Murder Road by Simone St James

 

April and Eddie are driving to their honeymoon resort when they take a wrong turn.  Soon they are on a deserted road, deep in the woods with no one or nothing around.  Then they see the girl stumbling down the road.  They stop and determine that she is definitely in trouble; there is blood everywhere.  They get her in the car and to a hospital at the nearest town but she dies there.  

Now the police are suspicious of the couple and tell them not to leave town.  The couple go to a local bed and breakfast and are interrogated repeatedly by the police.  They learn that there have been other hitchhikers who have been killed on that stretch of road going back twenty years.  There are also rumors of The Lost Girl who was the first murder victim found and who has never been identified.

Eddie and April know they are guiltless but that doesn't mean they don't have secrets.  Both have things they have never told anyone, including each other.  The police start to bring their secrets to the surface and the couple decides that they will have to find the killer if they are ever going to be able to leave.  With the help of a pair of crime fascinated teenage sisters and the irascible owner of the bed and breakfast, they start to delve into the mystery.  Can they find who killed The Lost Girl?

Simone St. James has made a name for herself in the mystery genre.  Her books typically have a supernatural element and this one follows that.  But the supernatural in this novel is much more believable than usual and the reader will be drawn into April and Eddie's story.  They are both believable characters, haunted by their pasts but totally in love with each other.  As they work to find the answers, they draw on the strength of their relationship.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.