Author: Anna Downes
Publisher: Affirm
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Suspense
Year of release: 2024
Release date 30/04/24
Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Synopsis
On the Coral Coast of Western Australia, solo traveller Katy is on a mission to find her free-spirited sister, Phoebe, who disappeared along the same route a year ago. But as she drives her campervan further into the wild north, Katy realises she’s not as alone as she’d first believed. Soon she is pulled into a complicated web of secrets, lies, myths and stories that force her to question everything she thought she knew about her sister.
In this nerve-shredding outback thriller, our obsessions with freedom and beauty collide with our fear of what lies in the wilderness, and the truth behind Phoebe’s disappearance proves stranger and darker than Katy could ever have guessed…
Review
Katy is currently travelling the Coral Coast in Western Australia, in search of her missing sister Phoebe, who disappeared along the same stretch of coastline a year ago. At some point on her journey Katy discovers she’s not a solo traveller as she is about to discover a stowaway has hitched a ride; is Katy in danger or it just a case of overactive imagination? With a hankering for a Mystery Thriller this reviewer just had to have a copy of this book to sink her teeth into! Does Katy find Phoebe or is there a more sinister game of cat and mouse being played?
The dual perspective technique has been used to tell this story; author Anna Downes has executed this technique brilliantly in this reviewer’s opinion. Thanks to Anna’s skilled writing your able to form a connection with multiple characters as well as allow the suspenseful elements of this story to gain momentum when reading.
By the time I’ve finished reading a book I can usually definitively claim a stand-out character but the author has made that impossible, each character was well placed within the story and the role that each person played was so well defined; that being said in the beginning chapters this reader felt as if the strongest connection would be with Beth but as the story progresses I found my alliance would waver and I’d be drawn to Katy.
Whilst reading this book it felt easy to get lost and disorientated whilst at the same time you were still connected enough to all the events and people telling the story. The dual perspectives flowed easily fully absorbing this reader, this made some of the details easy to miss and at times forget because you were so focused on what was just around the corner.
Red River Road hits the ground running, I’ve never been to WA, but it sounds breathtaking, if you’re hoping for a tale that you can read just before bed and have a sound night sleep Red River Road is not that book. The only time this book slowed was to add another eerie detail, one of the best books that promises to be fast paced reads and delivers rather than leaves the reader hanging.
Red River Road might look like your average Mystery/Thriller on the cover but spend a little time amongst these pages and any reader will see there is so much more than meets the eye, leaving the reader guessing and ultimately exasperated even in the final pages making it a must-read for anyone on the lookout for a nail-bitting read.
In the beginning, this book had this reviewer worried it would be similar to other books in the genre, especially with the missing sister trope, I was happily proven wrong.
Subplots included in Red River Road:
- Missing persons/siblingÂ
- Domestic Violence
- Incompetent police
- Early suspect
- Unassuming suspect
- Stuck together
- Multiple victims
- AmnesiaÂ
- Light bulb moment
- The big revealÂ
- Twist ending
- SecretsÂ
- Lies Â
Tropes included in Red River Road:
- Missing persons/siblingÂ
- Domestic Violence
- Incompetent police
- Stuck together
- Multiple victims
- AmnesiaÂ
- Light bulb moment
- The big revealÂ
- Twist endingÂ
- SecretsÂ
- LiesÂ
Full disclosure I had to read this ending a few times just to be certain I hadn’t read something that wasn’t there, this ending delivered the twist with such force this reader had to question all previously read pages to make sure I didn’t miss a chapter or two, because I just did not see this story ending the way it does. Hence my high four-star-rating
I Highly recommend Red River Road to a mature audience for fans of the author’s previous novels or readers of the Mystery Thriller genre, new to the genre or seasoned, this book should be high on your want to read list you will not regret it.Â
With continued thanks to Affirm and author Anna Downes for sending a physical copy of this book to read and review in exchange for my honest opinion. Â