Through a particularly tragic series of events couch potato Maeve Kelly has been forced to sign up for Bath's springtime half marathon. What Maeve doesn't know is just how brutal some of the other runners are. As race day draws closer an Albanian refugee named Spiro makes a run for freedom escaping a chain gang and its murderous foreman who is known as The Finisher. The Finisher has killed for disobedience before and Spiro knows there's a target on his back. Meanwhile Detective Peter Diamond is tasked with crowd control on the day of the race - and catches sight of a violent criminal he put away a decade ago who seems to be up to his old tricks…

Part of the A Detective Peter Diamond Mystery series.