River Road: A Novel by Carol Goodman (Epub)

Description

Nan Lewis—a creative writing professor at a university in upstate New York—is driving home from a faculty holiday party when she hits a deer. Yet when she gets out of her car to look for it, the deer is gone. Eager to get home before 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…

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 her daughter’s death, Nan suspects that the two accidents are connected.

As she digs further, she discovers that everyone around her, including Leia, has been hiding secrets. But can she uncover them, clear her name, and figure out who really killed Leia before her life is destroyed for ever?

User’s Reviews

Review “A terrific psychological thriller that will keep readers guessing through every twist.” (Library Journal (Starred Review))”River Road is a gripping read with emotion-charged twists and turns that you won’t see coming. Carol Goodman creates a heroine who’ll linger with you long after you close the book.” —Tess Gerritsen, author of Playing with Fire “Add RIVER ROAD to Carol Goodman’s growing resume of frighteningly real suspense novels. Mixing an unreliable narrator with a dead creative writing student and a plethora of suspects in a forbidding setting of snow and ice, Goodman crafts a gripping novel impossible to put down until the shocking reveal on its final pages.” —Robert Dugoni, author of My Sister’s Grave “River Road is a must read for mystery novel enthusiasts. Author Carol Goodman’s vivid winter setting and surreal imagery enhance this mystery filled with hauntings and troubles of the past and present.” (San Diego Book Review)”Goodman expertly melds the psychological thriller and academic mystery into a compelling story of revenge and grief. . . . Believable twists drive River Road to a thrilling denouement.” (Associated Press)”The story is filled with unexpected twists. Like drivers on River Road, readers won’t be able to see what’s around the next corner.” (The Freelance Star)”Believable twists drive River Road to a thrilling denouement. (Washington Times)“With romance folded between scenes of deadly danger, this is an engrossing mystery.” —Booklist “A suspense-filled page-turner….This engrossing novel will keep readers guessing unitil the end, which showcases the resilience of human nature and the will to survive.” (RT Reviews (top pick))”Goodman provides an insightful look at revenge, grief, and rebuilding one’s life after a horrific loss.” (Publishers Weekly)”Sharp and a page-turner” (BookReporter.com)”Goodman pushes the needle over into the red zone and keeps it there through page after page of suspense, until it bursts open like a firework in a redemptive conclusion. Longtime Goodman fans, here’s our red meat; newcomers, prepare to become longtime fans.” (Chronogram)“A thriller that feels so real you literally will shiver along with the characters as they battle the harsh winter cold while trying to solve a murder…Upstate New York Noir… RIVER ROAD is a great literary thriller that takes a tragic event on an icy, dark, winding country road and spins it out like great Greek drama.” (Book Report Network)Praise for Carol Goodman: The Lake of Dead Languages “A wonderfully eerie sense of place . . . Deeply atmospheric.” (Los Angeles Times Book Review)“Like Donna Tartt’s Secret History or a good film noir . . . [this book will] keep readers hooked.” (People (Page-turner of the Week))The Seduction of Water“Truly a seductive reading experience . . . grabs the reader on the first page and holds on for the entire journey.” (The Denver Post )“Like the best mysteries, The Seduction of Water offers puzzles and twists galore but still tells a human story.” (The Boston Globe)“An atmospheric thriller, but a smart one with a racing story line.” (New York magazine)“Seduction enchants with its fairy-tale motif and sensuous atmospherics.” (People)“Gripping . . . Entrancing . . . A completely involving mystery cleverly tied in with several fairy tales.” (Booklist)“Goodman establishes herself as a writer to watch in the field of literary thrillers.” (Library Journal (Starred review))“Mystery, folklore, a thoroughly modern romance, a strong sense of place, and a winning combination of erudition and accessibility make this second novel a treat.” (Publishers Weekly)The Drowning Tree“Deftly plotted and certainly intriguing . . . infused with the sinister aura of its setting . . . The Drowning Tree has its twists and shudders.” (New York Daily News)“[A] captivating literary mystery of secrets old and new.” (Publishers Weekly)“Goodman’s early promise comes to full flower in this work. . . . A novel full of surprises.” (The Denver Post) Arcadia Falls “Addictive . . . Goodman delivers an engaging, original story.” (The Boston Globe)”Gracefully written and engaging . . . Goodman specializes in atmospheric literary thrillers, and her newest book . . . is an especially fine specimen of its type.” (The Denver Post)“[Goodman] gives her many fans a new dose of what she does best: good storytelling, with velvet swaths of Gothic mist and fairy-tale eeriness.” (The Plain Dealer)“[A] moving story of mothers and daughters and the hard choices women must make . . . Goodman combines gripping suspense with strong characters and artistic themes. Those who read Anita Shreve or Jodi Picoult are likely to become fans.” (Library Journal)

