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The Runner
He’s running for his life. And he’s running out of time.
On a sun-soaked Greek island, Jay is on the run. He’s been hunted since he was twenty years old: a contract on his life traded like a commodity, rising and falling with the price of Bitcoin.
Stranded with no passport, loyalty points as his only currency and an assassin in hot pursuit, Jay’s only hope is to escape on a catamaran with a crew on their way to perform an exorcism on a dictator’s private island. When it becomes clear that his shipmates are even more dubious than they first seemed, Jay has to run again – this time into the arms of the beautiful Ellie, who is either his doom or his salvation.
Caught in a web of high-finance, con-artists, the Book of Jonah and ultramarathons, Jay will have to choose between love and survival, and run for his life!
Darkly funny, sexy, exciting, philosophical and enthralling, The Runner is an unmissable literary treat from Britain’s most exciting novelist.
On a sun-soaked Greek island, Jay is on the run. He’s been hunted since he was twenty years old: a contract on his life traded like a commodity, rising and falling with the price of Bitcoin.
Stranded with no passport, loyalty points as his only currency and an assassin in hot pursuit, Jay’s only hope is to escape on a catamaran with a crew on their way to perform an exorcism on a dictator’s private island. When it becomes clear that his shipmates are even more dubious than they first seemed, Jay has to run again – this time into the arms of the beautiful Ellie, who is either his doom or his salvation.
Caught in a web of high-finance, con-artists, the Book of Jonah and ultramarathons, Jay will have to choose between love and survival, and run for his life!
Darkly funny, sexy, exciting, philosophical and enthralling, The Runner is an unmissable literary treat from Britain’s most exciting novelist.
288 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 16, 2026
About the author
Scarlett Thomas
37 books1,855 followersScarlett Thomas was born in London in 1972. Her widely-acclaimed novels include PopCo, The End of Mr Y and The Seed Collectors. As well as writing literary fiction for adults, she has also written a literary fantasy series for children and a book about writing called Monkeys with Typewriters. Her work has been translated into more than 25 languages.
She has been longlisted for the Orange Prize, shortlisted for the South African Boeke Prize and was once the proud recipient of an Elle Style Award. She is currently Professor of Creative Writing & Contemporary Fiction at the University of Kent in the UK. She lives in a Victorian house near the sea and spends a lot of time reading Chekhov and Katherine Mansfield.
She is currently working on a new novel and various projects for TV.
She has been longlisted for the Orange Prize, shortlisted for the South African Boeke Prize and was once the proud recipient of an Elle Style Award. She is currently Professor of Creative Writing & Contemporary Fiction at the University of Kent in the UK. She lives in a Victorian house near the sea and spends a lot of time reading Chekhov and Katherine Mansfield.
She is currently working on a new novel and various projects for TV.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
Did Not Finish
June 25, 2026Review of advanced copy received by Simon & Schuster and NetGalley.
DNF at 50%. I really wanted to like this one- I read the description and it sounded up my alley. However, I found the plot to be extremely difficult to follow. I tried my best to push through but this reader did not make it to the finish line…
DNF at 50%. I really wanted to like this one- I read the description and it sounded up my alley. However, I found the plot to be extremely difficult to follow. I tried my best to push through but this reader did not make it to the finish line…
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Cyprus, May 2025.
Jay is on the run but this is nothing new, it’s been this way since he was 20 and now he’s in his 30s. Currently, he’s stranded, all he has is air mile points, four euro and an assassin on his tail. He takes a job on a catamaran to escape the latest one, but it’s straight into the arms of a very bizarre crew and he’s so he’s off again, this time in Cyprus, where he meets Ellie. Will she be his salvation? Only time will tell. He’s the runner, quite literally and he’s caught in a huge web from which there seems to be no escape. However, we’re off, pat, pat, pat.
Exorcism, assassins, murders, finance, bitcoin, trading air miles, dictators, and running, running, running. Yes, it’s got to be Scarlett Thomas’s latest creation! She always gives her readers something unusual and different and I like that. To start with it feels a bit like being trapped in Hampton Court maze, you’re not sure of your way out or the plot direction but that soon sorts itself out and becomes clear and I settle in for an enjoyable race to the finish.
It’s extremely well written, there’s wit and humour interspersed with the running and Jay‘s backstory. It’s a circuitous route with plenty of good descriptions and a lot of elegant prose. There’s much to keep me entertained, several good plot twists alongside some “intriguing” characters. I never entirely work Ellie out! However, she’s never boring and she has a good heart. I like the way the author has it all play out at the end and everything slots into place. Highly entertaining!
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Simon and Schuster for the much appreciated early copy in return for an honest review.
