This is the book I chose to read on my kindle during the night when I couldn't sleep. So suspenseful and good!! I really enjoyed the thrilling suspense and liked the. characters. Do yourself a favor and read it in the dark...

This right here is why I love Simone St. James. Her books are just so atmospheric and creepy AF! This one was no exception. The storyline was tight. Characters (mostly) believable. And she even has me feeling like this is real. I even got a little scared a few times. That’s just how good she is! Love, love, loved it! 10/10 will read this one again!

If you're a fan of Simone St. James's atmospheric thrillers and enjoy a healthy dose of the supernatural with your mysteries, "Murder Road" might be a chilling addition to your reading list. This time, St. James takes us on a road trip through a cursed stretch of highway in the 90s, where a young couple's honeymoon detour turns into a nightmare. The story is undeniably gripping, with a classic ghost story vibe and a series of gruesome murders that will keep you hooked. The investigative element is strong, and the supernatural aspects are certainly spooky. If you appreciate a mystery that doesn't shy away from embracing the paranormal, you'll likely find yourself immersed in this world. However, be prepared for a bit of a mixed bag. While the mystery itself is compelling, some readers found the characters' backstories a bit tedious, and the emotional depth might not resonate with everyone. The 90s setting is nostalgic, but it could have been utilized more effectively. Overall, "Murder Road" is a decent supernatural thriller with a classic ghost story feel. It might not be St. James's strongest work, but if you're looking for a spooky mystery with a touch of nostalgia, it's worth checking out. Just be prepared for a few bumps in the road along the way.

My least favorite Simone St. James novel yet. This one didn’t give me the creeps at any point. The only character I ended up caring about was the innkeeper.

This was a really interesting story that kept me engaged throughout! I expected it to be a typical thriller but it felt more like true crime mixed with some paranormal aspects and I loved it! Highly recommend this to anyone who loves thrillers and mysteries

Simone St. James is one of my favorite authors so I'm always excited to read a new book but this one had me glued to my seat. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. St. James excels at the supernatural mystery and this did not disappoint

Our story takes place in 1995 and we are immediately thrust into a mystery when our honeymooning couple pick up a woman on the side of the road who is very badly hurt and bleeding all over the back seat of their car. Like any good person would do, they take her to the hospital where she succumbs to her injuries. Within a suspiciously short amount of time, detectives are there questioning our couple and telling them not to leave town.

Our couple, Eddie and April, are put up into an unusual B&B run but an equally unusual woman only to find that this story is not over and somehow they both are tied to the murders on Murder Road. Eddie and April are both hiding secrets that threaten to put their new marriage in danger. Working together, they investigate to find out who or what is the serial killer and to clear their names.

Excellent mystery with spooky supernatural elements, Murder Road was fantastic. I LOVED all the quirky characters of the town but Rose, the B&B owner was amazing. Prickly on the outside but their real true ally, she was the heart of the story and made them more likeable. I will highly recommend this title to those looking for a supernatural thriller/mystery.

Murder Road was an engrossing read that hooked me from start to finish. I loved the atmospheric setting and the 90s nostalgia.

Simone St. James seems to never miss with me. I've read all of her books and they never disappoint! This one really kept me on the edge of my seat.

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.


Images: Penguin Random House
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.

✨Book Review✨
Murder Road by Simone St. James
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
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This book was a decent thriller. You definitely have to be ok with supernatural elements with any of St. James’s books. The story got a little old at times, but for the most part I was engaged and wanted to keep reading.
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I listened to the audio and enjoyed the narrator.

As usual, Simone St. James does the supernatural like no other. Following along with April and Eddie on their honeymoon unlike any other was...interesting. The book started off strong, but somewhere along the way it lost some steam for me. I didn't enjoy this one as much as Sun Down Motel or The Book of Cold Cases. Some of it seemed a bit too coincidental at the end, but I suppose that's why they ended up taking that wrong turn to start with. Hoping Simone St. James' next book pulls me in a bit more than this one.

This was my first read from Simone St James and I really liked it. The offending highway had a deliciously creepy atmosphere throughout the story and I thought it was a fun premise that Eddie and April got sucked into a crime as they were headed to their honeymoon destination. It was refreshing to read about a couple that genuinely loved one another without any backstabbing or cheating involved. I loved the fact-finding mission they went on and I quite enjoyed paranormal aspect too. The only thing that felt a little odd to me were the parts concerning the police and the big explanation for everything. That part was so-so. But the rest of the book was a lot of fun! I‘ll be reading more by this author, especially in the autumn due to the fun, atmospheric quality of the setting.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing for sending me a digital review copy via NetGalley. It was a lot of fun to read, and these thoughts are all my own!

I am a huge fan of Simone St. James and when I read this synopsis of this story and saw it had a paranormal aspect I was so so excited to read this book. Unfortunately it was just a so-so book, I felt the paranormal part was underdeveloped, I didn’t get that creep factor out of it that I wanted. I did like how the author tied everything together in the end connecting the characters to the past. It is an easy fast read, but overall it left me just wanting more.

Greetings from Outlier Island!!!

I want to start this off by saying that I loved The Broken Girls, The Sun Down Motel and The Book of Cold Cases. I fully expected to have the same experience with this one. In fact, upon learning the title and reading the synopsis, I expected to enjoy it even more than those previous novels, as it sounded like this was going to be toeing over the line into my favorite genre: horror.

