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bookedandbusy's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
There was an absolutely incredible thriller! I loved it. I loved the supernatural element, it was so eerie and atmospheric.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Gun violence
Moderate: Terminal illness and Cancer
Minor: Racism and Fire/Fire injury
shesflippinpages's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Car accident, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Blood, Kidnapping, Violence, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, and Stalking
enzopudge's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Addiction, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Cancer
shawniejo's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Addiction, Gore, Death of parent, Mental illness, and War
Moderate: Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Cancer, Car accident, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, and Toxic relationship
soobooksalot's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I've said this before, but Simone St. James is one of my auto-buy authors.
Hands-down, no question. Murder Road was everything I have come to expect from her and more. Loved it.
Murder Road doesn't take place in a dual timeline like her others. It's 1995, and newlyweds April and Eddie find themselves on a wrong road en route to their honeymoon destination.
They come to learn the storied and tragic history of Atticus Line and find themselves being investigated for the most recent murder.
This is a thriller with a touch of the supernatural, and Murder Road's "Lost Girl" won't be one to soon forget.
Recommended!
Hands-down, no question. Murder Road was everything I have come to expect from her and more. Loved it.
Murder Road doesn't take place in a dual timeline like her others. It's 1995, and newlyweds April and Eddie find themselves on a wrong road en route to their honeymoon destination.
They come to learn the storied and tragic history of Atticus Line and find themselves being investigated for the most recent murder.
This is a thriller with a touch of the supernatural, and Murder Road's "Lost Girl" won't be one to soon forget.
Recommended!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Murder, Car accident, and Mental illness
dblue236's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This author is rapidly becoming one of my favorites, and this might possibly be her best yet- of the ones I've read, at least. I loved the creepy horror movie feel of the story and while there was at least one aspect of the twist toward the end that was predictable, I still loved watching it play out. I couldn't put this down and burned through it in about a day and a half, and I can't wait for the next one from Simone St. James!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, and Death
Moderate: Racism, Death of parent, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Emotional abuse, Murder, and Violence
Minor: Sexual content, Drug abuse, and Cancer
downtown_kb's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
“She was a dark, cold hole in the fabric of reality, punched through with a naked fist. The word that came to mind was unholy.”
Eddie and April are on their way to a modest honeymoon on Lake Michigan when Eddie takes a wrong turn on a dark deserted road. Their trip is completely derailed when they pick up a young woman walking on the side of the road who is injured and needs to be taken to the hospital.
This was some entertaining creepy goodness and I really enjoyed the first half of this story. It had me hooked and is a great spooky setup. However, about midway through things went a little off the rails.
On one hand, I did appreciate the further character development. It not only added to the depth of our main characters it also added just a bit of depth to the romance, bringing it a little bit more into the main storyline. I really like both the mmc and the fmc. They turned out to be completely likable flawed characters. I even liked the addition of the kooky side-characters. (I would read a series of mysteries solved by Gracie and Beatrice) But on the other hand it just started to feel like too much was going on. It all got tied in at the end but I was left feeling like the story would have been better if a few of the side details/plots were trimmed. I think the mystery and the ghost story was great and unique and didn’t need all the extra fluff. It lost momentum. It went a bit long.
So I think some people who get their feathers up when characters aren’t fully developed will really like this. And it helped push the romance a little more into the story.
But I think people who go into this for the spook factor will agree that it loses a bit as the characters are fully flushed out.
Don’t get me wrong, this was a solid read, I just can never get enough spookiness.
Side note: this is set in the 90's and I appreciated all the references to the time period even if it made me feel like this could count as historical because of it :cries:
Brittany Pressley did great with the audio.
Eddie and April are on their way to a modest honeymoon on Lake Michigan when Eddie takes a wrong turn on a dark deserted road. Their trip is completely derailed when they pick up a young woman walking on the side of the road who is injured and needs to be taken to the hospital.
This was some entertaining creepy goodness and I really enjoyed the first half of this story. It had me hooked and is a great spooky setup. However, about midway through things went a little off the rails.
On one hand, I did appreciate the further character development. It not only added to the depth of our main characters it also added just a bit of depth to the romance, bringing it a little bit more into the main storyline. I really like both the mmc and the fmc. They turned out to be completely likable flawed characters. I even liked the addition of the kooky side-characters. (I would read a series of mysteries solved by Gracie and Beatrice) But on the other hand it just started to feel like too much was going on. It all got tied in at the end but I was left feeling like the story would have been better if a few of the side details/plots were trimmed. I think the mystery and the ghost story was great and unique and didn’t need all the extra fluff. It lost momentum. It went a bit long.
So I think some people who get their feathers up when characters aren’t fully developed will really like this. And it helped push the romance a little more into the story.
But I think people who go into this for the spook factor will agree that it loses a bit as the characters are fully flushed out.
Don’t get me wrong, this was a solid read, I just can never get enough spookiness.
