I read this book in its entirety on a lazy Sunday and that's no small thing after an unlucky run of ARCs that I just <i>could</i> put down, so I'm tempted to give this four stars just because of that. I can't, though. Man, I just can't.

Even reading it in one sitting I still felt like I was missing some things, which was in sharp contrast to the way that I guessed the Big Twist at approximately the 39% mark due to a foreshadowing moment that felt more like a flick on the forehead in terms of subtlety. I think I would have enjoyed the rest of it more had that twist not been so clearly telegraphed.

Also I know that books about influencers are generally meant to show the dark side of it all, but there was genuinely no point at which I understood why anybody would be doing the #vanlife thing in the first place. I totally get that neither of the narrators involved in the quest were doing it for funsies, but it was also impressive how they never managed to even run across anybody who seemed to be enjoying the ride of it all. An Australian reader pointed out in their review that "the author captured the boring and banal vibe of the coral coast reaaaally well" so perhaps that's a part of it - aside from the pink lake nothing really stood out in terms of why anybody would make this particularly trip.

It seems like nobody who writes about influencers has ever been one, which makes sense because they are writers, but even a book like this could have been improved by a feeling that the author understood even a tiny bit why people do this and what's interesting about it. Because otherwise this book is just about a kind of boring (and also scary, but not in a way you really <i>feel</i>) road trip.

This was a diverting enough read for a lazy afternoon though. Fair three stars.

My thanks to St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

If you are ready to question everything you think you know about these characters, this is the book for you!! Katy is determined to retrace her younger sister, Phoebe’s, van journey to locate her missing sibling. The authorities have run out of leads but Katy has to know how and why her sister disappeared. Along the way, she meets Beth, who is on the run from her own dangerous past. Told in alternating voice, Katy follows along with Phoebe’s blog to hopefully solve the mystery of her disappearance. What she uncovers will spin your mind. Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the ARC. This is my honest review.

Red River Road is a worst case situation for any solo traveler. Throughout the novel, I drew connections to the Gaby Petito case. The characters’ aliases were a little hard to follow at first as with the connections to the side storylines, but halfway through, I was hooked. The twist at the end caught me by surprise and I never would have considered it. As a follower of many travel Instagram accounts, I enjoyed the social media aspect. 4/5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my unbiased review.

Vanlife intrigues me to begin with, but add in a young woman driving the Big Lap, following her missing sister's social media posts and trying to figure out what happened to her on the isolated roads of Australia, and I found myself totally immersed in this book. Some of Phoebe's posts are included between the chapters and the comments give chilling hints about what might have gone wrong. Chapters alternate between characters who seem unrelated at first but the author sets up a suspenseful collision course that had me holding my breath by the end.

It took me a little while to get into this book because I thought it would be too scary to read before bed. Once I finally had time to sit down in the daylight and read, I was hooked! Every direction I thought this book was going to take was WRONG! It kept me guessing the whole time and I loved all the twists and turns. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart


Review copy was received from . This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

2.5 hearts

I started Red River Road on audio and just felt confused. There are three main characters: Katy, Beth and Wyatt. Wyatt is a child and seems a bit unconnected to the story for most of the book. Katy and Beth seem like unreliable narrators of the story which is not one of my favorite things. It also could have been mood, as uncertainty is not my reading preference right now.

So I tried again later, switching to the ebook version. This switch is the opposite of one that was effective earlier this month with a different paused read. So format can be tricky and works for me differently in different genres.

Katy is searching for her sister, Phoebe who has gone missing. Beth escaped her own bad situation and wound up in Katy's van. Together, they follow Phoebe's route and try to find people who saw her and talked to her. The method is not very effective. Eventually they get into Phoebe's accounts and emails at Beth's suggestion to figure out more of her interactions.

Meanwhile, we are getting flashback chapters to Wyatt and Beth's history. Beth and Katy haven't trusted each other completely so they solve the mystery from different aspects, which all comes together in the end. Domestic abuse and misogyny plays into the history strongly, so be advised.

Red River Road was not a fun or pleasant read. The women were not very careful and had only each other for support, for reasons. I could admire their strength and perseverance, even understand their unwillingness to get help. I struggled to read this one, on edge but tired of the unhelpful details until the last bit which happened very quickly.

I consumed this book in two sittings. The short chapters, the multiple POVs, and the incredible twists kept me on the edge of my seat. Plus, a timely message behind it all. Anna Downes has become one of my favorite suspense authors. Thank you to Minotaur and NetGalley for my copy.

