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.

After reading Murder Road by Simone St. James, I found the story riveting and visceral, with captivating characters and a haunting story. One of the reasons that the narrative is so interesting is that the initial concept, a haunted road, is so compelling. But without complex and rich characters, full of depth and flaws, this story would just be another book about a haunting.

Instead Simone St. James puts her characters front and center and puts them in the middle of a complex murder mystery, one in which others will find their proof unbelievable. The supernatural and thrilling aspects are well written and I love how the mystery unfolds, especially the red herrings that are thrown out along April and Eddie’s journey to the truth. 

I especially love the backgrounds of both April and Eddie, how meaningful that is to the solving of the supernatural narrative and how ghosts, both in each’s past and ghosts of the dead, play such a huge part in the story. It is captivating, riveting and visceral, incredibly gripping and I loved each beat of this novel. If you like haunting stories about murder with complex characters, this is the novel for you. 

Rating: 5 out of 5 murders