River Road

Carol Goodman's The Lake of Dead Languages is still a book I recommend to people looking for a good suspenseful read.  I love that book, and her others as well. After a few years away from the suspense genre, I was excited to see River Road coming out in January.

Goodman loves the college setting, so it is no surprise that Nan, her protagonist, teaches at a small state college.  She is still struggling six years after the death of her four year old daughter, and still blaming herself.  She drinks more than she should as a means of escape and hasn't written a word since the tragic day her daughter died.

It doesnt' seem thing could get much worse, until she is accused of having hit a college student whose body is found lying along the road the morning after Nan hit a deer (which explains the damage to her car).

Nan's memory of that evening are a bit foggy, but she is sure she didn't have so much to drink that she couldn't tell the difference between a person and an animal, especially since she got out of her car and walked around attempting to find the deer.

Typical of Goodman, there is more going on in this story and plenty of secrets to uncover.

There are a few things that are perhaps too convenient, and I was able to solve the mystery of who was guilty of killing the student long before Goodman revealed it. However, I love Goodman's writing and this was a book I could easily get into and enjoy.