This one was soooo fun and I felt the heat alongside the ultra marathoners as I tried to puzzle out what the heck was going on. Endless twists (and sand) made this one that I couldn’t put down!

I’m a sucker for multiple POVs and multiple timeline thrillers and this one hooked me good right from the start. I’m really looking forward to checking out more from this author as the pacing was phenomenal and it kept me reading past bedtime.

Check this one out if you love thrillers, running, a bit of murder, and twists!

**Thank you to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for the eARC of this thrilling title!**

Thank you NetGalley for this advance reader copy in exchange for my free and honest review. This was my first Amy McCulloch novel but it won’t be my last. This story was amazing, and made a reader feel like they were right in the middle of the race. Thrilling suspense filled novel that kept me guessing til the end, and intrigued dying to know the ending. Definitely recommend this one!

I sped through this! As someone who has competed in ultras, nothing remotely as extreme as this, I am fascinated by the human spirit to push through the pain and suffering in endurance races. This story was full of twists and turns that kept you guessing every page. 4.5 stars.

Runner 13 by Amy McCulloch was a thrilling novel about a 250 mile race through a desert using only supplies that fit into a backpack.
The mail protagonist is Adri. After a horrible scandal , she returns to running. She is praised by the organizer a view of the video that shows who tried to run her son over.
There is murder, injury and surprised in this exciting book. I highly recommend it if you like to read a book that makes you sit on the edge of your seat

I truly appreciate NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this free eARC in exchange for my honest opinion, but sadly this book didn't work for me.
This was the third book I've read from this author and now I believe Amy McCulloch is the kinda "one-hit wonder'' author for me. I only truly enjoyed her first novel. The more books I read by her, the least I like them. :(
RUNNER 13 has a premise that appeals to me, and I do (usually) enjoy slow burn mysteries/thrillers, but this one simply failed to hold my attention and interest. I personally didn't care for anyone, so I couldn't truly enjoy it.
McCulloch's writing was something I enjoyed in her 2 previous novels, and I see nothing essentially wrong with this new one. However, it lacked something. To me, it seemed like this was her first ever written book. I mean, her two previous novels (again, in my opinion) are better written.

I could still recommend this book to any readers who have read a book by this author before and enjoyed it. They might enjoy this one much better than I did.

Should I have read “Runner 13” while running? Probably not. I think I burned extra calories because of how heart-pounding the book was. I was stressed out reading this and I’m not mad about it.

The book is so well-written, so vivid in the descriptions of the desert - I felt like I was there instead of on a treadmill. I loved the dual POV between Adrienne and Stella. The mixed media and dual timeline was also well incorporated. The pacing of the book is excellent and I found myself gasping more often than not. I suspected everyone and the twists were well executed.

Overall, this is 100% a 5 star read and likely to be in my top books of the year. Definitely add this one to your TBR when it is released July 1st!

One of the things I really enjoy about mystery/thriller books is how they can drop you into really interesting and unique settings and this book absolutely takes advantage of that. But, the desert setting and the central plot device of the ultramarathon aren’t just dramatic backdrops, they’re woven into the story in a way that makes sense and heightens both the physical and emotional tension.

I picked up this book expecting an entertaining, fast-paced thriller, but honestly was shocked by how good it ended up being. I definitely wasn’t expecting the story to touch on heavy themes like grief, guilt, and the weight of responsibility, but those are all touched on in a thoughtful way that adds to the narrative. The book gives just enough space to those emotions to feel believable without dragging down the pace, and that balance adds some nice depth without feeling overly emotional.

Something that stood out to me was how believable the characters were. I didn’t necessarily like any of them, but I believed them. Their decisions and flaws made them feel real, and that grounded the story in a way that really worked. I also respect when an author doesn’t force a necessarily happy ending just for the sake of it, which this author didn't shy away from.

As a runner, and someone fairly plugged into the ultramarathon world, I was worried the book might feel gimmicky; and there were a couple times where I found some descriptions to be a little too close to their real-life inspirations which pulled me out of the story. Some of the running jargon and explanations also came off a bit heavy-handed. I get that the author needed to provide enough context for readers unfamiliar with these events, and ultimately those elements help create the vivid, immersive setting. Still, it was occasionally a bit odd (like someone had suddenly shined a spotlight on a niche world that usually flies under the radar and is being thrust into the mainstream). That said, this likely won’t be an issue for the majority of readers and doesn’t take away from the story overall.

As for the structure, the dual POVs and podcast transcripts worked really well here. The structure allowed for multiple storylines, past and present, to come together, and despite how much was going on, it never felt overwhelming or confusing.

This is the best mystery/thriller I’ve read in recent memory.

