River Road

By: Carol Goodman

ASIN: B01A5Q5CME

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: 1/19/2016

Format: Audio

My Rating: 3 Stars From the award-winning author of The Lake of Dead Languages comes a chilling new psychological thriller about a professor accused of killing her favorite student in a hit-and-run accident. Nan Lewis—a creative writing professor at a state university in upstate New York—is driving home from a faculty holiday party after finding out she’s been denied tenure. On her way, she hits a deer, but when she gets out of her car to look for it, the deer is nowhere to be found. Eager to get home and out of the oncoming snowstorm, Nan is forced to leave her car at the bottom of her snowy driveway to wait out the longest night of the year—and the lowest point of her life… The next morning, Nan is woken up by a police officer at her door with terrible news—one of her students, Leia Dawson, was killed in a hit-and-run on River Road the night before. And because of the damage to her car, Nan is a suspect. In the days following the accident, Nan finds herself shunned by the same community that rallied around her when her own daughter was killed in an eerily similar accident six years prior. When Nan begins finding disturbing tokens that recall the death of Nan’s own daughter, Nan suspects that the two accidents are connected. As she begins to dig further, she discovers that everyone around her, including Leia, is hiding secrets. But can she uncover them, clear her name, and figure out who really killed Leia before her reputation is destroyed for good?

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About the Author

Carol Goodman grew up on Long Island, attended public school, and started writing at age nine, when her fourth grade teacher introduced the topic “Creative Writing.” She wrote a ninety-page, crayon-illustrated epic entitled “The Adventures of the Magical Herd” in which a girl named Carol lives with a herd of magical horses. She knew from that moment that she wanted to be a writer.

During her teens Goodman wrote poetry and was awarded Young Poet of Long Island by Long Island University at the age of 17. She took a break from writing to major in Latin at Vassar College, never realizing that her first published novel would be about a Latin teacher. After college, she worked in publishing and then a series of less demanding office jobs while writing short stories at night. Then she went back to school (to the University of Texas at Austin) to become a high school teacher, rediscovered Latin, and wrote a master’s report on young adult fantasy literature. She taught Latin for three years in the Austin Independent School District until her daughter Maggie was born. Read More