DEAD PEDAL: A Formula One Thriller

Pete Hawthorn’s solving of the decades-old riddle surrounding his father’s disappearance in the Brazilian jungle during the World Cup Rally, as told in OVERSTEER, has led to another puzzling mystery: the seemingly accidental racetrack deaths of three members of an elite French racing fraternity. Three men with but one thing in common other than racing: all were part of an anti-Nazi resistance group in occupied France during World War Two. There were rumors someone in the group had collaborated with the Gestapo to save the life of a beautiful woman, but no proof was ever found.
Now the last living member of the group, Andre Montand, has received notice of his own imminent demise—a package identical to those received by the other three racers who have already died. It contains a small slab of machined metal often placed in the footwell of racecars to keep the driver’s left leg from bouncing around in the cockpit; a pedal that doesn’t move—a ‘dead pedal.’
As for the other drivers, Montand’s pedal came wrapped in a map of the specific track where he will have his fatal “accident” . . . in this case, the twisting, dangerous one thousand mile race around Italy, the Mille Miglia. Pete agrees to drive in the race along with Montand in order to try and protect him and unmask the killer. But is he prepared for the twists and turns along the way, in one of the most demanding races ever run . . . and a dark tale of treachery and betrayal that stretches back to the darkest days of the Nazi occupation?