Murder Road – Simone St. James

Summary

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 hitchhiker 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.

Mini review

Ok, this book was hard to rate because I liked it, but I wouldn’t classify it as a favourite. It was also more than ok, but nothing really special, you get me? It was like having a Zebra Cake, I guess. Good, but nothing WOW, but not disappointing.

I’m not big on ghost aspects in thrillers; we know this, but the difference is that I knew what I was getting into beforehand, unlike other times, so this aspect didn’t completely affect my judgement of the book. However, I didn’t really like the main twist and the explanation it gave for the murders in Atticus Lane. This is 100% due to personal preference; the book was very well written; Simone St. James definitely knows how to engage the reader; I cared for April and Eddie; and the relationship I developed with the characters was actually what drove me to continue speed reading the book.

I’ve actually only read a novella of hers, Ghost 19, so this was my first time reading a full work (definitely won’t be the last), though I’ve realised now that I prefer other types of horror stories. Ghost 19 was very good, so it deserves its own review, but it’s telling that by only having read a short story, St. James drew me in so much as to check out Murder Road.

Click for spoilers!

In 1976, a girl named Shannon was killed by her father, and her soul seems to possess people and make them kill hitchhikers walking along the Atticus line. She (her soul) was responsible for the murder of Rhonda Jean while she was in the body of Max Shandler.

Shannon’s ghost (while possessing many others) was the serial killer of Atticus Lane.

Before “disappearing,” Shannon had a baby, who turned out to be Eddie, having been put up for adoption by Shannon’s father (John Haller). John, having realised that Eddie and April had figured out the truth about Shannon’s death, planned to get rid of them, but fortunately, officer Syed shot him before anything could happen, and Eddie was just shot in the arm in the final confrontation.

April and Eddie set out for a happy married life after having solved the mystery of Atticus Lane.