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RIVER ROAD
by Carol Goodman
Touchstone, January 2016
278 pages
$25.00
ISBN: 1501109901


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

On a snowy night, Nan Lewis, a college professor in upstate New York, takes a curve too fast on River Road and hits a deer. But when she leaves her car to find how badly hurt the deer is, the animal seems to have disappeared into the woods. The next morning, a police officer shows up at her door. Leia Dawson, one of her favorite students in the creative writing program, has been killed in a hit-and-run at the same spot. Lewis' dented car is impounded, and Lewis is taken in for questioning.

Lewis quickly becomes a suspect in the accident. At a holiday party beforehand, she'd just learned she was denied tenure. She is described by witnesses as being drunk, irate and upset. Her explanation of a deer sounds false, even to her own family.

And there's something else: Six years ago, Lewis' daughter, four-year-old Emmy, was killed by a drunk driver in the same spot. Now, at a roadside memorial for Leia, Lewis finds tokens that suggest a link to her daughter's death: a pink barette and daffodils. Memories of her daughter's accident become entangled with her student's death.

The more Lewis investigates, the more secrets she finds. Caught up in her own grief and a functioning alcoholic, Lewis seems to have had blinders on when it came to everyone around her - fellow professors as well as students. Even Leia, beloved by everyone, had dark secrets of which Lewis had no inkling. Could Lewis have prevented Leia's death?

Goodman is wonderful at crafting an atmospheric psychological thriller. You may guess the culprit long before the ending, but the author's portrayal of a woman who has lost everything - her daughter, husband, tenured job and, now, reputation - is enough to keep you reading.

§ Lourdes Venard is an independent editor who divides her time between New York and Maui.

Reviewed by Lourdes Venard, February 2016

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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