Linda Barnes: Dead Heat (USA 2015)

From the Publisher:
To protect a senator at the Boston Marathon, private investigator turned actor Michael Spraggue must run faster than he ever has before
Michael Spraggue receives an anonymous note requesting a meeting on the running path in the Chestnut Hill Reservoir -- a favorite spot for runners training for the Boston Marathon. His muscles aching, Michael is about to throw in the towel when he sees a familiar grin. Brian Donagher is the charismatic junior senator who took Washington by storm and is now running for re-election. With him is bodyguard Pete Collatos, an ex-cop who knows Michael from his PI days. Brian has been getting death threats, and Pete wants help tracking down whoever is sending them. Michael isn't convinced that the threats are serious -- until gunfire erupts from the hill above them.

Miraculously, no one is hurt, but Michael knows they won't be so lucky next time because politics can get dirty in Boston. As the marathon approaches, Michael will have to sprint to keep a popular politician -- and himself -- alive.

Dead Heat is the 3rd book in the Michael Spraggue Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Linda Barnes: Dead Heat. A Michael Spraggue Mystery. Open Road Media, ISBN: 9781504014519 (July, 2015), eBook, 1.33 MB (ca. 246 p.), $7.99.

Linda Barnes: Dead Heat (USA 1996)

From the Publisher:
He was dead tired, gasping for breath, with aching muscles, blistered feet, and the anonymous note clutched in his sweaty hand. At thirty-five, Michael Spraggue thought he d put sleuthing behind him to pursue an acting career at the Harvard Rep. Until ex-cop-turned-bodyguard Pete Collatos summons him into the race to track down death threats to his charismatic client, Senator Brian Donagher. The senator is determined to run in the Boston Marathon -- with Pete at his side. Until Pete dies on the killer course...

Suddenly Spraggue's off and running on a track teeming with contenders, up to his jogging shorts in dirty politics and deadly passions. But the closer he gets, the sooner each of his prime suspects hits a dead end.

Add a mysterious beauty with a motive for murder, a political kingpin with Mafia connections, and enough hot cash to grease the race to justice, and you have Linda Barnes at her cold-blooded best....

Linda Barnes: Dead Heat. A Michael Spraggue Mystery. Dell, ISBN: 0440218624 (January, 1996), 277 p., $5.50.

Linda Barnes: Dead Heat (USA 1985)

From the Publisher:
SOMETIMES RUNNERS COLLAPSE FROM MORE THAN FATIGUE...
Michael Spraggue has put sleuthing behind him in favor of the relative sanity of the actor's life. Currently appearing six nights a week in Shakespeare and Brecht at the Harvard Rep, Spraggue is none too eager to help an old friend prevent a murder.

But Pete Collatos gains Spraggue's grudging cooperation with a bizarre story of a senator receiving death threats. Pete is Senator Donagher's bodyguard, and he's understandably worried when Donagher decides he's running for more than re-election. How can Pete protect a man competing in the enormous Boston Marathon?

The case turns nastier by degrees, and Spraggue's lucky to have the invaluable (if somewhat unorthodox) help of his inconceivably wealthy Aunt Mary, of her unlucky-at-cards butler... and of Pete's beautiful, mysterious younger sister.

Linda Barnes: Dead Heat. Murder at the Boston Marathon. A Michael Spraggue Mystery. Fawcett Crest, ISBN: 0449206890 (November, 1985), 244 p., $2.95.

Linda Barnes: Dead Heat (USA 1984)

From the Publisher:
Hot on the heels of her critically acclaimed Bitter Finish, Linda Barnes' new Michael Spraggue mystery strides with lightning pace from start to finish.

Every April a special madness blossoms for America's rite of spring, the Boston Marathon. When a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts decides that running the marathon will help his own race for re-election, death threats and snipings block his path. And although Spraggue has returned to acting, performing Shakespeare and Brecht six nights a week, he can't put his career as a private investigator fully behind him, not when an old friend with a madonna-like sister needs his help.

With Spraggue setting the pace, along with his limitlessly resourceful Aunt Mary and her unlucky-at-cards butler, Pierce, Dead Heat accelerates through "the wall" to close with an explosive kick!

Linda Barnes: Dead Heat. Murder at the Boston Marathon. A Michael Spraggue Mystery. St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312184980 (March, 1984), 194 p., $11.95.