Sophia Rose Reviews: Murder Road by Simone St. James

 

Today Sophia Rose returns with her thoughts on Murder Road a supernatural thriller by Simone St. James.
Enjoy!

Murder Road by Simone St. James

Supernatural Thriller

Publisher:  Berkley

Published:  3.5.24

Pages:  350

Rating: 4.5 stars

Format: eARC

Source:  NetGalley

Sellers:  Amazon

ADD TO: GoodReads

 

GoodReads Blurb:

A young couple find themselves haunted by a string of gruesome murders committed along an old deserted road in this terrifying new novel.

July 1995. April and Eddie have taken a wrong turn. They’re looking for the small resort town where they plan to spend their honeymoon. When they spot what appears to a lone hitchhiker along the deserted road, they stop to help. But not long after the hitchiker gets into their car, they see the blood seeping from her jacket and a truck barreling down Atticus Line after them.

When the hitchhiker dies at the local hospital, April and Eddie find themselves in the crosshairs of the Coldlake Falls police. Unexplained murders have been happening along Atticus Line for years and the cops finally have two witnesses who easily become their only suspects. As April and Eddie start to dig into the history of the town and that horrible stretch of road to clear their names, they soon learn that there is something supernatural at work, something that could not only tear the town and its dark secrets apart, but take April and Eddie down with it all.

 

Sophia Rose's Review:

An inexplicable event crashes a couple’s honeymoon and they are soon dropped into the nightmare of proving themselves innocent for the murder of the wounded woman hitchhiker they brought to the hospital.  Simone St. James has captivated me once again with a hair-raising atmospheric thriller set in a rural area of western Michigan.

 

Murder Road introduces a young pair of newlyweds, April and Eddy.  Both had rough pasts, but are reaching for their slice of happiness now.   They get lost on their way to their honeymoon spot and come across a fearful, fatally wounded woman along a deserted country road. *cue ominous music*

 

When the state police decide they look pretty good for the crime, April and Eddy launch their own investigation and discover that a series of murders haven taken place over a period of time along that road, Atticus Line, and there is even a legend about the first hitchhiker casualty ‘The Lost Girl’.  They encounter colorful local characters in the wacky conspiracy proposing teenage, Snell Sisters and dear landlady, Rose who was obsessed with Princess Di (the story occurs in the mid-nineties) who lightened this spooky tale.  The backdrop of the nineties and this resort area of Michigan were well drawn.

 

I love how April and Eddy are complex characters with rough edges which would get them arrested if the police dig enough into their individual situations and there is a darker tone as they try to gather facts with past occurrences and the present.  April is the sole narrator of the story.  I couldn’t figure out why the police were so fixated on strangers as chief suspects particularly after the past history of that road came out, but then again, strangers are easier to swallow rather than the knowledge its someone local.  Speaking of locals, that small town and the residents including the police working there are as suspicious and odd as all get out.  Poor April and Eddy have landed into a nightmare especially when April is drawn to dangerous Atticus Line.

 

Like previous reads from Simone St. James, I was tense and found the book unputdownable.  It was dark and disturbing until it finally let me go at the end which was unexpected.  Those who love spooky thrillers that tease the line into horror should give this one a go. 

 

Author Bio:

Simone St. James is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of THE BOOK OF COLD CASES, THE SUN DOWN MOTEL, and THE BROKEN GIRLS.

After years of writing and collecting rejections, Simone’s debut novel, THE HAUNTING OF MADDY CLARE, won two RITA Awards from Romance Writers of America and an Arthur Ellis Award from Crime Writers of Canada. AN INQUIRY INTO LOVE AND DEATH was nominated for another Arthur Ellis Award.

Simone spent twenty years behind the scenes in the television business before leaving to write full-time. She lives just outside Toronto, Canada, with her husband and a spoiled rescue cat. She is addicted to sushi, rainy days, coffee, and My Favorite Murder.

Website:  http://www.simonestjames.com/

Sophia’s Bio:

Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.

As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.

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GoodReads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13418187.Sophia_Rose