Book Review – Random Road by Thomas Kies

This is the first book in a mystery series that has been republished.  Geneva Chase is a reporter for the local newspaper.  She is an active alcoholic and her job is in jeopardy.  She is having an affair with a married man and the wife has found out.  Things aren’t going great for her but then she gets the scoop on a story where six people have been viciously murdered in a mansion on Long Island Sound.  Using her contacts with the police, she investigates and discovers a sex club in town where partner swapping is common place and the six people who were murdered were members of the club.  In between writing stories and investigating the murders, she runs into an old high school friend, who unfortunately is also an active alcoholic and they start dating (and drinking).

My thoughts:  On the whole, Geneva is a likeable character.  She is compassionate, a hard worker, bright, and kind but she exhibits all the traits of an alcoholic – denial of the problem, finding excuses to drink, making excuses for other alcoholics, making bad decisions, etc. and that part of the character greatly irritated me.  She also didn’t have any empathy for the wife of the man she was having an affair with.  When she was discovered with this woman’s husband, the wife physically attacked her and Geneva did not for one second give any thought to the fact that she was the person in the wrong and not the wife.  Once she dumps the married man and hooks up with her old high school friend, they both hit the bottle pretty hard and you could see that it was not going to end well for either of them.

Overall, I enjoyed the mystery and the newspaper job angle.  Two further books have been published in this series (Darkness Lane and Graveyard Bay) and I’m hoping that her time in the office is fleshed out more in those.  I was happy with the ending of Random Road as it appears that Geneva is attempting to get her act together and I have put Darkness Lane on hold at my local library with my fingers crossed that we see an improved, healthier Geneva.

Trigger warnings for alcoholism, infidelity

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

#RandomRoad #Netgalley