Unfortunately, here we are, 3-stars. My lowest rated St. James to-date; such a mixed bag for me. I'm sad about it, but feel like it is bound to be a one off. It has to be. I find it hard to believe that it's not. For me, this felt completely different than her other books and not in a good way. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed.

I really hadn't read any reviews prior to picking this one up, so after I finished it, shocked by how I didn't love it, I scurried over here and was even more shocked to discover I'm almost the only person who didn't love it!

I fully expected to find a mix of reviews. Those who loved it and those who didn't as much. I started to doubt everything. What did I miss? I can understand it's objectively still a good story, but it didn't deliver me the vibes, tension, or mystery I'm accustomed to with this author. I felt I was being generous giving 3-stars, but apparently I am being the biggest Debbie Downer in the book community. So, apologies all around for that.

I am going to move on. I'm going to pretend it never happened. I'm looking forward to whatever Simone St. James writes next. I still love her and her work. For some reason this one just did not work for me. I think it started off bad. I don't want to get too far into it, but the police suspecting these two MCs right away, the way they were treating them for assisting an injured woman was bizarre, to say the least. It was like, what?

It made no sense whatsoever for them to be treated with such hostility. Even though, ultimately we get a bit of an explanation for this, I wasn't buying it. Too little, too late. It felt so contrived on the part of the Officer involved. I think that opening left a sour taste in my mouth that left me judging the rest of the story too harshly. I admit that. I can appreciate some of the aspects of the story, but for me, I just wish it had been told differently.

Nevertheless, I'm glad I gave it a shot and as mentioned, I look forward to more from this author. Keep in mind, this is just my opinion. Even though it didn't work for me, doesn't mean it won't for you. If it sounds interesting to you, please pick it up. You'd do well to just ignore everything I just wrote. You most likely will not find yourself on Outlier Island with me. But if you do, bring drinks!

Thank you to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I love you and appreciate you.

This is the third book I’ve read by Simone St. James, and it’s safe to say she’s solidified herself as my favorite thriller author. The way she weaves real people and paranormal aspects into each of her stories always astounds me. I try to guess where each of her plots will go, and I’m never right. With Murder Road, she created such a spooky atmosphere with Atticus Line, that it’ll stick with me for a long time. Both April and Eddie had enough things they were hiding from each other and to us as readers to keep me thoroughly entertained. If you like spooky stories that have you wondering if a person committed these murders, or if it was something paranormal, I would highly recommend it!

I really liked this book! I thought it was really spooky and had a lot of twists and turns. I haven’t loved other books by this author, but this one made me have hope in her again! This is perfect fit for readers who crave a supernatural thriller and those who like to be drawn into the eerie world of unexplained murders, ghostly apparitions, and small-town secrets!

Thank you, NetGalley, for this book.

I love Simone St. James’s books. I’ve read The Haunting of Maddy Clare, The Broken Girls, and The Sundown Motel, all of which were excellent. This story was just as excellent as the others. I love that her books are horror-adjacent but still fit into the thriller category. Best of both worlds!

In 1995, Eddie and April are on their honeymoon when they see a bloody woman at the side of the road. They pick her up, take her to the hospital, and then are accused of being her murderers. They know they aren’t but don’t know how to clear their names. As they begin to dig in her death, they uncover more secrets about the stretch of road where they found her.

This story has a lot of great secrets and reveals that I didn’t see coming. Eddie and April are great characters who you really root for, even though they have pasts that they are running or hiding from. Add in a good cop, a stubborn widow, and two nosy teen girls, this book has a great cast of secondary characters. I thought this book was great and will definitely recommend it.

This didn’t feel like a Simone St James book… not what I was hoping for. The storyline was a mess, the characters had unnecessary backstories that had way too much detail, a lot of what was happening seemed random and it wasn’t anything like her precious books. It’s not horrible, but I don’t know if I would ever recommend it for a book club or anything. I love that her books always have paranormal ghost aspects, and this one didn’t really have that. Just the lost girl… and that left me wanting more.

A young couple takes a wrong turn when headed to a resort town for their honeymoon. On the long stretch of highway, they come across a hitchhiker. They stop to help, and soon realize the hitchhiker is injured. When the hitchhiker dies, the couple become the suspects instead of witnesses. As the couple looks into the mysterious town, they discover a series of murders along the highway.

Murder Road is an atmospheric supernatural thriller. Intriguing characters in an eerie setting. Recommended for fans of Simone St. James’s other books.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book hooked me from the start being set in the summer of 1995. I remember that time immensely as I graduated HS and was one foot out the door going to LSU 💜💛.
The couple in the story was in their mid twenties just married and was heading to their honeymoon. During the drive, the couple somehow got lost and ended up on a long deserted highway at night. Finally they see a flash of light and realize it’s a girl hitchhiking. Offering her a ride the girl reluctantly gets in and soon after that’s when they realize this girl is in serious trouble but from what or whom and where did she come from?
Finally finding a small town and rushing the girl for help to save her, has put themselves headfirst into a greater danger.

With twists and turns this one was hard to put down. I love all things supernatural. Reading things set in the 90’s is always a trip down memory lane because of all the profound changes in technology that decade provided. Saying that, my only issue was the facts in the story reminded me more of circa 85-92. Maybe rural Louisiana in 1995 was more tech savvy than Michigan? 💜💛