Dark Roads

Finished January 21

Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens

This dark tale set in British Columbia on a fictional highway called The Cold Creek Highway, around the town of Cold Creek, echoes reality and the many young woman who went missing on a real highway. 

Hailey McBride has lived in Cold Creek all her life. Her mother died when she was young and her father taught her about nature, how to survive off the land and how to protect herself. He also told her to never travel the highway alone. But her father died in a car accident that she still doesn't totally understand. He was always a careful driver. She is seventeen.

Now she is living with her aunt Lana, her nephew Cash, and her aunt's police officer husband Vaughn. Hailey's best friend is Jonny. They have many interests in common and often hang at the nearby lake, along with a lot of other teenagers, or at each others houses. But Vaughn doesn't like Jonny and is trying to control Hailey, not letting her get a job, or do anything she wants to do. 

He arranges for her to help with Cash, look after him this summer, and just stay around the house. Hailey not only doesn't like Vaughn, and resents him for the controls he places on her, but she fears him as well. There's just something about him. When she finds some evidence to back up her fears, she isn't sure what to do. 

And so, with Jonny's help, she disappears. And everyone in town believes that she's just another victim of the highway murderer. 

A year later, Beth, the sister of a young woman Hailey knew, arrives in town, searching for answers. Beth isn't even sure of all of her questions. She finds work at the local diner, but she also follows clues that she finds. She also encounters Vaughn and is wary of him. 

This is a tale that is a real page turner, as you move between different voices and try to guess who is doing what. One of her best.