Despite living in Maine, home of horror hero Stephen King, for 20 years, I am not drawn to horror when it comes to my reading habits. I am, however, drawn to quirky and mysterious, which is why I was drawn to Murder Road by Simone St James.
It is July of 1995. On their way to a small honeymoon in the mid-west, April and Eddie find themselves lost. Stopping late at night for a young woman who appears to be hitchhiking, they quickly find themselves racing to get her to the hospital, where she dies of her wounds. They find themselves the suspects in a protracted string of murders. Despite this, they still don’t tell the police about the truck they saw following them… or whatever they thought they saw in the back of that truck.
Unexplained murders have been happening along the old Atticus Line for a long time, and April and Eddie are the first-ever witnesses. Unable to leave the town while being questioned, the couple starts to dig into the history of the murders and the history of the stretch of road that locals now avoid. Very quickly things start turning supernatural, and, as April and Eddie try to leave, they find themselves drawn back to the small community in more ways than one.
Murder Road was a compelling read, with some interesting character points and a ghost story that was creepy enough to be engaging and subtle enough to not make me want to put the book in the freezer. As usual, I found myself drawn more to the side characters than anything else. The state detective who has been unable to crack this 20-year-old case and the wife of the deceased cop who was sidelined in the department because of his race.
The book centers on a young married couple, each with their own complicated past. April has spent most of her life on the run from an abusive father and from a past that chased her no matter what name she used. Eddie was abandoned as a child and was discharged from the army for some pretty severe PTSD. St James weaves in several other character pairings that balance things out nicely, the aging residents of the town, who know more than they let on, and the teenage Harriet the Spy wannabes who know far more than everyone. Everyone has a piece of this puzzle, and April and Eddie can’t quite let themselves step away without seeing everything to its fullest conclusion. The story starts quickly but then builds itself up with remarkable subtlety. You are about halfway through the book before you realize that the town is a vibrant community and not some ghost town being tortured into oblivion by a specter. Moms are doing yoga and kids are going to the library, but, to begin with, we only see what April and Eddie see.
April and Eddie are a wonderfully put-together couple. Quite frankly several of their conversations reminded me of things that my husband and I have said to each other. While most of their situations are wildly different from my own marriage, the way that they worry about each other but also talk each other down was touching in such a familiar way.
“We’ve had terrible ideas before. At least I have.”
“Like marrying me?”
The question was a surprise… “Like the time I drank vodka before going to the fall fair and eating a funnel cake. I’ll never eat a funnel cake again.”
His shoulders relaxed. This was how it worked: I eased him down, and in return I got to watch some of the pain leave his body and his face.
Sure their life is simple, and their marriage was pretty hasty, but they are an excellent fit. Not without its emotional moments for all the characters, it was hard not to feel deeply for Rose as she told the tale of her husband’s death and how the community has treated her ever since. But it is April’s practicality in the face of PTSD, police over-zealousness, and ghosts that really captivated me.
I had gotten this far in my life by being practical, by dealing with what was right in front of my face without dithering. So now I believed in ghosts. Or at least I believed in this ghost. What do you want? I asked her in my head… If a ghost stopped your car in the road, then she wanted something. It was the only logic that made sense.
The setting of 1995 is mentioned often enough to feel nostalgic for someone who grew up at that time—I myself was 14—but not so often that it impairs the movement of the story. Interestingly enough, the time period actually serves to highlight how little has changed in these small communities where they live, love, and die together. My favorite moment was when April is looking around the guest house for a book to read and stumbles on V.C. Andrews Flowers in the Attic. I was obsessed with the TV series in my youth, and I remember reading the book several times. Having it just lying around a mid-nineties house is such a perfectly normal thing.
Murder Road is an engaging dive into the myths and monsters we create ourselves in small-town America and definitely a great one to pick up for any road trips you might have planned this summer. Just don’t follow the light on a quiet road and you’ll be fine!
Murder Road was released in March of this year and GeekMom received a copy for review purposes.
Click through to read all of "‘Murder Road’ by Simone St James" at GeekMom.If you value content from GeekMom, please support us via Patreon or use this link to shop at Amazon. Thanks!