It has been a year since Phoebe disappeared three weeks into a solo trip by van on the road that encircles Australia. Her blog, pheebsinwonderland, describes her stops leading up to her disappearance. Now her sister Katy is using the blog to retrace Phoebe’s route, hoping to discover what happened to her. At one of the stops she becomes uncomfortable around one of the men at a gathering. She had been drinking with the group before driving off. Needing sleep and time to sober up, she finds a place off the road to stop and sleep. There she encounters Beth, who has snuck into the back of her van to hide. She had run from an abusive relationship with her boyfriend Lucas with none of her possessions or identification. In exchange for a place in Katy’s van she offers to help her find her sister. As they travel, they stay in the same locations as Phoebe, hoping someone will remember her. When Beth suggests searching Phoebe’s social media one of the names that comes up is Lucas. Someone has been following them on their trip and Beth is afraid that he has been tracking them. While she was with him they were involved in a series of robberies. Beth is afraid that if Katy learns the truth she will strand her. On one of their stops, Beth is approached by a reporter who is hoping to get a story. When he gets her alone he warns her that Katy is not who she seems and may even pose a threat to Beth. One of Phoebe’s pictures offers a clue to her last location. It is located in Lucas’ home town. Their arrival leads to a confrontation with a major twist and a murder. Told in alternating points of view, this story progresses slowly, with little progress on the search for Phoebe. The earlier disappearance of another female vanlifer is noted at several of Katy’s stops. Anna Downes’ ties this mystery to Phoebe’s story as she brings Katy’s search to its’ conclusion. I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur for providing this book.

I loved following Katy and Beth as they searched for clues around the Big Lap of Western Australia. The claustrophobic setting of the van added so much tension. Short chapters and alternating POVs kept the story moving at a steady pace. Beth’s past and current traumas added a secondary storyline that I cared about just as much as Phoebe’s disappearance. Every woman in this story was keeping secrets and you don’t know the real story UNTIL YOU KNOW THE REAL STORY. I would definitely recommend this thriller if you enjoy a missing person story with a unique setting and a good twist.

I had mixed feelings about this book. I was all in on Katy trying to find her sister Phoebe who disappeared while living life on the road.
Beth’s character was confusing because the reader is given hints but nothing concrete until well into the book.
And then Wyatt was thrown in which I didn’t understand what his connection was until almost the very end.
I also found the premise of Katy’s issues to be questionable although it’s fiction.
Don’t travel alone to remote places.

Katy is in search of her sister Phoebe who disappeared while exploring the Australian Outback. I loved the setting for the book! The van life was interesting to read about. Katy encounters another woman Beth who is escaping a hidden past. I was enjoying up until the end reveal. I always feel like that's the easy way put to wrap up a "mystery".

Loved it!! If you happen to come back to your van and find some random person sleeping in your bed, what do you do? I would have been so scared and freaked out. I would think they were there to murder me and throw my body to the dingoes to eat. Katy invites her to come along on her trip. Beth was lucky to find Katy because her relationship with Lucas was terrifying. The Big Lap van life seemed fun and scary at the same time, especially if you were traveling alone. Anything could happen to you without anyone knowing. Hence, all the fliers for the missing women. I really just wanted to know what happened to Phoebe. All the weird things that were happening to Katy and Beth, seemed like it might be the person who harmed Phoebe. Why is the detective so mad with Katy calling him? I had so many questions. Why was Wyatt always sick? Was someone making him ill or was he really just poorly? I knew there had to be something shady happening in the shed, why else would it be locked. Honestly, I really thought Wyatt's dad had a women locked in it. I was certain Phoebe would be chained inside waiting to be rescued. With Wyatt constantly hearing noises in the house, I thought maybe they were hiding someone in the attic. There were so many twists and turns. The story had me constantly guessing. Was Phoebe going to be found alive somewhere or were there just bones? I'm really not sure about the ending. I would have never predicted what was really going on. How did people not know? I never suspected anything. At times I thought maybe Katy was Phoebe's stalker. It was just so crazy. Australia sounded beautiful. Some of the spots the girls stopped at sounded amazing.

Definitely recommend the book. It was a great mystery/thriller. Loved the characters, writing style and story. This was the first book I read by the author and I look forward to reading more. Loved the cover of the book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own

When you read often you’ll find that not every book is for you, and this one wasn’t for me. It took me quite a while to finish because I just never got drawn in by the story or the characters. I found the plot very hard to follow because it seemed like it was all over the place. There was too much going on and it felt like it couldn’t decide which thread it wanted to follow at any given point. Generally, I like a good multi-plotline/multi-pov story but if you’re going to do both you have to give enough background to either the plot or the characters themselves to keep the reader engaged. I often found that I just didn’t care what was going on because there were just a lot of holes where information should be to make the story make sense but that information was never delivered. I wasn’t huge on any of the characters; none of them seemed particularly likeable. Which again, isn’t an automatic dealbreaker for me, but they weren’t particularly interesting either, they were just sort of there. Mostly I wasn’t so much interested in the story but I did become very interested in visiting Australia. I do feel like there’s been a recent uptick in the van life plot premise but I don’t know that I’ve seen it done super well as of yet which is unfortunate because I think there’s a lot to work with there. For me the best part of the book were the descriptions of all the locations visited. Overall, not necessarily something I would recommend.