Jay is on the run but this is nothing new, it’s been this way since he was 20 and now he’s in his 30s. Currently, he’s stranded, all he has is air mile points, four euro and an assassin on his tail. He takes a job on a catamaran to escape the latest one, but it’s straight into the arms of a very bizarre crew and he’s so he’s off again, this time in Cyprus, where he meets Ellie. Will she be his salvation? Only time will tell. He’s the runner, quite literally and he’s caught in a huge web from which there seems to be no escape. However, we’re off, pat, pat, pat.
Exorcism, assassins, murders, finance, bitcoin, trading air miles, dictators, and running, running, running. Yes, it’s got to be Scarlett Thomas’s latest creation! She always gives her readers something unusual and different and I like that. To start with it feels a bit like being trapped in Hampton Court maze, you’re not sure of your way out or the plot direction but that soon sorts itself out and becomes clear and I settle in for an enjoyable race to the finish.
It’s extremely well written, there’s wit and humour interspersed with the running and Jay‘s backstory. It’s a circuitous route with plenty of good descriptions and a lot of elegant prose. There’s much to keep me entertained, several good plot twists alongside some “intriguing” characters. I never entirely work Ellie out! However, she’s never boring and she has a good heart. I like the way the author has it all play out at the end and everything slots into place. Highly entertaining!
With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Simon and Schuster for the much appreciated early copy in return for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This is a diofficult review to write since I have been a huge Scarlett Thomas fan since her first novel. Unfortunately her stab at a "thriller" doesn't work, coming off as lumpy and fairly uninteresting. The first problem is the Runner himself. I never could empathize with him and, frankly, wondered why I was reading about him. There are sections that are properly fast-paced and full of danger but they are interrupted by a much-too-long attempt at a backstory for the Runner that simply kills the pace; that is the second probem. There are also unaccounted sections where pretty much nothing happens at all. The romance is all rather wan and far too attenuated to land with any punch. As a successful thriller writer myself I know first-hand that writing a literary thriller is supremely difficult. But even for literary thrillers pace is everything, whether it's fast or in say LeCarre's case, slow and methodical, first and foremost the pace must be maintained. If anyone was up to the task it should have been Ms Thomas. Unfortunately, this novel comes up empty.
July 22, 2026
The Runner was exactly the kind of wild ride i expected it to be!
Jay has spent years perfecting the art of disappearing, but this time he’s really in trouble, stranded, broke, carrying nothing but air miles, a few euros and the small problem of an assassin trying to find him. Naturally, things get even stranger from there.
What follows is a wild, twisty, slightly bonkers adventure filled with criminals, conspiracies, bitcoin, big ideas, and a very questionable collection of characters. It’s dark, funny, clever and completely unpredictable. Jay is exhausted, cynical and a little chaotic, but there’s something strangely endearing about him. Ellie is just as intriguing, and together they make this bizarre story feel surprisingly human.
Scarlett Thomas has created a book that’s equal parts thriller, philosophical rabbit hole, and fever dream. It took me a little while to find my footing, but once I was in, I was hooked. A strange, smart, addictive read that definitely took me somewhere unexpected.
Jay has spent years perfecting the art of disappearing, but this time he’s really in trouble, stranded, broke, carrying nothing but air miles, a few euros and the small problem of an assassin trying to find him. Naturally, things get even stranger from there.
What follows is a wild, twisty, slightly bonkers adventure filled with criminals, conspiracies, bitcoin, big ideas, and a very questionable collection of characters. It’s dark, funny, clever and completely unpredictable. Jay is exhausted, cynical and a little chaotic, but there’s something strangely endearing about him. Ellie is just as intriguing, and together they make this bizarre story feel surprisingly human.
Scarlett Thomas has created a book that’s equal parts thriller, philosophical rabbit hole, and fever dream. It took me a little while to find my footing, but once I was in, I was hooked. A strange, smart, addictive read that definitely took me somewhere unexpected.
Review of advance copy
Book borrowed from Stirling Library following Book Review in the Guardian newspaper
The book is largely set in the present day in UK with parts of the novel set in Cyprus and Turkey
The Plot
Jay is a young British man on the run from an Assassin/ Assassin’s,he meets a young British woman Ellie while in hiding in Cyprus the remainder of the book follows a familiar trajectory as they dodge and weave from the assassins
Why is Jay a target for assassins,?is Ellie who she says she is?
The novel start strongly and conveys a real sense of jeopardy,however i find so often with these type of novels that the plot becomes a bit more convoluted,the characters thinner and less believable to such an extent that one stops engaging as a reader .
The plot limps along to its conclusion by which stage my interest had long since waned
The novel is dialogue heavy and I found that often it did not advance the plot but rather slowed the pace of the book which began furiously and shifted to a walking pace from its halfway point.
A disappointing read ultimately.
