Simone St. James
Autore di The Sun Down Motel
Sull'Autore
Fonte dell'immagine: photocredit: adam hunter
Opere di Simone St. James
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome legale
- Seguin, Simone
- Data di nascita
- 20th century
- Sesso
- female
- Nazionalità
- Canada
- Luogo di residenza
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Premi e riconoscimenti
- Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel
RITA - Breve biografia
- Simone St. James is the award-winning author of The Haunting of Maddy Clare, which won two prestigious RITA® awards from Romance Writers of America and an Arthur Ellis Award from Crime Writers of Canada. She writes gothic historical ghost stories set in 1920s England, books that are known for their mystery, gripping suspense, and romance.
Simone wrote her first ghost story, about a haunted library, when she was in high school. She worked behind the scenes in the television business for twenty years before leaving to write full-time. She lives just outside Toronto, Canada with her husband and a spoiled cat.
Utenti
Recensioni
The Sun Down Motel di Simone St. James
A creepy book. Not for me. DNF.
It is July 1995. Newlyweds Eddie Carter and his bride April Delray Carter are enroute to a honeymoon cottage on the coast of Lake Michigan. But they are lost. Instead of the interstate, they are on a dark, deserted two lane road, Atticus Line, and have no idea how they got there.
Up ahead April sees a light shining in the trees and soon they come upon a girl staggering along the roadside, head down, wearing an oversized coat. It’s 2 in the morning and Eddie and April debate whether to stop and ask if the girl needs assistance. They ultimately decide to stop and the girl, Rhonda Jean, reluctantly gets in the back seat.
April turns around to make conversation and notices that Rhonda Jean’s shirt is covered in blood and they realize that Rhonda Jean needs a hospital, the closest of which is in Coldlake Falls. As they proceed Eddie notices a large truck with bright lights speeding behind them with a girl in the bed of the truck.
When the trio turns into the hospital parking lot, the truck drives by. Unfortunately, Rhonda Jean’s injuries, stab wounds, were fatal and while Eddie and April wait at the hospital, two detectives, Quentin and Beam, show up. Eddie and April are astounded to find out that they are suspects in Rhoda Jean’s murder…that is until they find out soon after that there have been a series of unsolved hitchhiker murders along Atticus Line dating back twenty years. Eddie and April are the closest things to witnesses (and potential suspects) that Quentin has found.
The newlyweds are forbidden to leave town and are put up at a local B&B. They soon learn of an urban legend, the Lost Girl, who has haunted Atticus Line since her death in in 1976…the unidentified first victim. The legend continues that if you see a light shining in the trees, you will be the Lost Girl’s next victim.
Even though Eddie and April finally are absolved of the crime, they decide to stick around Coldlake Falls and look into the identity of the initial murder victim. The pull of the Lost Girl is too strong for them to step away. By doing so, however, secrets come to light, those of Eddie and April and the town. Will the revelation of these secrets pull Eddie and April apart or bring them closer together? Will the Lost Girl win and keep her stranglehold on them?
In an interview, Ms. St. James said that she set the time frame of the story in 1995 because it was pre-internet and people could truly get lost. There was no digital footprint or virtual directions. The victims for the most part were young, disenfranchised men and women who would not necessarily be immediately missed if they disappeared.
While the influence of the paranormal is less in Murder Road than it is in some of St. James’ other books, it still plays a significant, but not overpowering, role in this story. The police procedural with the detectives and the Carters is realistic and Quentin at times could be malicious; anything to solve a crime. The story line holds readers’ interest and St. James has populated the books with a variety of interesting characters including the unlikable Detective Quentin, the cranky B&B owner, Rose and the energetic Snell twins, who I won’t say anything about.
One reviewer said that St. James “…offered a gripping tale of crime tinged with the supernatural...” Murder Road is another Simone St. James crowd pleaser.… (altro)
Up ahead April sees a light shining in the trees and soon they come upon a girl staggering along the roadside, head down, wearing an oversized coat. It’s 2 in the morning and Eddie and April debate whether to stop and ask if the girl needs assistance. They ultimately decide to stop and the girl, Rhonda Jean, reluctantly gets in the back seat.
April turns around to make conversation and notices that Rhonda Jean’s shirt is covered in blood and they realize that Rhonda Jean needs a hospital, the closest of which is in Coldlake Falls. As they proceed Eddie notices a large truck with bright lights speeding behind them with a girl in the bed of the truck.
When the trio turns into the hospital parking lot, the truck drives by. Unfortunately, Rhonda Jean’s injuries, stab wounds, were fatal and while Eddie and April wait at the hospital, two detectives, Quentin and Beam, show up. Eddie and April are astounded to find out that they are suspects in Rhoda Jean’s murder…that is until they find out soon after that there have been a series of unsolved hitchhiker murders along Atticus Line dating back twenty years. Eddie and April are the closest things to witnesses (and potential suspects) that Quentin has found.
The newlyweds are forbidden to leave town and are put up at a local B&B. They soon learn of an urban legend, the Lost Girl, who has haunted Atticus Line since her death in in 1976…the unidentified first victim. The legend continues that if you see a light shining in the trees, you will be the Lost Girl’s next victim.
Even though Eddie and April finally are absolved of the crime, they decide to stick around Coldlake Falls and look into the identity of the initial murder victim. The pull of the Lost Girl is too strong for them to step away. By doing so, however, secrets come to light, those of Eddie and April and the town. Will the revelation of these secrets pull Eddie and April apart or bring them closer together? Will the Lost Girl win and keep her stranglehold on them?
In an interview, Ms. St. James said that she set the time frame of the story in 1995 because it was pre-internet and people could truly get lost. There was no digital footprint or virtual directions. The victims for the most part were young, disenfranchised men and women who would not necessarily be immediately missed if they disappeared.
While the influence of the paranormal is less in Murder Road than it is in some of St. James’ other books, it still plays a significant, but not overpowering, role in this story. The police procedural with the detectives and the Carters is realistic and Quentin at times could be malicious; anything to solve a crime. The story line holds readers’ interest and St. James has populated the books with a variety of interesting characters including the unlikable Detective Quentin, the cranky B&B owner, Rose and the energetic Snell twins, who I won’t say anything about.
One reviewer said that St. James “…offered a gripping tale of crime tinged with the supernatural...” Murder Road is another Simone St. James crowd pleaser.… (altro)
A murder mystery and ghost story wrapped in one book! The characters are interesting. Shea is a resilient survivor of childhood abduction. Beth is an acquitted suspect in a serial murder case, stuck in the past, with unresolved family conflict that literally haunts her. The story held my interest. If Beth did not commit the "Lady Killer Murders" who did? What exactly is going on in Greer Mansion?
One flaw is the writing, which was often awkward and sometimes clichéd.
Still, a good read.
One flaw is the writing, which was often awkward and sometimes clichéd.
Still, a good read.
This was filed in the horror section at our store, so our Philosophical Horror group read it. It is so not a horror novel. The ghost story is just a means to bring the romance together.
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READ in 2024 (1)
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Autori correlati
Statistiche
- Opere
- 12
- Utenti
- 7,085
- Popolarità
- #3,467
- Voto
- 3.9
- Recensioni
- 458
- ISBN
- 110
- Lingue
- 8
- Preferito da
- 10