John L. Parker Jr.

John L. Parker Jr. is an American writer, born in 1947, best known for the Quenton Cassidy novels about a middle-distance runner. The series opens with Once a Runner, first published in 1978, followed by Again to Carthage, which returns Cassidy to training as a long-distance runner, and Racing the Rain, which looks back at his early years. Parker's books are about obsession and the pull of competition, and together they make up a trilogy.