Three POV that all feel kind of secretive and unreliable and yet it comes together nicely. All the elements come together nicely. The tension on the road, the secrecy, the friendship (despite being built on lies).

I liked all the different pieces of the story and the way they all come together. There’s a lot of things that aren’t what they seem and the reveals aren’t totally surprising bc the clues are there, but they are satisfying and make for a good story.

Atmospheric, tense.
Keeps you guessing: Who to trust?
Slow, choppy, but fun.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I write haiku reviews but am happy to provide more feedback.

Gasp! I knew going in that anything Anna Downes wrote would be pretty darn good. And let me tell you, Red River Road managed to meet my expectations and then blow them away. With an evocative setting, immersive plot, and mixed media format, I was won over hook, line, and sinker right from the start. After all, the addictive, finely layered storyline wasn’t the only strength to this story. Oh no. There was an underlying message that proved to be both thought-provoking and utterly stunning even if it was somewhat heavy and pockmarked with just barely there triggers. All together, it was a dark, wild ride.

Told via multiple POVs that were composed of distinctly clear cut identities that helped heighten suspense, each persona waffled between unreliable and trustworthy. Combined, they took a well-plotted storyline and made it seem like I was peeling an onion until all was revealed. And oh what a storyline that it was. Rife with misdirection and jaw-dropping twists, this was far more than just another reinvention of the missing person trope. Instead there were secrets piled upon lies, all of which came together to build a downright chilling, spine-tingling thriller.

All in all, with a purposeful slow burn plot that felt like an expertly orchestrated mystery, I was duly impressed. What made it even better, however, was the fast-paced, explosive climax and near-constant palpable tension. Ratcheting higher and higher with each deft reveal, the foreboding made me look over my shoulder as I fully expecting eyes on me as well. Just know that you need to pay CLOSE attention to what’s going on. Maybe that way you’ll pick up on the deftly obscured clues that I personally missed. But then, I was just as happy to remain in the dark throughout this unguessable, binge-worthy novel. Rating of 4.5 stars.

Thank you to Anna Downes and Minotaur Books for my complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

I read this gripping work of suspense and it was captivating, a slow burning mystery that will just get into your head. Set along the natural beauty of the west coast of Australia, the beautifully written setting is a huge part the story - i have never been to Australia but I looked so many spots up on the internet because they sounded so magical... without the uneasy feeling this book provides, of course.
This is the story of Katy, who after the police investigation into the disappearance of her sister Phoebe basically fizzles out decides to get a camper van and follow her sister's trip up the coast. She uses Phoebes Instagram page as a guide, determined to find out what happened a year ago. Where is her sister and why can't the police find her? Along the way she picks up a fellow female traveler, Beth, who is travelling alone for her very own reasons that she is not sharing.
With danger at every turn, I was engrossed - listening, glued to my book. Both women are deceptive.
The people they encounter along the way, the struggles for women travelling on their own, it was all very realistic and very far away in Australia at the same time.
And that ending so very clever, I am still thinking about it but don't want to spoil it for you.

It took me a long time to get into this book, but once I hit about 75 percent in, I got really invested in the story and wanted to figure out what happened. It had some interesting twists that I didn't see coming.

"Red River Road" by Anna Downes captivated me with its stunning portrayal of Western Australia’s landscapes. The exploration of the potential dangers of Van Life felt particularly timely and relevant. The pacing kept me engaged throughout, and I loved the narrative structure told from three different perspectives. It’s a gripping puzzle that had me guessing their connections, with plenty of twists that I thoroughly enjoyed. A compelling read!

A woman sets out to find her sister, Phoebe, an influencer and solo van traveler, who supposedly vanished the year before, leaving no trace or clues. Along the way, she picks up another woman, traveling alone and running from bad circumstances.
Together, the two follow Phoebe's itinerary, hoping to find some explanation as to what happened to her, without realizing the answer is much closer than they realize.
This was engaging and quick-paced.
Thanks to #netgalley and #minotaurbooks for this #arc of #redriverroad by #annadownes in exchange for an honest review.