Red River Road: A Novel

I listened to the audio version of this book narrated by the author. I love when authors narrate their own work, because you know that every pause, every inflection is just how it is meant to be to give the most meaning to the words. Anna Downes did an exceptional job with this narration. This was a good mystery/thriller. Katie is trying to find her sister, who disappeared while traveling around Australia in her van. Along the way, she "acquires" a travel companion, Beth. Beth has some interesting secrets. Those secrets mixed with the mystery of what happened to Phoebe make for a very captivating read. There are twists and turns and surprises aplenty. I sure didn't see the ending coming! The point made by the author throughout the book is the dangers that women face traveling alone shouldn't be more than for men, but they are. Point taken. Do yourself a favor, and don't skip the Author's Note at the end. It includes a conversation between the author and author Sally Hepworth. Thanks to Macmillan Audio for this audiobook. All thoughts are my own.

Title: Red River Road Author: Anna Downes Narrator: Maddy Withington Genre: Thriller Series or Standalone: Standalone Rating: 4 stars Thanks to Minotaur & Macmillan Audio for advance copies of Red River Road. Katy’s wild & free sister, Phoebe, disappeared without a trace in western Australia a year ago and there have been no leads, turning the case cold. Katy decides to take it upon herself to do some investigating. Starting with any clues from Phoebe’s social media, she is able to retrace a portion of her trip. Katy meets Beth, someone running from their past whom Phoebe may have crossed paths with, and they join forces in a shaky alliance. There’s more than just the Australian wilderness that can be deadly, and the girls need to keep their heads on a swivel to discover what happened to Phoebe and make it out in one piece. This was a great exploration of the dangers of solo travel - especially for females. On top of that, it also tackled the topics of sibling relationships, the secrets we keep from those who are supposed to know us best, and the depths at which we’ll go to protect ourselves. Audio can be tough with multi-POVs, especially same gender POVs, but both Anna and the narrator, Maddy, did a great job giving the characters their own voices & personalities to make it easy to distinguish. There were so many layers, several twists that I didn’t see coming, and such an expertly-crafted slow burn suspenseful plot that I could not wait to get to the bottom of. I have several Anna Downes books on my TBR, but this was the first I’d gotten around to reading. I will definitely be prioritizing her backlist!

This was a highly entertaining book that kept my head spinning from beginning to end. Just when I thought I had it figured out a new twist was revealed. Both of the women were hiding important information from each other. It was hard to figure out who to believe and who should be trusted in this story. The journey was very realistic and I felt as if I was on this emotional trip with Katy and Beth. Wyatt was a wild card in the story until his piece of the puzzle was revealed. And the final line of the book added just enough to give me chills!! A superbly written book by Anna Downes that was so well-conceived and the audio narration by Maddy Withington was amazing! I highly recommend taking the thrilling road trip that this book offers through the audiobook. I am extremely grateful to Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook and the opinions of this book are my own.