by Alan Cook
Synopsis
“I really like books by this author. This is another great one.
The characters are interesting, and the plot is well laid out…I
often felt like I was out there running with them.”
—Dawn Dowdle for Mystery Lovers Corner
Drake and Melody are teamed up to run a race along the California Coast
for a prize of a million dollars—in 1969 when a million is worth something.
Neither knows the other is in the race before it starts. They once did
undercover work together in England, but this information is supposed to be
top secret.
The race sponsor, Giganticorp, is a large and very profitable government
military contractor, whose ambitious CEO, Casey Messinger, is connected to
the powerful in Washington, which must give him access to classified
information.
The nine other pairs of runners entered in the race are world-class
marathoners, including a winner of the Boston Marathon. If this competition
isn’t enough, somebody tries to knock Drake out of the race before it
begins. But Drake and Melody also receive threats calculated to keep them
from dropping out. What’s going on?
The stakes increase when startling events produce fatalities and impact the
race, leading them to ask whether the Cold War with the USSR is about to heat
up. If so, is it safer to line up with the hawks or the doves—because a
wrong choice may mean giving up valuable freedom for questionable security.
With their previous training and their own contacts in Washington, Drake and
Melody are in the best position to figure out whether various events are
connected and who is behind them.
Their other challenge is to keep themselves in good physical condition to be
able to compete for the prize money while running through the spectacular
scenery of the California coast from the Mexican border to San Francisco.
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