Runner 13: A Thriller

An exhilarating thriller set against a 250-mile foot race in the Sahara Desert, where more than one ultramarathoner will be running for their lives

Seven years ago, Adri left the running world after a major scandal. She leveled an explosive, and as it turns out career-ending, accusation at one of the world's most celebrated coaches--and then he died suddenly. Now, after years away from the limelight, she's ready to race again. Adri is hungry for a challenge, and she's picked one of the toughest events imaginable: a 250-mile trek through the Sahara Desert organized by a mysterious and famously sadistic race director. It will be a true test of her will and her stamina, proof that after all these years, she can still do it. But she's also there to get closure on the mysteries that cloud her past. Was her family targeted by one of her coach's defenders? Was his death due to natural causes?

Adri is determined to finish the race and to find the answers to these long-buried questions. But clarity is hard to come by out in the Sahara's extreme conditions. And as a number of runners start dropping out, some from the heat and others under more mysterious circumstances, it becomes clear that there's someone out there in the desert trying to stop anyone from winning--by any means necessary.

Author: Amy McCulloch
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Published: 07/01/2025
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.30w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780593687031


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2025
Booklist 07/08/2025

About the Author
AMY McCULLOCH is the author of Breathless and Midnight, as well as eight novels for children and young adults, including the internationally bestselling YA novel The Magpie Society: One for Sorrow. She is the youngest Canadian woman to climb Manaslu in Nepal, the world's eighth-highest mountain. She has also summited the highest mountain in the Americas, Aconcagua, completed the Marathon des Sables in the Sahara Desert, and visited all seven continents. She lives outside London.