Runner 13

Runner 13

Amy McCulloch, 1986-

Book - 2025

"An exhilarating thriller set against a 250-mile foot race in the Sahara Desert, where at least one ultramarathoner is running for her life. Adrienne Wendell was once an exceptional ultramarathoner, a runner whose times were within striking distance of setting records. Years ago, she gave it all up when her son Ethan was hit by a car while she was in a race and unable to come to his help. He survived, but it horrified her that she had not been around to help. There was another reason she put running behind her: she had leveled a career-ending accusation at one of the world's most celebrated coaches-just before he mysteriously died. She instantly became a pariah in the running community. Now seven years have passed, and Adri is bac...k on her feet. She's headed to Morocco for a staggering 250-mile race through the Sahara Desert organized by none other than Boones-a race director so mysterious and elusive he goes by only one name. Boones's races are famously sadistic. Routes can change moments before the starting gun fires, and inevitably there are bizarre challenges that test the runners' will and stamina. Adri is here to prove that, despite everything that has happened, she can still do it. But she's also here for answers to the mysteries that cloud her past, and she's as determined to find them as she is to finish the race. The only question is who is trying to stop her. There are secrets swirling in the hot desert sands, and as Adri gets closer to the explosive truth, the danger climbs with every step she takes"--

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Subjects
Thrillers (Fiction)
Novels.
Romans.
Genres
Thrillers (Fiction)
Novels
Romans
Published
New York : Doubleday 2025.
Language
English
Main Author
Amy McCulloch, 1986- (author)
Edition
First Doubleday hardcover edition
Physical Description
pages cm
ISBN
9780593687031
Contents unavailable.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Like any extreme sport, ultrarunning can be dangerous, and it proves deadly in this thriller set in the Sahara Desert. Elite runner Adrienne Wendell, who lives in England's Lake District with her 10-year-old son, Ethan, is in Morocco to participate in the 250-mile Hot & Sandy race; it's organized by enigmatic impresario Boones, who has, as Adrienne puts it, dedicated his life to "finding out the limit of human endurance." Adrienne hasn't raced in seven years--not since she was met at the finish line of the Yorkshire 100 by police informing her that Ethan had nearly been hit by a black Range Rover that seemed to be targeting him before it fled the scene. Of course, Adrienne has agreed to participate in Hot & Sandy: Her invitation arrived bearing the words "COME AND FIND ANSWERS" above a license plate number; results from Adrienne's online sleuthing link the plate to a black Range Rover. But Adrienne brings her own whiff of villainy to Hot & Sandy: Just before Ethan's accident, something happened at a runners' training camp in Ibiza that has made her a pariah in the running scene. The novel's slow-drip reveal regarding what occurred in Ibiza is abetted by a second narrator: Stella Mamoud, who is attending Hot & Sandy because her fiancé, Adrienne's ex-husband, is participating. (Stella also happens to be Boones' estranged daughter). This novel about extreme behavior in the world of extreme sports won't win any prizes for extreme plausibility, and cliches and pat psychology clot the writing. Regardless, readers should remain absorbed by the elaborate plot's multiple lines of inquiry: What happened in Ibiza? Who will win Hot & Sandy? And who is incapacitating runners more effectively than even the punishing Saharan sandstorms and immobilizing heat? A diverting if plausibility-testing thriller. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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