Red River Road
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Anna Downes's extraordinary next thriller Red River Road follows a woman desperate to discover what happened to her sister on a solo road trip through the Australian outback.
Katy Sweeney is looking for her sister. A year earlier, just three weeks into a solo vanlife trip, her free-spirited younger sister, Phoebe, vanished without a trace on the remote, achingly beautiful coastal highway in Western Australia. With no witnesses, no leads, and no DNAevidence, the case has gone cold. But Katy refuses to give up on her.
Using Phoebe’s social media accounts as a map, Katy retraces her sister’s steps, searching for any clues the police may have missed. Was Phoebe being followed? Who had she met along the way, and how dangerous were they?
And then Katy’s path collides with that of Beth, who is on the run from her own dark past. Katy realizes that Beth might be her best—and only—chance of finding the truth, and the two women form an uneasy alliance to find out what really happened to Phoebe in this wild, beautiful, and perilous place.
Anna Downes takes us on a twist-filled journey into the dark side of solo female travel, in this gripping novel that explores what drives us to keep searching for those we have lost, the family bonds that can make or break us, and the deception of memory.
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Whoa! Never saw that coming!? I LOVED this book and devoured it only a few sittings. Having read THE SAFE PLACE back in 2020 I knew I loved Anna's writing and once I saw it was about a vanlifer, I was hooked, having lived vanlife myself. It also takes place in Australia, and while there were a few words here and there that I admit I didn't get (being American), I have a deep love and interest in Australia, so it added to the charm of this book for me.
The story follows Katy, a girl whose sister, Phoebe, disappeared while traveling around the Western Australian coast in her van and Katy is re-enacting her sister's trip in order to find clues to her whereabouts and try to find out what happened to her. Katy uses Phoebe's Instagram posts from her travels to follow in her footsteps where she looks for clues, talks to locals, fellow vanlifers, anyone who will listen to see if they remember Phoebe passing through.
One day in her travels she is stunned to find a strange woman in her van, begging to let her travel along with her and very seemingly on the run from something she isn't talking about. Realizing she could use the help, being very much on her own and feeling out of place on this trip, together they team up to retrace Phoebe's footsteps as they continue following her previous path.
This one came from out of nowhere! You know that moment in a book where you find out the twist and it just makes you want to re-read the entire book at that exact moment!? THAT was this book for me- I just finished and I already want to restart it!? I love the cover, the twists, and the locations! A story about brave, solo-traveling women, I was sucked in from page one and was blown away by the ending. Highly recommended!