Five stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is an excellent, edge-of-your-seat, twisty thriller set in the competitive world of ultramarathons. Adrienne is a runner who quit when her son nearly died. Stella is the daughter of Boones, a legendary race director who organizes ultramarathons that take humans to the edge of endurance. People have died during his races and now he is organizing the ultimate race through the Sahara. Adrienne returns only because she is promised answers about her son’s accident. Both she and Stella narrate how little by little, the runners start going down, either through accidents, rule-breaking or other mysterious reasons. Just like in the race, the author provides clues and red herrings that took me way off track. The solution was so simple, so obvious and I never saw it coming. I read a non-fiction book about this sport once and I knew how horrific it is, but McCulloch really nails down the feeling of isolation, the infinite pain, as well as the motivation that allows these people to endure and do it all over again. And this is because she has run these races herself. You’d think that Adrienne is more super-hero than human, but these people exist in real life, and everything she does is possible. Also, being set during a race gives the whole plot an extra layer of pressure. The desert is so well described that it also provides yet one more element to make this thriller exceptional.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Doubleday.

While far-fetched and wild, this suspense novel does present a unique setting and storyline for this murder mystery. Just suspend your belief while this story has you quickly turning the pages.

Adrienne Wendell quit running marathons seven years ago, for a couple of reasons. During her last race, her phone died and she didn’t know that her young son had been injured in a hit-and-run accident until she crossed the finish line. While he ended up being okay, her guilt at putting running before him made her give up her passion. She also spoke out about her former coach sexually assaulting her, right before he died, making her a target for internet trolls. It’s not until she gets a personal invitation to the “Hot & Sandy” race that she decides to run again.

Boones has hosted two of these ultramarathons, and this will be the third and biggest. It’s five days of running through the Sahara Desert, covering 250 miles of Morocco while carrying your own supplies and dealing with the harsh environment, all for the shot at $500,000. But Boones doesn’t make this seemingly impossible task any easier; he is known for adding “surprises” to his races, purposefully making tracks and rules that put people in danger, and overall being a sadistic jerk.

Adrienne flies to Morocco, joins up with some other runners she knew back in the day, then finds out her ex-husband Pete is also running. Furthermore, she finds out he’s engaged..to Boones’s daughter, Stella, who handles the photography for these marathons. The book is written from their points of view, along with excerpts from the Ultra Bros podcast, hosted by Jason and Mac. They knew this race will be monumental, not only because of what the contestants have to endure, but because Adrienne will be there, with all of her history dragging her down.

This book was flat-out AMAZING. The author also ran a marathon in the Sahara Desert, and you can tell from the imagery and the internal dialogue of the characters - so many times I felt like I was right there in the desert, too. There are so many layers to this book - it’s not just about the race, it’s about Adrienne’s love for her son, Stella’s hesitant love for her family, and the mystery of the dead coach. Did her son’s accident have anything to do with her outing him as a sexual abuser? If it did, can Adrienne forgive herself? Who will win the race, and will anyone die trying? This was unbelievably suspenseful, thrilling, unique, enthralling and heartbreaking. Five stars - don’t sleep on this one. It will probably end up in my top five books of the year!

(Thank you to Doubleday Books, Amy McCulloch and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on July 1, 2025.)

I received an advance ebook copy of Runner 13 by Amy McCulloch from netgalley.

Easy 5 stars! This is a quick fast paced read (fast paced? Running? Get it?)

The characters, the setting, the mystery, the storyline. All perfect and sucked me right in.

As a short distance runner... think very slow 5k.... it was interesting to take a look into the world of ultra running.

Definitely recommend!

I didn't connect with this story or its characters right away. In fact, I nearly gave up on it altogether. But when things started happening during the marathon--injuries, deaths--getting through 250 mi!es in the brutal Sahara is only part the challenge.

This ended up being quite intriguing, and I'm glad I stuck with it.

Runner 13 by Amy McCullough is a thriller novel centered around an intense, multi-day, 250-mile ultramarathon through the brutal heat of the Sahara Desert.
The protagonist is Adrienne "Adri" Wendell, a former star ultramarathoner who abandoned her career years ago in the wake of a scandal and a personal tragedy involving her young son. She returns to the extreme sport not just to prove herself a winner to her son and herself, but also to find answers about mysteries from her past.
As the race progresses, Adri and her fellow runners face not only the grueling physical and mental demands of the desert, but also a growing sense that something sinister is afoot. When a fellow runner is badly injured, Adri suspects foul play. The harsh conditions of the race make it easy to explain away even a dead body, but Adri soon realizes there's a killer stalking the hot sand.
The book weaves together the high-stakes survival aspects of an extreme endurance race with a gripping mystery and themes of redemption, guilt, and the pursuit of truth. Amy McCulloch, drawing on her own experience of completing the Marathon des Sables (a real-life ultra-marathon in the Sahara), brings a strong sense of authenticity to the setting and the physicality of the race, making it a propulsive adventure thriller.

This was a really great book! Loved all the details about ultramarathrons, super interesting. Fantastic plotting and a really enjoyable book that I finished in 24 hours!

