Red River Road

March 1, 2024

In Downes's (The Shadow House) latest, Katy Sweeney is looking for her sister, who disappeared without a trace in the Australian outback while on a solo road trip. Using her sister's social media posts as a map, Katy retraces her steps and searches for clues. With a 125K-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

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June 14, 2024
Downes (The Shadow House, 2022) takes readers on a harrowing journey along Australia's scenic west coast. Katy, traveling alone in a van, is searching for her sister, Phoebe, who disappeared while traveling solo along the same route. She is using Phoebe's blog and social-media posts to find clues. Sleeping in isolated campsites, drinking too much, and wary of creepy men, she meets Beth, aka Lily, who is obviously running from something. Katy offers Beth a chance to travel with her, hoping that they can work together to find Phoebe. Beth is trying to escape from an abusive relationship with Lucas, who considers her his personal property. Readers will enjoy the suspense and many plot twists along with the accounts of multiple unreliable narrators as the characters navigate the beautiful, winding roads. They will also think twice about solo van travel in isolated areas. The author provides a good mix of psychological terror and social commentary about women's issues, with a surprise ending.

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July 15, 2024
Two damaged women band together to find the sister of one of them, who went missing during a solo tour of Australia. Phoebe Sweeney is, or was, a massage therapist and yoga instructor who rejoiced in the prospect of circumnavigating Australia by herself. Beginning with the long drive north from Perth, she left pictures and posts on social media as she went. Her silence since Valentine's Day devastates her sister, Katy, a Sydney schoolteacher who resolves to retrace Phoebe's steps in her own HiAce van in search of her. Her quest is fraught from the beginning, since Vivi Green, another solo traveler, has already vanished from the region. And things rapidly get creepy when Katy encounters two different strangers, a man and a woman, who want to join her. Katy brushes off the man, who claims to know a good deal about her and Phoebe, but she can't abandon Lily, the injured woman who climbs out of another van, approaches her, and begs for help. So she takes her in, shares stories with her, and invites her along. She'd certainly act differently if she knew that Lily was really Beth Randall, a thief on the run from Lucas Cleary, her abusive partner in crime. But then Katy has secrets of her own that Beth can't imagine. Although the geographic sweep of the two women's journey is vast, the list of characters is tiny. So Downes builds suspense by deftly unpacking one layer of deception after another, never forgetting that her two travelers face danger not only from each other but from every man who catches sight of them. The Australian Tourist Board will never endorse this road-trip nightmare. But readers are likely to recommend it highly.

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