Simone St. James’ latest spooky thriller Murder Road takes us to a small town in Michigan with a really big problem.

July, 1995: When they pick her up, she is reluctant to speak. She looks shell-shocked. Eddie and April Carter only offered her a ride because a (seemingly) drunk girl walking dazedly along the side of the road at two in the morning was definitely in need of help, but would they have stopped if they knew just how much help? She isn’t inebriated; she’s badly injured and bleeding out. “I’m Rhonda Jean,“ she says when their questions finally penetrate her stupor. And then a bit later, “I’m sorry. He’s coming.” “He” turns out to be driving a large truck, which slowly gains on them as they race down a road called Atticus Line. They are only able to get away by taking a particularly sharp turn at a rather reckless speed. It had seemed safer than facing whatever was chasing them in the dark.

By the time they get Rhonda Jean to the small local hospital, April, who had been holding her hand throughout that wild ride, is covered in her blood, and so is Eddie, who carries her into the ER. Their car, the backseat of which is now soaked in gore, looks like a scene from a horror movie. The nurses make a call even as they deal with the patient. A policeman comes almost immediately, questioning them about where they found her, where they were going, and how they wound up on that particular road in the middle of the night. Not too much later, the officer informs the Carters they are suspects in the murder of Rhonda Jean, who has just died. But the state detectives arrive before he can ask any more questions. It seems Cold Lake doesn’t have the kind of force that can handle murder cases but oddly enough, they have more than their share of them – Rhonda Jean is only the latest in a string of hitchhikers stabbed, choked, or bludgeoned along that road. In spite of the prolific number of crimes, however, no one has ever been implicated, much less arrested. April and Eddie are the first witnesses/possible villains Detectives Quentin and Beam have had the pleasure of interviewing. After the interrogation, their car is impounded, they are advised not to leave town, and are dropped off at a simple home doubling as a bed and breakfast.

The owner, Rose, doesn’t much care for the cops who give them a ride to her house and makes that clear from the start. She is equally unexcited to have possible murderers as guests. The abode, while not the kind of ornate Victorian one pictures when the words ‘bed and breakfast’ are mentioned, is comfortable enough, even though the decor is mildly disturbing. Photos of Princess Diana are prominently displayed pretty much everywhere, but the hostess, while taciturn, is at least kind enough to feed them. April and Eddie clean up, get some sleep, and settle in for a long day. They aren’t comfortable for long, though, since they are quickly whisked back to the station for more questioning. They aren’t arrested – there is nowhere near enough evidence for that – but they aren’t given their car or permission to leave Cold Lake either. It is pretty clear they remain the only lead the cops have. It is also clear that if Eddie and April want to be free of this problem, they had better figure out for themselves just who or what is killing young people on Atticus Line.

Ms. St. James has a knack for writing chilling, atmospheric tales that enthrall readers and lure them into compulsively following her down dark, twisting paths. Her smooth prose and scintillating characters make it easy to immerse ourselves in a world that doesn’t quite make sense but is nonetheless deeply fascinating.

In Eddie and April, we have a seemingly ordinary couple caught up in a truly macabre situation. Eddie, freshly back from a tour in Iraq, is still in fighting form. Lean but muscular, with the watchful awareness of someone recently on a battlefield, he is quick to pick up on the bizarre nature of the investigation. Something about the entire situation is off, and he is determined to figure out just what he and April have stumbled into. For her part, April has been living a rather clandestine life behind an ordinary facade for a long time. Grit, wit, and determination have kept her one step ahead of the demons that follow her, and she plans to put those skills to good use to get them out of whatever strange shenanigans have Cold Lake in their grip. A young bride (the two are on their honeymoon when this all goes down), April is keeping secrets from her husband and has no desire for the inquiry to unearth them. Both of them have just enough of an edge to make them good amateur sleuths, and their courage, caring, and basic decency make them easy to root for.

The secondary characters here remain very secondary. April and Eddie receive help with their search from Rose and the Snell sisters, Beatrice and Gracie, who appear later in the novel. We scratch the surface of who these folks are, but we don’t really get the chance to connect well with any of them. Detectives Quentin and Beam also remain enigmas, although it is clear that Quentin, at least, has secrets and information we are not made privy to. Typically, such characters have more depth in a St. James novel, so their superficiality was disappointing.

I have a few other quibbles as well. Because the mystery here is carefully layered, with each piece revealing a bit more of a rather incredible puzzle, I won’t be talking much about the plot. However, fans of the author know her books always contain paranormal elements which are key to the puzzle being solved. In this case, something haunts Atticus Lane. Eddie, who has experience with peculiar apparitions, saw the specter of a young girl in the back of the vehicle following them that night, and it isn’t long before it appears to both Eddie and April fairly regularly. This being has rather unusual and terrifying capabilities that border on the demonic rather than ghostly. It gives a creepier edge to the tale, and the nature of its abilities/behaviors don’t point to the villain except in a roundabout way. It isn’t surprising that no one else has been able to lay the ghost to rest (so to speak) since the creature hasn’t exactly been haunting the right people. That troubled me, given the number of deaths that could be laid at its door.

I also felt vaguely displeased with the final chapters, which aren’t definitive and in which there is a clear setup for more. I was frustrated to drive off with April and Eddie at the end, feeling that while one portion of the issue was solved, some pretty interesting events were forthcoming that I wouldn’t experience without a sequel. (Please give me that sequel!)

Those negative notes aside, this is still a riveting narrative. I would recommend Murder Road to fans of the author and to anyone who enjoys a bit of horror mixed with their thriller.