ARC Review: Revolver Road by Kristi Daugherty

Revolver Road
Author: Kristi Daugherty
Series: A Harper McClain Mystery (Book 3)
Publication: Minotaur Books (March 10, 2020)

Description: Crime reporter Harper McClain is back on the beat when a troubled musician vanishes in Christi Daugherty’s Revolver Road.

Even in the chill of February, no place touches Harper McClain’s heart like Savannah. She should be walking beneath the historic city’s towering oaks, surrounded by graceful mansions. Instead, she’s hiding miles away on Tybee Island after a mysterious voice on the phone warned her that someone wanted her dead. The call was too specific to ignore. The caller knew everything about her. But that was months ago, and she’s getting tired of being scared.

Her only escape is her work at the newspaper, where the hottest story in town is the disappearance of Xavier Rayne. The singer had a hit album on his hands, and was about to go on tour, but then he walked out of his beachfront home and vanished. The police believe he drowned, but Harper suspects his disappearance may be more ominous than that. Something doesn’t feel right about it.

His bandmates and actress girlfriend say he’s run away before. They expect him to come home. Until a body washes up with two bullet holes in it. Now everyone in Rayne’s life is a suspect. As Harper digs deeper into the case, though, the threats against her own life return. The phone call she received was very real. A killer from her past is coming for her.

Now she must solve two murders, or end up dying on Revolver Road…

My Thoughts: This is the third book in a series and I could tell that I was missing things. But the story pulled me in and didn't let me go until I reached the last page. Harper McClain is hiding from some sort of murder threat when the story begins. She has left her home in Savannah to hide on nearby Tybee Island. She isn't eating or sleeping well.

As a newspaper reporter, her work is her only refuge. But with constant threats of shutting down the newspaper by its owner, work isn't a secure spot for her. Her latest story revolves around the disappearance of and up and coming singer named Xavier Rayne who disappeared from his home on Tybee Island leaving behind his girlfriend Cara, bandmate Hunter, and back-up singer Allegra who become suspects in his murder when his body is found by a fishing boat. As she gets closer to the survivors, she begins to see that something is going on and they are all lying to her.

However, the biggest thing on her mind is the threat that someone wants her dead and that it has to do with the murder of her mother when she was twelve. She and her father are estranged but she didn't know that he was the lawyer for a noted criminal who just got out of prison after serving seventeen years of a twenty year sentence and has revenge on his mind.

Add in the complication of a doomed relationship with a homicide detective which is messing up her personal life and you have a young woman almost buried under the stresses of her life. I really liked Harper McClain. She has a strong sense of what she wants to do with her life and a strong need to find answers both to the mystery of her past and the murder of Xavier Rayne too.

Fans of high tension thrillers will enjoy this story.

Favorite Quote:

"Miss McClain, if he was shot, where's the crime scene? I've got no blood, no viscera. I've got no body. I've got nothing, Miss McClain, except a man who went for a walk and didn't come home. Speculation is entertainment. I am not in the entertainment business. What I know for a fact is that riptides off that beach kill people every year. And sound carries strangely over water. Are we clear on this?"

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from Edelweiss. You can buy your copy here.