Dan Belton

Marathon of the Dead Dan Belton

Skip Gordon is a thirty-six-year-old owner of a canoe and rafting business in northern California. He recruits five ex-University of Idaho athletes to join him in competing in a dangerous one hundred and fifty mile canoe marathon in the wilds of northern British Columbia. The prize: one million dollars. During training, Gordon's wife dies in a bizarre whitewater canoe accident. Then another teammate is poisoned. The tension mounts dramatically when the ultra-marathon finally begins. During the arduous seven-day marathon, the teams battle turbulent whitewater rapids, frigid weather, grueling portages and an unseen killer, to challenge for the lead. The natural beauty of northern British Columbia belies the lethality of the competitors as they strive for the million dollar prize. After a terrifying run through a rampaging river gorge, Gordon's team captures the lead, only to lose two more teammates to the stealthy assassin. While Gordon's team races toward the finish line the detectives search for the elusive killer. The story takes a sudden turn when a vital clue is found near the lip of the waterfall. That clue and the subsequent discovery of the unique murder device hurtles the story to a surprising climax and the unmasking of the ingenious