Murder Road by Simone St. James

A young couple find themselves haunted by a string of gruesome murders committed along an old deserted road in this terrifying new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Cold Cases .

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.

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published March 5, 2024

 by Berkley

4/5 stars

Simone St. James became an auto-read for me after The Broken Girls. I have enjoyed every book I have read since and am slowly making my way through her back list. Murder Road is her latest which was released a few weeks ago

The beginning started out strong, it had the creepy vibe with its dark secluded road, mysterious happenings and a small town buried in secrets. The mystery was compelling and the main characters were shrouded in secrets of the past.

Murder Road has an interesting plot and as a story unravels it takes on some true St. James characteristics that I’ve come to know and expect in her books. There were the twists and turns she is good at. April and Eddie felt a bit flat at times and I would have loved more Rose and the sisters to had some more sass.

Well, this might not be my favorite of her books, it was entertaining and kept me guessing.

This book was part of my 2024 reading off my shelf challenge. It was also my March BOTM pic.