Honeymoon from Hell... "Murder Road" Book REVIEW

When you hear the word “honeymoon”, chances are, you picture a happy couple walking into a posh hotel suite (complete with artfully-folded towel swans surrounded by a heart made of rose petals, laid out on the bed). Holding hands as they stroll along a sandy beach, pausing for long kisses as the sun sets in glorious technicolor behind them. Clinking glasses of bubbly together while lounging in a hot tub, all heart-eyes between them. 

[Basically, what every wedding and travel brochure catering to the newly-hitched advertises in beautifully-printed, vivid colors.]

So, there’s a honeymoon in Simone St. James’ latest novel, too… but darlin’, this ain’t remotely that kind of honeymoon. In fact, you might say that the after-ceremony vacay in Murder Road would more aptly be called a “bloodymoon”… 

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It’s 1995, and Eddie and April—the brand-spanking-new Mr. and Mrs. Carter—are cruising along a deserted Michigan road (bizarrely named Atticus Line) late at night, en route to their (decidedly un-beachy, definitely non-exotic) honeymoon destination: an inexpensive little motel in a poky lake town, still a couple of hours away. 

[See, not everyone gets to have those über-over-the-top honeymoons to-die-for. The brochures fudge the truth a bit, what can I say?]

April is on radio duty while Eddie drives, trying to find a station (any station) within range to help keep them awake on this lonely stretch of road, made darker by the starless sky. April questions whether Eddie is still on the right path, but there isn’t enough light for her to read the map she fishes from the glovebox.

And then they see it, looming out of the blackness… the shape of a woman, limping unevenly along the road’s shoulder. 

With no choice, they stop.

It’s a young woman, incoherent, and April and Eddie suspect she may be drunk.

When bright headlights suddenly appear and the loud roar of a big 4x4 truck bears down on them, though, the woman starts babbling, clearly terrified. April notices blood seeping beneath her jacket, and quickly bundles the injured woman into the back seat.

The pickup chases them down the desolate road, getting closer and closer and closer… until April finally manages to get directions out of their passenger, and Eddie barely makes a sharp turn onto a side road at the last possible second, leaving the truck behind, barreling on down Atticus Line.

The hospital is as small and unimpressive as the rest of the little town that goes by the name of Coldlake Falls, but the startled staff jump to action, rushing the now-unconscious woman away.

Standing in the hospital entryway, sticky with blood that isn’t their own, April and Eddie debate what they should do next. Wait to talk with the police, or drive away without looking back, and forget what was now feeling like a very doomed honeymoon?

The prompt arrival of the police answers that question for them.

And when doctors are unable to save the woman—and the police have two suspicious, bloody, out-of-towners in their hands—well, you see how this is gonna go…

Except… you really can’t. Our honeymooners have inadvertently landed themselves smack-dab in the middle of a whole SERIES of disappearances—and murders—on that very same stretch of Atticus Line.

And the cops? Well, they see a whole lot of things adding up… which means April and Eddie more than have their work cut out for them, if they don’t want this meager honeymoon to turn into a pair of very long prison sentences, spent hopelessly far apart.

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You know how some books you can’t put down, and race towards the ending? Whereas others, you just want to linger on, and savor every word, every turn of the page? 

Murder Road, for me, was unequivocally BOTH. I wanted, so desperately, to find out the infamous “5 Ws and an H” (who, what, where, when, why, and how, if that’s a head-scratcher)… but at the same time, I definitely did not want to see the end of this book. (Seriously, it’s  That. Good.)

It’s impossible not to root for April and Eddie… two youngish (mid-to-late-20s) lovebirds, with unexpected backstories full of struggle and hardship, and their believable reactions to the messes they keep finding themselves in, here. For reasons best left for you, dear readers, to find out for yourselves, these two characters feel heartbreakingly real.

Somehow, St. James wraps up everything in a way that feels just right … with an ending that has been haunting me for days, now. And you know what? I’d be surprised if you don’t have a similar experience.

Murder Road. Trust me, readers… this is one roadtrip/honeymoon-from-hell you most definitely wanna take. 

~GlamKitty