For decades, young women have been disappearing along the Cold Creek Highway. So when Amber disappears, it hits many people hard, especially the two main characters of our story, Hailey and Beth. Told in their viewpoints, we learn more about these incredibly strong women, who will get to the bottom of Amber’s disappearance, even when it puts them in the middle of danger.
The characters in this are well-written. I especially loved Wolf, who felt like a dog out of one of Koontz’s books. Even Vaughn, whom I hated with a passion, with his victim shaming, and his creepy, leering ways, played his role well. While I felt Hailey made some very questionable decisions, especially in telling her aunt about Vaughn, I still cheered her on, wanting the best for her. The wilderness descriptions were fantastic, and I could picture everything as Stevens wrote it. Overall, an enjoyable read. Thank you, St. Martin’s, for sending this along!
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Dark Roads is available on Amazon for $14.99.
About the Book
The Cold Creek Highway stretches close to five hundred miles through British Columbia’s rugged wilderness to the west coast. Isolated and vast, it has become a prime hunting ground for predators. For decades, young women traveling the road have gone missing. Motorists and hitchhikers, those passing through or living in one of the small towns scattered along the region, have fallen prey time and again. And no killer or abductor who has stalked the highway has ever been brought to justice.
Hailey McBride calls Cold Creek home. Her father taught her to respect nature, how to live and survive off the land, and to never travel the highway alone. Now he’s gone, leaving her a teenage orphan in the care of her aunt whose police officer husband uses his badge as a means to bully and control Hailey. Overwhelmed by grief and forbidden to work, socialize, or date, Hailey vanishes into the mountainous terrain, hoping everyone will believe she’s left town. Rumors spread that she was taken by the highway killer—who’s claimed another victim over the summer.
One year later, Beth Chevalier arrives in Cold Creek, where her sister Amber lived—and where she was murdered. Estranged from her parents and seeking closure, Beth takes a waitressing job at the local diner, just as Amber did, desperate to understand what happened to her and why. But Beth’s search for answers puts a target on her back—and threatens to reveal the truth behind Hailey’s disappearance…
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