Runner in Red

Tom Murphy

Apr 2018 · Encircle+ORM

About this ebook

A reporter and an ex-baseball-player-turned-cameraman search for a mysterious runner in this cozy mystery inspired by a real-life Boston Marathon legend.

There has been a long-standing belief that a woman slipped into the 1951 Boston Marathon undetected and ran the race. If that could be proven it would make her the first woman to have run a marathon on American soil. She wore “red,” as claimed by a group of Canadian runners who say they tried to bring the matter to the attention of race Director Jock Semple and other race officials. But to no avail, their story was never corroborated, and so today the “Runner in Red” remains a mystery and an urban legend.

A period piece set against the backdrop of the 2000 Boston Marathon, the Millennial marathon, this fictional mystery novel is also a love story, family drama, and uplifting tale of the human spirit that explores the history of women’s running in page-turning fashion.

“A great story of three amazing women.”—Bill Rodgers, four-time winner of the Boston Marathon

 “Moves faster than a speeding bullet through the streets of Boston.”—Katherine Switzer, first registered woman runner of the Boston Marathon (1967)

 “An entertaining, fast-paced mystery thriller.”—Jack Fultz, winner of the 1976 Boston Marathon

 “A magical story!”—Uta Pippig, three-time Boston Marathon women’s champion (1993-1995)

About the author

Tom Murphy, After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Tom Murphy—a life-long runner—taught in Boston schools where he quickly fell in with the road running crowd. With John J. Kelley, the 1957 Boston Marathon winner, Tom wrote Just Call Me Jock in 1982, a history of the Boston Marathon as seen through the eyes of Jock Semple, the colorful race co-director. Tom’s novel, Runner in Red, which will be published by Encircle in April 2018, draws on a real-life Boston Marathon legend that a woman “wearing red” jumped into the 1951 Boston Marathon, which if true would make her the first woman to have run a marathon on American soil. Tom’s novel is a fictional search for the ‘runner in red’ to solve the mystery. In 2006, Tom wrote a book about the aviation heroes on 9/11, called Reclaiming the Sky, which led the president of Fordham University to invite Tom to create an institute, the Human Resiliency Institute, to put healing lessons from the book into programs. The institute’s lead program, (Resiliency) Edge4Vets, teaches vets how to tap their strengths to get jobs. See more at edge4vets.org. Tom also created a beer, called Barb’s Beer, to raise funds to help cure lung cancer in his late wife (a Boston Marathon runner’s) name. See more at barbsbeer.org.