in a long bad book.” But spending his last living days, taking his last living breath, behind steel bars does.

That’s the second problem: Inmate #78903 in the notorious level-four Washington State prison known as Horseneck Bay. Then there’s the money. Two million dollars of stolen military payroll, supposedly buried in some remote and mysterious south-Texas mountain range called
Los Despoblados, or The Uninhabited, which sounds to Oreny like one of those places his Mama Maybell always told him to avoid. But he’ll worry about that later. He has to get there first. Problem number three.

That’s when he brings those two smoldering dynamite sticks he’s attached himself to—his Luke-boy and Jaime—on board to help his tired old body break out of Horseneck and go dig up that money and then hightail it across the border into Mexico. And when they do break out, and Luke decides to bring his girlfriend Lauren along, and her enraged ex comes after them, and then the manhunt starts multiplying faster around them than those cancer cells inside him, Oreny still thinks he can control them. The problems, that is. At least, until Cade arrives.

Cade, the prison investigator Oreny knows is dangerous and unpredictable as a six-foot-two wolverine on eight gallons of adrenalin gone bad. And who won’t stop until he catches them and does to them what Cade does best. Cade, Oreny knows better than anything else, is their biggest problem of all...

"Simultaneously brutal, bloody and beatific, this is crime fiction done right. A relentlessly paced, unpredictable page-turner powered by well-developed characters." Kirkus Reviews
Prime Day Deals on Kindle E-Readers
Save up to 29% on Kindle E-readers. Exclusively for Prime members. Shop Now

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00FYY53B8
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bandera Publishing Company
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 10 October 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 808 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 337 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0991527014
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars 1,098 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
James Snyder
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

James Snyder was born in Memphis, Tennessee and lived in many parts of the United States before settling with his family in Napa Valley. Among a variety of careers and occupations, he was a soldier with a tactical mobile operations unit in Germany, as well as an executive for a Fortune 500 company.

Among others, he has published short stories in the Houghton Mifflin Black Mask anthologies, the Ginosko Literary Journal, and was a finalist in the New Letters’ Alexander Patterson Cappon Prize for Fiction. His literary works include the novels AMERICAN WARRIOR, DESOLATION RUN, THE BEAUTIFUL-UGLY, FRENCH QUARTERS, SOLDIER IN GERMANY, and the short story collection TALES OF THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY.

His author’s website and contact are at jamessnyder.net. He currently lives and writes in the Texas Hill Country.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
1,098 global ratings

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers

Top reviews from Australia

  • Reviewed in Australia on 8 January 2017
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    this is a great book. good writing, interesting characters. enjoyed the road trip thru western and southern usa. ending maybe a little too dramatic.
  • Reviewed in Australia on 5 February 2016
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    Good read, but not a happy ending I'm afraid. Story held me all the way through, characters well developed, well written.

Top reviews from other countries

  • Cazulp
    5.0 out of 5 stars Plausible story and a good read
    Reviewed in Canada on 2 March 2020
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    This is the first time I have read this author. Thoroughly enjoyed the story line and would read other books he has written.
  • H. Hotop
    5.0 out of 5 stars Glad I came across this one :-)
    Reviewed in Germany on 1 March 2016
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    Very well written novel, very evocative. Diverse, complex characters, heading towards something that's far too big for them to handle.
  • Mordecai
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Coen brothers ought to make a film of this...
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 November 2016
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    This is a hard-as-nails, yet on occasion lyrically well-written, tense modern thriller. The general atmosphere reminded me very much of Cormac McCarthy’s/The Coen Brothers’ ‘No Country For Old Men’. There’s a lot of bleakness, well-described scenery, good characterisation, convincing dialogue and a twisting plot. There’s even a touch of mysticism, too. Beware (as some reviewers have mentioned), there’s lots of bad language, sex, and graphic violence. But to me, none of these things seems out of place with the author’s great writing style and plotting. Highly recommended – a real page-turner (or button-clicker, in Kindle world!)
  • Rider
    5.0 out of 5 stars My Highest Praise for your literary accomplishment, Mr. Snyder, and I am eager to read MORE!
    Reviewed in the United States on 29 October 2014
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    I don't review most of the books I read by relatively new, or "up and coming" authors, because they often fall somewhere near the middle of the bell curve for various reasons. If I find one either especially bad, I try to warn other readers, since almost everyone "publishing" these days seems to have a stable of loyal friends and family willing to pad even the most agregious blater with positive "reviews". Conversely, when, in my opinion, I do find a new author who seems to really stand head and shoulders above the pack relative to talent, originality, and virtuosity, It only seems fair to give their work a nod of praise and recognition. James Snyder's Desolation Run shows the kind of writing prowess, intelligent observation and expression, and uninhibited confidence found more typically in a well established author with legions of fans. This novel satsfied me in ways few have of late. I need characters I can believe, want to spend time with, and are complex, flawed, vulnerable and noble. I want my villains to be just as real and tortured as my heroes, and I don't want anything spoon fed to me. However the authentic character development forms but the foundation for the authors pehaps most gratifying gift to the reader; that being his ability to engross you immediately in an adventure so unpredictable, both breathlessly beautiful and horrifying, that though you want to at least briefly step away from the expereince unfolding before you, yet can't bear turning off the light for the night.
  • Cozmickid80
    4.0 out of 5 stars What a fabulous story
    Reviewed in the United States on 17 May 2025
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    Titled like it is, I wasn't expecting a Disney story, but I was still surprised by the gritty, desperate, and often brutal way this story unfolded. I felt moments of sparse, fragile hope that seemed pointless, as well as moments of surprise that things had somehow worked out.

    Always, there was the knowledge of ambient dread; of the growing feeling of disaster building momentum towards some awful conclusion, but I couldn't turn away.

    And I couldn't turn away because the characters were so skillfully written that, even the ones I didn't like I believed and needed to see through to the end.

    And what an end!

    I highly recommend this book.

Report an issue


Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?