Everything that Brian Freeman touches turns to gold. My favorite series of his is set in Duluth, Minnesota, and features Homicide Lieutenant Jonathan Stride.

In WHERE THE ROAD ENDS, Stride must search against all odds to find the answers behind the murders of a Duluth judge and his wife. His longtime partner, Maggie Bei, is the first detective on the scene, and she finds a man brandishing a gun. She gives him a verbal warning, but when it appears that the alleged assailant is drawing on her, she drops him with a shot. The situation blows up on Maggie in a big way when the intruder was found to have no weapon on him. She sees her entire career going up in flames in an instant and could face jail time. That is, unless Stride can get to the truth before Maggie is put behind bars.

"WHERE THE ROAD ENDS may be my favorite Jonathan Stride novel yet. Freeman has always reserved his darkest moments for this series, and Stride is the perfect conduit for this darkness in many different ways."

Gordon and Tracy Hartwick easily could have had their share of enemies, especially with Gordon being a judge. A number of threatening notes are found on the premises, some of which allude to aliens from outer space. It may not be that far-fetched as no one quite knows what the Hartwicks may have been into, and a colorful character named Craig Wexler has written a controversial book about aliens in Duluth. 

Stride and his team have been haunted by a series of disappearances and unsolved murders that somehow may be connected to this double homicide. There is a darkness in Duluth unlike anything Stride has seen before. Serena, his wife and fellow investigator, hopes deep down that he might retire and walk away from the madness before it consumes him. Stride has a serious eye focused on Broadway, a crime lord who, along with his sister, Christine, make a formidable team of foes. Christine was abused and raped in the past, and word on the street is that Broadway continues to take revenge on those he holds responsible.

Another storyline that may be quite relevant to this investigation involves Emma Strong, who mostly was assumed to be dead after six years of no clues concerning her whereabouts. Loring Struck, a high school student who is off-the-charts intelligent, believes he hears Emma talking to him in his head. This supernatural contact should not be taken lightly as other forms of communication will be revealed that may blow the current case wide open.

Maggie realizes that the only way she can save herself from going to jail is to discredit the man she killed and reveal him to be the monster she believes he was. All of the various plotlines and characters converge in a perfect storm of secrets, plot twists and revenge schemes that will have readers’ heads spinning. Freeman does such a masterful job of keeping all of these balls in the air while also remaining true to the heart of this story --- Stride and Maggie --- and the dark road they must travel down, not knowing how it is going to end for them. 

WHERE THE ROAD ENDS may be my favorite Jonathan Stride novel yet. Freeman has always reserved his darkest moments for this series, and Stride is the perfect conduit for this darkness in many different ways. I breathlessly await the next installment as Freeman leaves the door partially open at the end of the book with a more than subtle suggestion of the unfinished business that still needs to be addressed.