Murder Road by Simone St. James

Hello beautiful people! Welcome to a new review! For this review, I get into an author whose books I’ve enjoyed in the past, Murder Road by Simone St. James. Released earlier this year, Murder Road is a twisty mystery thriller that like other of Simone’s books has a paranormal element to it as well. I like that her books tend to have this aspect and that she weaves it in with the book’s mystery.

Main Characters:

• April: After growing up with a tough life practically having to raise herself things seem to turn around for April when she meets and eventually marries Eddie a retired soldier who is madly in love with her, when the two go on their honeymoon they don’t expect to find a girl bleeding to death on the side of the highway leading April to have to face her past again, and question how well she knows her newlywed husband
• Eddie: Newley married to April Eddie is trying to turn his life around after experiencing things no one should in the army, struggling with PTSD Eddie can’t expect the new trauma he and April will be thrown into, after bringing the girl they find to the hospital Eddie and April instantly become suspects for her death, and no one can tell them why but for some reason Eddie decides to hide something they saw from the police
• Rhonda Jean: Eddie and April find her bleeding on the side of the road and try to get her to the hospital before she passes but she dies not long after they get her there, a black truck follows the couple as they take her to the hospital making it seem as though maybe someone else was out looking for her as well
• Rose: When Eddie and April are placed under suspicion for Rhonda Jean’s death the local police put them up in Rose’s Bed and Breakfast, it seems to be some weird attempt to punish her as it seems Rose’s passed husband caused some noise on the force by being the only black man and also trying to do his job well

My Review

I’ve read a few other of Simone St. James’s books in the past and really enjoyed them so I was excited to get into Murder Road. I will say off the jump that Murder Road in my personal opinion is not her strongest, it’s not a bad book by any means, but it just definitely isn’t as good as some of her other reads. Not every book can be a home run, ya know? I think what did it for me is that I found that while the mystery and paranormal elements were nicely woven together in some parts, in others I was a bit confused. There were just a lot of characters in this book, specifically a lot of women, and I kept getting people mixed up, or forgetting what happened with another one. I also was initially a bit confused if there was a connection between the paranormal and mystery parts of the book because it didn’t really seem like it at first. It all comes together at the end but early on in the book, it’s a bit hard to see how that’s going to happen. Given that this did lead to some good twists throughout the book. I didn’t see the ending coming for the main mystery but for some of the other twists I did see them coming a little bit.

Murder Road follows newlywed couple April and Eddie as they head off for their honeymoon together. April is still in shock that she has ended up with this seemingly perfect man. Nothing in her life has ever been perfect or even really good before, and finding a man who is dedicated to making her happy and is also a good person is something she never could have dreamed of. Eddie similar to his wife is shocked to be here with her. Having PTSD from serving in the army, Eddie while seeming perfect on the outside isn’t so much on the inside and has his own demons to battle. Yet, he has found a partner who loves him for all his flaws. Before they can even make it to her cabin oasis to celebrate their love, the two find a young woman bleeding on the side of the road. Trying as quickly as possible to get Rhonda Jean help it proves to not be enough when she soon dies in the hospital from her injuries. Furthermore, the two don’t expect that they will be at the top of the local police list for suspects when all they ever tried to do was help. Soon learning that Rhonda Jean’s death may not be an isolated incident, and April and Eddie could be the key to finding the answer, the two are forced to question how many dark secrets they are willing to expose to find out what is going on in this town, and why.

I landed on rating Murder Road a 6.5/10. Personally, I think there was a way to have things flow in the book a bit smoother than it did, maybe leading to less confusion about what’s going on. I don’t want to say too much about the book because it’s such a new release but where I got tripped up was whether or not characters were ‘real’ or a part of the paranormal aspect of the book, and how they all connected. Once it all comes together it makes sense but I felt like I spent a bit too much of the book being like ‘Huh?’ and ‘why are they doing that?’. Maybe what got me a bit too is this book is very theatrical. I mean I would say that a lot of Simone’s books are and aren’t very realistic but something about it in this book got me a bit more than it did in her other books. Maybe it was just ramped up a bit more in this book. I am not saying the theatricality in this book is particularly bad but at the same time, it was hard to not see red flags. An example is how April and Eddie are treated after Rhonda Jean dies. I mean it was pretty easy for the police to figure out that the two just got married, didn’t live here and were coming for their honeymoon, and had nothing to do with Rhonda Jean. Yet the police question them forever and force them to stay in the town even though they were technically just driving through, until they figure out what happened. It just seemed weird to me and I mean it does add a layer of suspicion into the book but it just didn’t make much sense to me.

I really enjoyed the second half of the book compared to the first. The second is where things start to come together a bit more and make some more sense. Once things start to come together more it’s a much more enjoyable book because you aren’t always over questioning why these weird things are happening to April and Eddie who are two just seemingly normal people. Their relationship is a really strong point for me in the book because no matter how weird or hectic things would get they would always support and be there for each other during this really difficult situation. There is this aspect to their relationship though where both are holding onto secrets and it’s a question of whether it will make them closer or hurt them more.

Has anyone else read Murder Road by Simone St. James or any of her other books? What did you think?

Thank you for checking out this review! I hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to follow me on my socials @baddiebookreviews to be kept up to date for when I release a new review!