The book is largely set in the present day in UK with parts of the novel set in Cyprus and Turkey
The Plot
Jay is a young British man on the run from an Assassin/ Assassin’s,he meets a young British woman Ellie while in hiding in Cyprus the remainder of the book follows a familiar trajectory as they dodge and weave from the assassins
Why is Jay a target for assassins,?is Ellie who she says she is?
The novel start strongly and conveys a real sense of jeopardy,however i find so often with these type of novels that the plot becomes a bit more convoluted,the characters thinner and less believable to such an extent that one stops engaging as a reader .
The plot limps along to its conclusion by which stage my interest had long since waned
The novel is dialogue heavy and I found that often it did not advance the plot but rather slowed the pace of the book which began furiously and shifted to a walking pace from its halfway point.
A disappointing read ultimately.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
This story is as circuitous and persistent as all the running Jay does throughout the book. I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Jay was a bit of a twit at times, and Ellie reminded me of several girls I've known over the years, which made the characters feel refreshingly real.
Along the way, Thomas offers some thoughtful observations about society, greed, and the ways people can be selfish and destructive. At the same time, she explores love, trust, and what it means to move beyond the expectations and constructs we're handed. IMHO.
I've seen the mixed reviews, and I can understand why this book won't work for everyone. The pacing has a steady "pat, pat, pat" rhythm that mirrors Jay's running, and it takes a little time to settle into. But once I did, I found it to be an intelligent, thought-provoking, and ultimately captivating read. I'm glad I gave it a chance.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the complimentary ARC.
Along the way, Thomas offers some thoughtful observations about society, greed, and the ways people can be selfish and destructive. At the same time, she explores love, trust, and what it means to move beyond the expectations and constructs we're handed. IMHO.
I've seen the mixed reviews, and I can understand why this book won't work for everyone. The pacing has a steady "pat, pat, pat" rhythm that mirrors Jay's running, and it takes a little time to settle into. But once I did, I found it to be an intelligent, thought-provoking, and ultimately captivating read. I'm glad I gave it a chance.
Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the complimentary ARC.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
“The Runner” is one of the oddest books I have read in a while. And it is certainly not the thriller that it is described as being. There are very few parts of the story that fit the thriller genre. It is more of a commentary on society — importance or lack thereof of money and possessions, what we prize as status symbols, stereotypes, economic rationalism, minimalism, commodification, belief systems, etc. That being said, the story has some pretty good twists.
Review of advance copy
I read the UK version published by Scribner on 16th July 2026.
Scarlett Thomas is one of my favourite authors, and some of her books I like more than others.
I don't think this is a thriller, as suggested in another comment, but it is properly weird with assassination contracts and scammers and people with various obsessions. But for a thriller, there are too many clues missing if not withheld.
So you just have to strap yourself in, go along for the ride, and see where it's gonna take you.
Scarlett Thomas is one of my favourite authors, and some of her books I like more than others.
I don't think this is a thriller, as suggested in another comment, but it is properly weird with assassination contracts and scammers and people with various obsessions. But for a thriller, there are too many clues missing if not withheld.
So you just have to strap yourself in, go along for the ride, and see where it's gonna take you.
August 14, 2026
I love the way Scarlett writes, The End of Mr Y is one of my most favourite books - I've read it at least 10 times.
So it's a shame that The Runner was a bit of a let down, enjoyed the story but the end just ran out <
So it's a shame that The Runner was a bit of a let down, enjoyed the story but the end just ran out <
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
DNF’d at 54%.
This book just had no clear point or plot. It was so jumbled and made no sense. I tried to push through, but I just couldn’t do it. The time jumps weren’t clear and became confusing. The general storyline, if there was one, made no sense. I just don’t even know what I just read.
Received this as an ARC through NetGalley.
This book just had no clear point or plot. It was so jumbled and made no sense. I tried to push through, but I just couldn’t do it. The time jumps weren’t clear and became confusing. The general storyline, if there was one, made no sense. I just don’t even know what I just read.
Received this as an ARC through NetGalley.
August 19, 2026
This book is absolutely mad bonkers. Maybe in a good way? Maybe not? I feel like I just rode a merry-go-round that was going like triple speed and at the last minute it suddenly slowed and I sort of rolled dizzily off into the grass. 3.5 stars The extra .5 is because I’m not a hundred percent sure this isn’t genius?
Read
August 24, 2026I think that the author is an extremely accomplished writer. Her prose is always readable and her ideas are exciting. But I fear that I did not find myself really caring what happened, and while I hurried to the end to find out from mere curiosity, I would not have worried if I had had to return the library book before achieving this.
August 23, 2026
Another absolute stunner of a novel from Scarlett Thomas. This is twisty, original, sexy, clever and thought-provoking. I read this in one sitting and know I’ll be thinking about it for days.
I’ve dropped one star as I feel that the protagonist’s redemption arc could’ve landed a little better.
I’ve dropped one star as I feel that the protagonist’s redemption arc could’ve landed a little better.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews