Murder Road – Simone St. James
Expectation: Another twisty supernatural thriller from a rather reliable author.
Reality: St. James delivered a lazy, convoluted plot that asked more from the reader than should’ve been allowed.
My Take:
Simone St. James has consistently delivered solid mysteries with a ghostly twist, but there’s been a pattern of diminishing returns over her last two novels that has led me to believe she is all sizzle and no steak.
Her concepts are not the problem, it solely lies within the execution. Somewhere between “The Sun Down Motel” and “The Book of Cold Cases” she lost the ability to balance straightforward investigative proceedings with supernatural elements.
Don't get me wrong, the initial setup of “Murder Road” is killer (pun intended). Newlyweds on a honeymoon, wrong turn, creepy hitchhiker — all the makings of a good thriller. But then things go sideways faster than April and Eddie can say erroneous allegations.
Therein lies my biggest issue with “Murder Road.” It is infuriatingly trite.
The whole premise relies on clueless cops and loose-lipped townsfolk. No amount of plotting or character-development could make me believe these two amateurs rolled into town and solved several decades worth of cold cases in a week.
Let’s not even mention the half-baked urban legend, scattered ‘90s references (some inaccurate given the 1995 timeframe) and the convoluted, unrelated backstories of the main characters. So much is thrown at the plot and very little of it works.
Sure, "Murder Road" is pulp — a popcorn thriller that should be devoured without overthinking — but this time it felt like St. James was insulting my intelligence and relying on blind acceptance of her inanity, not genuine creativity.
By the time I got to the big reveal — [spoiler] that The Lost Girl was Eddie’s mother, who was killed by her grandfather, and possessed people with brain tumors (?!) to kill innocent hitchhikers for revenge — [spoiler ends] I could not have cared less.
The whole thing just felt...off. Like St. James alternately phoned it in and was trying too hard to sell it. If I didn’t know better I’d think she found a rejected “The X-Files” episode and thought, “hey, let’s polish this up and cash-in on ‘90s nostalgia!”
Brittany Pressley did the best she could with the audiobook narration, but there is no saving this mess. Consider it a hard pass in all formats.
Rating (story): 2/5 stars
Rating (narration): 3/5 stars
Format: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: March 24 – March 26, 2024
Multi-tasking: Encouraged. Better yet, listen to something else.