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ I read Carol Goodman’s The Lake of Dead Languages some years ago and really enjoyed it, so I was eager to read this. In my opinion, it does not measure up. I did not find this book to be too mysterious or thrilling. I figured out “who did it” before the half way point. I thought that the book started out strong, became a bit dull and also unbelievable in the middle, and has a too tidy ending. I had read somewhere that this book has an unreliable narrator. I disagree. The narrator is an alcoholic, like Girl on a Train, but this story is not as twisty or suspenseful.River Road is set at a fictional college in upstate New York. The narrator, a college professor named Nan Lewis who was just denied tenure, is driving home from a party. She hits a deer (or does she?) in the exact location where her young daughter was killed by a drunk driver 6 years ago. The police show up at her door the next day to tell her that her favorite student was killed by a hit and run driver in that exact location, around the same time. We then go through a range a suspects, including another student, the department chair, a local middle-aged drug dealer, etc. The professor then tries to solve the mystery in order to clear her own name, putting her life and the lives of others in danger. Various secrets are revealed along the way. The book also looks at guilt and redemption. Nan blames herself for her daughter’s death and her life has spiraled downward since it happened.For me, the story became too convoluted with drugs, drug related death, a side story about the local prison, and various love affairs involving students and faculty. It is also full of coincidence. The police officer who responded to Nan’s daughter’s death also investigates her for the death of the student. AND, he took some of her literature classes and has been watching out for her from afar. AND then they hook up! What a surprise! I think the book would have been better if it had focused on just a couple story lines and themes.I read this while I was on vacation and it was good for that purpose. It does not require a lot of undivided attention, it is easy to follow the story, and it is easy to pick up and put down. For me, the writing and the story are just okay. There are much better thrillers and mysteries out there.

⭐ RIVER ROAD is a fascinating blend of strengths and weaknesses. The good stuff: The writing is crisp and polished without seeming fussy. And the main character, Dr. Nan Lewis, a struggling literature professor at a small college in upstate New York, is a character with many intriguing layers despite her tropey outlines — she’s got the requisite Tragedy In Her Past, and she’s also an alcoholic who doesn’t quite accept that’s what she is, which gives her the trappings of the fashionable Unreliable Narrator. But she’s more than that, and she’s not bad company to keep.The rest of RIVER ROAD doesn’t quite work. It’s overplotted, and most of the characters seem to act more of of the plot’s needs than their own, popping up over and over at tidily stage-managed moments that stretch plausibility. Somebody’s always turning up just as somebody’s about to attack somebody else, or thwart someone’s escape, or distract somebody from something else. It’s as if contemporary-thriller characters were squeezed into the template of a Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew mystery. Most of the secondary characters aren’t well-developed, showing or withholding critical facets of themselves as the plot dictates, within a weirdly compressed universe in which it seems that the college has about ten faculty members and four students, all of who know so much about one another and have so many hidden agendas with one another, that it seems impossible to believe that actual school business could ever be conducted. And the ending features a talky exchange between the killer and a potential victim so long and implausible, in which every unresolved plot point is unpacked, that you may wish to be shot in the head long before the victim finally faces that moment.RIVER ROAD isn’t as horrible as I make it seem. You’ll turn the pages even as you roll your eyes, if only because you have to know who did what to who and who will survive by the end like a dance-marathon participant in the twenty-fifth hour. Carol Goodman knows how to write, and has at least half an idea of how to tell a story, and she particularly does a nice job of invoking a sense of atmospheric, existential dread from the setting — a small college town trapped in the horse latitudes of a winter break — that your senses and emotions will be engaged even as your brain rolls its eyes. But, even by the slipshod standards of the contemporary thriller, in which “twistiness” is valued above all, RIVER ROAD doesn’t quite measure up. That said, there’s enough here that I’m willing to give a chance to whatever Carol Goodman does next.

