The Runner

THE 12 MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE LEWIS TRILOGY AND THE ENZO FILES AWARD WINNING AUTHOR OF THE CWA DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY 2021 ' Peter May is one of the most accomplished novelists writing today.' Undiscovered Scotland 'No one can create a more eloquently written suspense novel than Peter May.' New York Journal of Books The fifth China thriller sees Li Yan and Margaret Campbell uncover an insidious conspiracy on the eve of the Beijing Olympics THE SUFFERER A prodigious Chinese swimmer kills himself on the eve of the Beijing Olympics. Days later, a champion weightlifter suffers a fatal heart attack prior to competition. THE LISTENER Detective Li Yan senses a conspiracy surrounding the fatalities, and finds a female athlete willing to talk. But she will only trust one person: Li's fiancée, Margaret Campbell. THE RUNNER When Campbell's contact herself vanishes, the gun is fired on a race against time. And Li must now outrun, and outwit, an enemy bent on pushing him beyond endurance. LOVED THE RUNNER ? Read the final book in the China series, CHINESE WHISPERS LOVE PETER MAY? Order his new thriller, THE NIGHT GATE

The mind-expanding new thriller from the bestselling author of The Sleepwalkers and The End of Mr. Y, as featured on BBC Woman's Hour ‘This thriller is pure pleasure … The Runner is fantastically pacy stuff, with more twists and reversals than an extremely gnarly cross-country course … Thomas is one of those novelists who would be spoken of in awed tones of admiration if only she weren’t so funny … Sun-soaked and fleet-footed … Thomas has a fabulous control of her tone and handles the jumps between thriller, action and farce with audacious skill' Sarah Ditum, The Times ‘ [A] quirky exciting tale that takes in exorcism, dictators, high finance, con artists and marathons along the way’ Guardian, ' Best Recent Crime and Thrillers' He’s running for his life. And he’s running out of time. On a sun-soaked Greek island, Jay is on the run. He’s been hunted since he was twenty years old: a contract on his life traded like a commodity, rising and falling with the price of Bitcoin. Stranded with no passport, loyalty points as his only currency and an assassin in hot pursuit, Jay’s only hope is to escape on a catamaran with a crew on their way to perform an exorcism on a dictator’s private island. When it becomes clear that his shipmates are even more dubious than they first seemed, Jay has to run again – this time into the arms of the beautiful Ellie, who is either his doom or his salvation. Caught in a web of high-finance, con-artists, the Book of Jonah and ultramarathons, Jay will have to choose between love and survival, and run for his life ! Darkly funny, sexy, exciting, philosophical and enthralling, The Runner is an unmissable literary treat from Britain’s most exciting novelist. Praise for Scarlett Thomas ‘Muriel Spark’s disreputable niece’ Spectator ‘She's a genius’ Douglas Coupland ‘Fiction roaring on all cylinders’ Guardian ‘Gloriously dark and tangled’ Observer ‘A dark, twisty, savagely … a smart, layered, stinging look at power and its abuse’ The Times ‘A work of peculiar, gonzo genius' The New York Times ‘Like a darker, funnier The White Lotus’ James Smythe ‘Brilliant, savage and hilarious' Bidisha Mamata 'A twisty Gothic tale of vertiginous depths and haunting power' Sandra Newman ‘Ingenious and original’ Philip Pullman

The mind-expanding new thriller from the bestselling author of The Sleepwalkers and The End of Mr. Y, as featured on BBC Woman's Hour ‘This thriller is pure pleasure … The Runner is fantastically pacy stuff, with more twists and reversals than an extremely gnarly cross-country course … Thomas is one of those novelists who would be spoken of in awed tones of admiration if only she weren’t so funny … Sun-soaked and fleet-footed … Thomas has a fabulous control of her tone and handles the jumps between thriller, action and farce with audacious skill' Sarah Ditum, The Times ‘ [A] quirky exciting tale that takes in exorcism, dictators, high finance, con artists and marathons along the way’ Guardian, ' Best Recent Crime and Thrillers' He’s running for his life. And he’s running out of time. On a sun-soaked Greek island, Jay is on the run. He’s been hunted since he was twenty years old: a contract on his life traded like a commodity, rising and falling with the price of Bitcoin. Stranded with no passport, loyalty points as his only currency and an assassin in hot pursuit, Jay’s only hope is to escape on a catamaran with a crew on their way to perform an exorcism on a dictator’s private island. When it becomes clear that his shipmates are even more dubious than they first seemed, Jay has to run again – this time into the arms of the beautiful Ellie, who is either his doom or his salvation. Caught in a web of high-finance, con-artists, the Book of Jonah and ultramarathons, Jay will have to choose between love and survival, and run for his life ! Darkly funny, sexy, exciting, philosophical and enthralling, The Runner is an unmissable literary treat from Britain’s most exciting novelist. Praise for Scarlett Thomas ‘Muriel Spark’s disreputable niece’ Spectator ‘She's a genius’ Douglas Coupland ‘Fiction roaring on all cylinders’ Guardian ‘Gloriously dark and tangled’ Observer ‘A dark, twisty, savagely … a smart, layered, stinging look at power and its abuse’ The Times ‘A work of peculiar, gonzo genius' The New York Times ‘Like a darker, funnier The White Lotus’ James Smythe ‘Brilliant, savage and hilarious' Bidisha Mamata 'A twisty Gothic tale of vertiginous depths and haunting power' Sandra Newman ‘Ingenious and original’ Philip Pullman

'The most beautiful book I ever read.' - Rune Larsson, ultra-distance runner Markus Torgeby was just 20 years old when he headed off into the remote Swedish forest to live as a recluse and dedicate himself to his one true passion: running. He lived in a tent in the wilderness, braving the harsh Swedish winters - for four years. This is his story. An international bestseller, this extraordinary book is a powerful exploration of running, resilience, loss, and self-discovery. A talented long-distance runner in his teens, Markus Torgeby excelled in training, but often failed inexplicably in competition. Pressurised by his coach and consumed by the suffering of his MS-afflicted mother, he chose to do something that most of us only dream of: escape the modern world. In his stripped-back lifestyle in the woods, surviving with the bare minimum of supplies and enduring extreme cold, he found salvation and ultimately his true direction in life.

'The most beautiful book I ever read.' - Rune Larsson, ultra-distance runner Markus Torgeby was just 20 years old when he headed off into the remote Swedish forest to live as a recluse and dedicate himself to his one true passion: running. He lived in a tent in the wilderness, braving the harsh Swedish winters - for four years. This is his story. An international bestseller, this extraordinary book is a powerful exploration of running, resilience, loss, and self-discovery. A talented long-distance runner in his teens, Markus Torgeby excelled in training, but often failed inexplicably in competition. Pressurised by his coach and consumed by the suffering of his MS-afflicted mother, he chose to do something that most of us only dream of: escape the modern world. In his stripped-back lifestyle in the woods, surviving with the bare minimum of supplies and enduring extreme cold, he found salvation and ultimately his true direction in life.