Side note: this is set in the 90's and I appreciated all the references to the time period even if it made me feel like this could count as historical because of it :cries:
Brittany Pressley did great with the audio.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Abandonment, Sexual content, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Drug abuse and Misogyny
sydnec's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Medical content, and Murder
Minor: Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Racism, and Domestic abuse
clarke's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Murder Road was enjoyable for the most part.. I will try to review with as minimal spoilers as possible. I feel like the description provided on netgalley doesn’t accurately depict the book you’re getting - it's mostly solving some murders with a dash of supernatural (but really not that much), not run for your life because youre next thrilling horror. I expected more of an eerie atmosphere or frankly more death at least? The actual summaries on goodreads/storygraph paint a better picture, but I hadn't looked at them prior to requesting/reading.
As for the writing: it could do with another proofread, and there were some annoying inconsistencies (like which car was where for example). The book shifted tense annoyingly - ie it varied between the past tense from April's POV, like she was telling this story/writing it (with fourth wall breaks included), right alongside the present mystery/her present moment thoughts and questions. Information about April was hidden from us as though April didn't have all of it herself, but she did and was hiding it from other characters (not that it was surprising, although I'm sure it was meant to be). This got really annoying, especially the shift between 'what's going on, who killed her??' to 'haha I know what happens' and back again, with some flashbacks added in for good measure. If I had to read her rehashing the mystery again or that Eddie had 'gone too deep and she couldn't follow' one more time?! And did you know it was their honeymoon?? It's hard to miss bc they never say it /s. The timeline/time period also seemed wonky, it could've easily been modern day without iPhones for the majority?
I can't say much about the reveal of the killer without spoiling it but the main mystery was SO OBVIOUS and then there's just a nice random person who's never been mentioned before the end to tie everything up in a bow. Except there's still questions. I also desperately need Trish to have an MRI - why did no one get her an MRI?? Tell her to go to the doctors?? Anything? (Leaving her alone bc she seems fine is not the happy ending you think it is). Otherwise, a lot of the mystery was easy - everyone they spoke to told them something, clues were found easily, and there's a lot of people willing to help these two strangers accused of murder - sleuth sisters, a woman with a not great bnb business, ghosts, you name it. It all just went a little too smoothly (although I doubt their bowel movements did, their diet did not seem great - I think there was 1 salad and 1 banana (covered in ice cream)). And WHO just leaves a house open for anyone to use and never checks on it?
I think if this was sold to me as a murder mystery, maybe I'd enjoy it more, but it's not what I was expecting. The inconsistencies in writing were annoying but not a complete deal breaker. Overall, I just wanted more. Other than the character who popped up at the end, it was all really obvious and I guessed the crux from the off. If you like murder mysteries with a supernatural element, that's 90% focused on past murders, then you will probably like this. I wanted blood and terror. I wanted desperate survival. A trend of merciless killings, with maybe a gorey opener. Not 'oh hitchhikers have been killed on this dark tree-lined road for decades and sometimes there's a light in the trees that is a ghost'. I just wanted more.
Thank you to netgalley for the arc.
As for the writing: it could do with another proofread, and there were some annoying inconsistencies (like which car was where for example). The book shifted tense annoyingly - ie it varied between the past tense from April's POV, like she was telling this story/writing it (with fourth wall breaks included), right alongside the present mystery/her present moment thoughts and questions. Information about April was hidden from us as though April didn't have all of it herself, but she did and was hiding it from other characters (not that it was surprising, although I'm sure it was meant to be). This got really annoying, especially the shift between 'what's going on, who killed her??' to 'haha I know what happens' and back again, with some flashbacks added in for good measure. If I had to read her rehashing the mystery again or that Eddie had 'gone too deep and she couldn't follow' one more time?! And did you know it was their honeymoon?? It's hard to miss bc they never say it /s. The timeline/time period also seemed wonky, it could've easily been modern day without iPhones for the majority?
I can't say much about the reveal of the killer without spoiling it but the main mystery was SO OBVIOUS and then there's just a nice random person who's never been mentioned before the end to tie everything up in a bow. Except there's still questions. I also desperately need Trish to have an MRI - why did no one get her an MRI?? Tell her to go to the doctors?? Anything? (Leaving her alone bc she seems fine is not the happy ending you think it is). Otherwise, a lot of the mystery was easy - everyone they spoke to told them something, clues were found easily, and there's a lot of people willing to help these two strangers accused of murder - sleuth sisters, a woman with a not great bnb business, ghosts, you name it. It all just went a little too smoothly (although I doubt their bowel movements did, their diet did not seem great - I think there was 1 salad and 1 banana (covered in ice cream)). And WHO just leaves a house open for anyone to use and never checks on it?
I think if this was sold to me as a murder mystery, maybe I'd enjoy it more, but it's not what I was expecting. The inconsistencies in writing were annoying but not a complete deal breaker. Overall, I just wanted more. Other than the character who popped up at the end, it was all really obvious and I guessed the crux from the off. If you like murder mysteries with a supernatural element, that's 90% focused on past murders, then you will probably like this. I wanted blood and terror. I wanted desperate survival. A trend of merciless killings, with maybe a gorey opener. Not 'oh hitchhikers have been killed on this dark tree-lined road for decades and sometimes there's a light in the trees that is a ghost'. I just wanted more.
Thank you to netgalley for the arc.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Gun violence, Mental illness, Abandonment, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Drug abuse, War, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Cancer
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