⭐ Well, I think Carol Goodman is running out of ideas; it seems to me that she has begun writing in a very formulaic manner. I have read all of her books, I believe, and have enjoyed most of them — with the exception of her fantasy novels; those I detested! As such, my review will refer to most of her other books, but not the fantasy novels. River Run was, by far, the most predictable of her novels — especially if you are familiar with her work. Goodman is notorious for writing books set in the Hudson River Valley and focusing on a single mother with one child (she has died in this book) who teachers at either the high school or college level. Said teacher has often had an affair in the past with a co-worker, has a student that seems perfect, but is clearly not, hooks up with a cop, and is involved in a mystery that involves said “perfect” student. Often she has a supernatural “feel” to her books, but not this time; honestly, I think a bit more of a supernatural “mood” might have helped. Another common element in her works is the incorporation of the past; the school was once owned by a rich family that met with tragedy and has donated the estate to found/fund a school or other such institution. This is the third book with that motif, but although the founding family is discussed, it is kind of a dead end. Quite frankly, I don’t even know why she bothered with it, except to perhaps lead her reader astray. In the end, it is noting but a dead-end red-herring. I kept expecting the present to somehow connect with the past; indeed, I was looking forward to it. However, as I mentioned, it goes nowhere despite the time she spends on the set-up. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the novel, though is that I knew from the first couple of chapters who the culprit was. The murderer is just too reminiscent of a character from Dead Languages; they could be the same person except for the physical description. Likewise, as she has done in Dead Languages and Arcadia Falls, it is clear from the outset that the main character will end up with the cop. So right from the start, the two main mysteries are gone. The only thing left is to discover how the bad boy of the novel is really not that bad, and how the perfect angel student is really not so good. The book is, I suppose, worth reading, depending on your expectations. My attention was held, if not raptly, and I did read until the end; however, I wound up skipping the final chapter because I thought the whole thing smacked too much of anti-climax. If you haven’t read any of Goodman’s books you’ll probably enjoy River Road; still, you will enjoy her first four novels much, much more: The Lake of Dead Languages (her best), The Drowning Tree, The Seduction of Water, and The Ghost Orchid (my absolute favorite, although most people would say that Dead Languages is better). If you are a Goodman fan, you will read the book despite the mediocre reviews, but I would bet money that in the end, you will feel the same way I do. If you are reading this review Ms. Goodman, I would suggest mixing things up a bit more. Perhaps you’ve done too many “teacher” novels, and please see that your heroine ends up with someone other than a past teacher/lover or a cop. On a more positive note, keep up the literary allusions; it is what first attracted me to your books, and I LOVE them! Moreover, keep up your great imagery. To this day, my favorite metaphor from your works comes from The Ghost Orchid when you describe the sun as impaling itself on the tops of the trees. I love that one!

