By Cynthia Ayala

On the run, Mark has become a fugitive, a man on the run from the Mogadorians and the Government. Mark is on his way to save Sarah with the help of his online ally, a blogger from They Walk Among Us by the name GUARD. But as Mark gets closer to Sarah, there is a truth behind all the secrecy that will change everything.

An ebook novella by Pittacus Lore, The Fugitive is the tenth novel in The Lost Files collection published by HarperCollins on December 23, 2014.

There is a saying that a good writer can say more with less. That’s not to diminish writers or stories that hold so much, but when there is a story that is meant to captivate in such small space, writing more with less is and executing it well can be a challenge. Lore happens to be one of the writers that can do that.

This is a fast paced 100-page novella that follows Mark, one of the more minor characters within the Lorien Legacies. The events follow the previous story with Mark, Return to Paradise and continue to elevate the status of the character from minor to major because if there is anything this series tries to state is that everyone is a major character. But the way that he does this works with the fundamentals of building the story and character outside of the main novels. There is no reason so rehash what has already been displayed for the reader within the series as a whole.

But the style of writing and the story itself adds to the over all series without dampening it. Filling in story gaps and taking an just one facet of the over all story, Lore runs with it. And choosing Mark was a great choice as well. He was a punk in the first novel and ever since Return to Paradise he has grown and continues to grow in this novella. His attitude has completely changed and went from school jock/punk into this saving grace character. He’s challenging the world around him to do what he knows is right. He’s just one person working alongside someone he doesn’t know, putting his trust in the hands of a total stranger and that is development for the character. Lore devotes so much time to building up this character narrative making him a hero in his own right and not a character to be overshadowed by the main protagonists within the series. This is the characters moment to shine and he does.

The personal narrative is what sets the pace for the story, drawing the reader in and moving the story very fast. It’s a short story so the writer has to make it impactful for reader and for the fans of the series. The story has to add to the overall series and it does. There is so much that goes on within these few hundred pages and it moves so quickly, drawing the reader into the plot.

All of this highlights the talent of the writer because it’s meticulously written, each word, sentence and phrase serves a purpose of building the narrative and when the publisher is presenting an ebook novella, there is a limit to how much space is allotted to the writer to fit the definition of a novella. It can either go poorly or captivate the reader. The Fugitive does just that by building a fast paced story giving just enough to leave the readers wanting to see more from the writer. (★★★★☆ | B+)