Adrienne, a disgraced ultramarathon runner, comes back into the fold for what is to be the ultimate test of human ability. Coerced into participating in a 250 mile Saharan Desert race with promises of answers about who almost killed her son 7 years ago. With a race director known for his wicked twists and turns, what is Adri really getting herself into and will anyone even be alive to cross the finish line?

Amy McCulloch does it again. A book so much like Breathless, yet entirely different and the stakes are somehow even higher than climbing a mountain. I'm consistently impressed by McCulloch's ability to write a compelling and twisty story based on something she's actually experienced. She attacks research head on and makes a story so unbelievable that you have to believe it. As a non-runner, this book really solidified my love of the couch.

I always like a thriller that actually surprises me and this story had a few moments I didn't expect.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for a digital ARC of this book for my honest review.

Amy McCulloch writes thrillers about extreme elements, heightened with a murderer on the loose. Her first was Breathless, about mountain climbing, and this outing, Runner 13, concerns elite ultramarathon running. And I mean elite! A 250-mile race in the Moroccan Saharan desert… and yes, someone is chasing the main female runner to do her harm. Or at least she thinks so.
What happens when you are so fast that there is no one close to you who can help you fight your stalker?
Adrienne is a great character who had retired from racing ultramarathons, defined as a sport which “finds out the limit of human endurance.” But she is back from retirement to get information about her son’s hit and run following Adrienne accusation of sexual assault by a popular running coach. Her race invitation says “COME AND FIND ANSWERS.” So she does.
Adrienne arrives in Morocco to find not many supporters of her allegations about the coach. But then the bodies start to pile up --and not just from the fierce desert environment. Who is targeting the runners? Sabotage or paranoia? And we are off and running – so to speak!
This novel has it all. Definitely a wonderful sense of setting, including sand storms and details of local mountain environments. The characters are believable and draw you into the story where all the characters are competitors, wishing you well, unless it means they are in front of you in the race. The plot is complex, and the ending not one I guessed. The concept of running 250 miles over 4 days on the extremely hot sand was a thrill in and of itself.
McCulloch does an outstanding job of bringing her reader into the novel. She is an elite athlete, favoring hiking and mountaineering – she is the youngest Canadian woman to climb Mt. Manaslu in Nepal. Before becoming a full-time writer, she was editorial director for Penguin Random House Children’s Books.
Runner 13 is a fun read for anyone who likes psychological suspense novels. I will be reading McCulloch’s future books, awaiting more extreme athletic suspense and setting brilliance.
My rating 5 of 5
This ARC title was provided by Netgalley.com at no cost, and I am providing an unbiased review. Runner 13 will be published on July 1, 2025.

A group of elites are invited to participate in the ultimate ultra-endurance footrace. How far will you go and how much are you willing to push yourself to get what you want? I’m obsessed with running and I’ve always been so intrigued by the Berkeley that this book had me sucked in pretty much before I even started reading.

It’s been a few years since I’ve been able to run consistently and since I’m finally not pregnant/postpartum I can start to dip my toes back into running. This book made me want to run SO BAD lol I loved every minute of it. Runner 13 combined my love of running and thrillers which I never really thought could be a thing. Whether you love running or thrillers you should pick this one up!

“Runner 13” by Amy McCulloch is a tense, and gripping thriller that will leave you breathless! The story revolves around a fiercely determined woman who was once a rising star in the world of ultramarathons. She gave it up years ago when her young son was hit by a car while she was racing and unable to come to his aid. At the same time she leveled a career ending accusation to the world’s most celebrated coach that ended her career in disgrace and mystery.
She became an instant pariah, but now after 7 years she has been invited to run the race of all races, 250 miles in the Sahara Desert. She participates in the race even though it organizer is know to be a sadistic and elusive. As the race begins the Sahara becomes a fantastic character itself, a living breathing threat and our heroines journey to peel back the layers of betrayal, trauma and ambition are riveting and explosive.
I was breathless reading the whole time and finished the book in one sitting. A unique story about reclaiming one’s power and the strength to survive. I loved it!

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Fast paced, adventure and a definate thriller! This kept me on my toes and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time!

Runner 13 was Adrienne. She was a runner with great potential but she gave it all up to keep her child safe. While she was running her last race, she was out of reach, without a phone and her son was hit by a reckless driver. Many people, including Adrienne, believed it was because she had made accusations about a top running coach. Accusations that were believed to be lies. She was sure that her son had been hit on purpose, because of the lie. She quit running races for 7-8 years. She decided that she had to come back when she was offered a place in a 250 mile desert sand race, a race that was invite only. Dangerous conditions, lack of training, a brutal race--I enjoyed this book immensely. I took 1 star away from what would have been 5 stars because I don't think a runner, no matter what incentive there is, would take on a race like this without the proper training. But what do I know--I can't even jog around the block. Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the digital complementary ARC.This review is in my own words and it is my own opinion.