Editorial Content for Dark Roads
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Reviewer (text)
Chevy Stevens made an instant impact on the thriller world when she won a Thriller Award for Best First Novel in 2011 for STILL MISSING. Since then, she has been a go-to writer for solid, intricately plotted thrillers featuring very real characters who find themselves in extreme situations.
Her latest novel, DARK ROADS, might rank as one of her best. The Prologue opens with a great line: “No one ever wakes up thinking, I’m going to die on a dark road tonight…” The dark road in this story is the Cold Creek Highway. Stretching almost 500 miles through British Columbia’s rugged wilderness to the west coast, it has become infamous for the many unsolved deaths that have taken place along this isolated and vast road.
"...one of [Stevens'] best [novels].... The finale is tense and features quite a shocker, proving that DARK ROADS is well worth the trip."
Seventeen-year-old Hailey McBride is an orphan living with her Aunt Lana and Lana’s police officer husband, Vaughn. She and Vaughn do not see eye to eye, and he is far from the man her late father was. He seems to go out of his way to lock Lana down in an effort to keep her safe from the many unsavory elements that he claims exist in Cold Creek --- especially the serial murderer tabbed the Cold Creek Killer. However, Hailey makes it her mission to undermine Vaughn and out him for the hypocrite she knows he is. She gets her wish when she breaks into his personal computer and finds photos of young girls in various poses, mostly naked --- and, in many cases, taken unbeknownst to them via hidden cameras. What sickens her the most is that he possesses nude pictures of herself.
Hailey leaves anonymous tips to another officer at the local P.D., but that goes nowhere. She decides that the only solution is to get away from Cold Creek and leave Vaughn behind. With the help of her sometime-boyfriend Jonny, she is able to plan and execute a getaway. She learns from Jonny over a period of time that she has been classified as missing and thought to have been a victim of the Cold Creek Killer. How ironic when she finds a brutalized corpse on the side of the highway, and it ends up being her friend, Amber. She alerts the police --- again anonymously --- and watches as Vaughn is first on the scene, snapping photos of the body.
One year later, we meet Amber's sister, Beth Chevalier. She leaves Vancouver where she is pursuing a law degree and travels to Cold Creek in an effort to find out what happened to Amber and help stop a killer. Despite trying to stay on the good side of Vaughn and the rest of the Cold Creek P.D., Beth is in way over her head. When she befriends and has a tryst with Jonny, she learns the backstory of Hailey, who no one has seen or heard from in over a year.
The inevitable occurs when Chevy Stevens, in a brilliant bit of plotting, introduces Beth to Hailey when they meet on the mountain. They individually and collectively continue their hunt for the truth --- and they might not like what they find. The finale is tense and features quite a shocker, proving that DARK ROADS is well worth the trip.
Teaser
For decades, young women traveling the Cold Creek Highway have gone missing. And no killer or abductor who has stalked the highway has ever been brought to justice. One day, teenager Hailey McBride vanishes into the mountainous terrain, hoping everyone will believe she’s left town. Rumors spread that she was taken by the highway killer. One year later, Beth Chevalier arrives in Cold Creek, where her sister Amber lived --- and was murdered. Estranged from her parents and seeking closure, Beth takes a waitressing job at the local diner, 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.
Promo
For decades, young women traveling the Cold Creek Highway have gone missing. And no killer or abductor who has stalked the highway has ever been brought to justice. One day, teenager Hailey McBride vanishes into the mountainous terrain, hoping everyone will believe she’s left town. Rumors spread that she was taken by the highway killer. One year later, Beth Chevalier arrives in Cold Creek, where her sister Amber lived --- and was murdered. Estranged from her parents and seeking closure, Beth takes a waitressing job at the local diner, 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.
About the Book
The Cold Creek Highway stretches close to 500 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.
Audiobook available; read by Angela Dawe, Brittany Pressley and Isabella Star LaBlanc