⭐ RIVER ROAD by Carol Goodman is a suspense filled mystery about a college professor who is a suspect in the hit and run death of one of her students.Nan (Nancy) Lewis is on her way home from a faculty party when she hits a deer on the road where a drunk driver had killed her young daughter, Emmy, six years earlier. Very upset over being denied tenure at the college where she is teaching, she may have had too many glasses of wine at the faculty Christmas party. After hitting the deer, she leaves her car to search for it, but could find no trace of the deer. So she drives home. The next morning she learns that one of her students, Leia Dawson, was killed by a hit and run driver in the same spot where she had hit the deer.Although convinced she hit a deer, her memory of the night Leia died is confusing. She fell asleep (or passed out?) in the woods while searching for the injured deer and dreams of the accident that claimed the life of her own daughter. Objects left at the scene of the “deer” accident seem to point to Hannah Mulder, the drunk driver who killed Nan’s daughter. But the question remains, who killed Leia and why? Was it truly an accident or something more sinister? Will Nan come to terms with her drinking problem, her failed marriage and the loss of her own daughter at the hands of a drunk driver?River Road by Carol Goodman is a compelling mystery. The characters are very likable despite their all too human flaws. The plot is full of twists and turns and the use of decoys and smoke screens, successfully hides the true identity of the “hit and run driver” for a good part of the novel. A whodunit that I highly recommend to readers who like a good mystery.

⭐ I have loved been a fan of Carol Goodman’s books for years, including her YA Blythewood series. Unfortunately, “River Road” was a complete miss for me. I admired the attempt to set the protagonist up as a potentially unreliable narrator, presumably causing readers to wonder if there was so much more to the story than her POV was telling. The problem is, it was crystal-clear from almost the beginning of the book “whodunnit,” so the device didn’t work. Most of the unwinding of the plot came from Nan following people when she shouldn’t, even when she knew it was dangerous to do so, and the police department was completely ineffective, investigating one wrong person after the other, each of these sections going on and on and on… Another problem was that she didn’t give us a chance to get to know Leia, the young woman who was killed, enough to feel vested in the outcome. Every character had something different to say about her, and only a fractured picture of any of the characters ever developed, except for Nan herself, who was never very likable to me. I won’t give up on Ms. Goodman’s books, but this one was such a disappointment.

⭐ I love Carol Goodman’s other novels. This one was a disappointment to me for many reasons, most importantly because I know she can do so much better. It reads like an adult Nancy Drew book with our heroine constantly getting into trouble when she should just be minding her own business. The “mystery” is overly simplistic and gee, it sure is nice how all the bad guys just confess to everything. I can’t decide if the author was trying to write a police procedural but got distracted along the way, or a murder mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie, but whatever this was, it was not good. I have read much worse but not from such an established author. The worst part is how every character is such a stereotype, right down to the homeless people warming their hands over a trash can fire. Ms Goodman, you can do so much better!

⭐ I have read all of Carol Goodman’s novels, including the young adult series, and have loved them all. Most of the action occurs on or near the River Road, hence the title. It is very moody and full of poetry, as most of her stories are. I will admit I pegged the “bad guy” fairly quickly and sometimes I wanted to shake the heroine when she continually did stupid things, but I just love the writing in these books. I read them very slowly to savor every word. This was a thoroughly enjoyable read and the last page brought tears to my eyes for the beautiful thing that happened.

⭐ It starts like an academic novel with jabs at professors who live by fear and envy, the system of using adjuncts, and the troubles and treachery of students. As a crime novel it turns the spotlight of suspicion on every character in turn, in a cold winter setting appropriately ominous, enhanced by dark folklore and mythology. The story contains the most painful loss possible, the death of a child through parental neglect. The bonus in the work is the close examination of the process and purpose of writing. I became more engrossed with each twist and more impressed by the intelligence of the author with each new exploration of her protagonist’s ideas of her own morality and integrity.

⭐ I never miss a new Carol Goodman novel. While most of her books have a strong supernatural element, this one has almost no magical content, but the main character (Nan) starts in a darker place and may be the most three-dimensional of Goodman’s heroines. I did figure out who the main villain was pretty quickly, but there were enough questions left unanswered to keep me puzzled about some things to the end. One of my favorite things about Goodman is that she manages to write violent scenes without ever being gratuitous and romantic scenes without being sleazy. I know I’m always going to get a good read.

⭐ When I first began to read it I was unsure as to whether or not I would like the book. But as I got into it I enjoyed the mystery. I began trying to guess who the villain was. I was not to successful. The author writes well and I did enjoy the book. Would I recommend, yes.

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