Running Wild

July 20, 2015
Anderson’s fourth Sisterhood Diaries contemporary (after Playing Dirty) moves into the realm of romantic suspense. Finn Kavanagh, a builder from Seattle whose family keeps urging him to settle down, goes on a solo hiking vacation in the Amazonian country of El Tigre, wondering whether he’s ready to look for a permanent relationship. Then he inadvertently prevents the kidnapping of Mags Deluca. Mags, a commitment-phobic wild child, gave up her fledgling makeup-artist career in Hollywood to find her Baptist missionary parents, who were abducted by a drug cartel in El Tigre. Mags and Finn’s personalities clash as they try to escape the thugs and rescue Mags’s parents, but they soon discover that Finn’s level-headed planning and Mags’s creativity are both needed to survive the chase. Certain set pieces shine, particularly a street festival and a white-water boating rescue, but the character development is limited. The drug cartel never rises above stereotype, Finn’s and Mags’s character tics never quite coalesce into full-fledged personalities, and the resolution feels abrupt and unearned.