Thrillers & Suspense
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Dark Roads
"Chevy Stevens is back and better than ever...Dark Roads is a chilling, pulse-pounding thriller that also tugs at the heartstrings. It's everything you've come to love from a master of the psych thriller genre."―New York Times bestselling author Mary Kubica
The Cold Creek Highway stretches close to five hundred miles through British Columbia's rugged wilderness to the west coast. Isolated and vast, it has become a prime hunting ground for predators. For decades, young women traveling the road have gone missing. Motorists and hitchhikers, those passing through or living in one of the small towns scattered along the region, have fallen prey time and again. And no killer or abductor who has stalked the highway has ever been brought to justice.
Hailey McBride calls Cold Creek home. Her father taught her to respect nature, how to live and survive off the land, and to never travel the highway alone. Now he's gone, leaving her a teenage orphan in the care of her aunt whose police officer husband uses his badge as a means to bully and control Hailey. Overwhelmed by grief and forbidden to work, socialize, or date, Hailey vanishes into the mountainous terrain, hoping everyone will believe she's left town. Rumors spread that she was taken by the highway killer―who's claimed another victim over the summer.
One year later, Beth Chevalier arrives in Cold Creek, where her sister Amber lived―and where she was murdered. Estranged from her parents and seeking closure, Beth takes a waitressing job at the local diner, just as Amber did, desperate to understand what happened to her and why. But Beth's search for answers puts a target on her back―and threatens to reveal the truth behind Hailey's disappearance…
The Cold Creek Highway stretches close to five hundred miles through British Columbia's rugged wilderness to the west coast. Isolated and vast, it has become a prime hunting ground for predators. For decades, young women traveling the road have gone missing. Motorists and hitchhikers, those passing through or living in one of the small towns scattered along the region, have fallen prey time and again. And no killer or abductor who has stalked the highway has ever been brought to justice.
Hailey McBride calls Cold Creek home. Her father taught her to respect nature, how to live and survive off the land, and to never travel the highway alone. Now he's gone, leaving her a teenage orphan in the care of her aunt whose police officer husband uses his badge as a means to bully and control Hailey. Overwhelmed by grief and forbidden to work, socialize, or date, Hailey vanishes into the mountainous terrain, hoping everyone will believe she's left town. Rumors spread that she was taken by the highway killer―who's claimed another victim over the summer.
One year later, Beth Chevalier arrives in Cold Creek, where her sister Amber lived―and where she was murdered. Estranged from her parents and seeking closure, Beth takes a waitressing job at the local diner, just as Amber did, desperate to understand what happened to her and why. But Beth's search for answers puts a target on her back―and threatens to reveal the truth behind Hailey's disappearance…
Editorial Reviews
Praise for Dark Roads:
"Chevy Stevens is a brilliant and unique talent and Dark Roads is an instant classic. My hat's off to her." ― C. J. Box, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Long Range
"My favorite Chevy Stevens book since Still Missing...The suspense builds with every page, and the ending is a complete shocker."―Sarah Pekkanen, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Wife Between Us
"Aptly named, Dark Roads is deep, dark, and unsettling. From the opening page, it's clear you're in the hands of a master storyteller...With brilliant characterizations, tight plotting, and a setting bound to give you chills, this is Stevens's finest book to date. A tour de force mystery you do not want to miss."―J.T. Ellison, New York Times bestselling author of Her Dark Lies
"Chevy Stevens is back and better than ever...Dark Roads is a chilling, pulse-pounding thriller that also tugs at the heartstrings. It's everything you've come to love from a master of the psych thriller genre!"― Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Other Mrs.
"My favorite Chevy Stevens book since Still Missing. Stevens reliably creates complex, resilient female characters, and Hailey and Beth - whose lives collide in Dark Roads - are utterly compelling. The suspense builds with every page, and the ending is a complete shocker." ―Sarah Pekkanen, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Wife Between Us
"Aptly named, Dark Roads is deep, dark, and unsettling. From the opening page, it's clear you're in the hands of a master storyteller. The missing, the dead, those left behind, the ones who know what's happened, all explode onto the page. With brilliant characterizations, tight plotting, and a setting bound to give you chills, this is Steven's finest book to date. A tour de force mystery you do not want to miss."
―J.T. Ellison,
"Chevy Stevens is a brilliant and unique talent and Dark Roads is an instant classic. My hat's off to her." ― C. J. Box, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Long Range
"My favorite Chevy Stevens book since Still Missing...The suspense builds with every page, and the ending is a complete shocker."―Sarah Pekkanen, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Wife Between Us
"Aptly named, Dark Roads is deep, dark, and unsettling. From the opening page, it's clear you're in the hands of a master storyteller...With brilliant characterizations, tight plotting, and a setting bound to give you chills, this is Stevens's finest book to date. A tour de force mystery you do not want to miss."―J.T. Ellison, New York Times bestselling author of Her Dark Lies
"Chevy Stevens is back and better than ever...Dark Roads is a chilling, pulse-pounding thriller that also tugs at the heartstrings. It's everything you've come to love from a master of the psych thriller genre!"― Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of The Other Mrs.
"My favorite Chevy Stevens book since Still Missing. Stevens reliably creates complex, resilient female characters, and Hailey and Beth - whose lives collide in Dark Roads - are utterly compelling. The suspense builds with every page, and the ending is a complete shocker." ―Sarah Pekkanen, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Wife Between Us
"Aptly named, Dark Roads is deep, dark, and unsettling. From the opening page, it's clear you're in the hands of a master storyteller. The missing, the dead, those left behind, the ones who know what's happened, all explode onto the page. With brilliant characterizations, tight plotting, and a setting bound to give you chills, this is Steven's finest book to date. A tour de force mystery you do not want to miss."
―J.T. Ellison,
Readers Top Reviews
Karin K. White
I’ve read all of Chevy’s books and each one just gets better, if that’s even possible. This was a “can’t put down book” and it was very difficult. The girls involved, the way the great details of everything puts your mind right in the scenes. I could picture it all. It was a great surprise ending and that’s the way I like it.
Damond E. Horner
There are only a few authors I'll make sure to read all of their works... Chevy Stevens is one of them. If you've read any of her other novels, you already know this one will be awesome. Chevy has a knack for pulling you right into the story. You're vested very early in the characters. Right up until the end, you'll be trying to figure out "who done it"... Chevy Stevens, author of my all time favorite book Still Missing!!! The perfect read.
Jim ThomsenDamond
I've read three previous Chevy Stevens females-in-peril thrillers and my experience with them can be summed up thusly: Great premises, powerhouse beginnings, good writing ... and messy, implausible, unsatisfying last acts. DARK ROADS isn't perfect, but it's an improvement on that experience. In large part that's because of the emotional resonance of its setup: Someone has been killing girls for a long time along the Cold Creek Highway in British Columbia, and no one has been caught, and no one is safe. Especially not Hailey McBride, who, after her father's death, is sent to live with her aunt and her aunt's creepy, control-freak husband, Vaughn. Who happens to be the town cop, the kind of town cop who decides he is the law. When Hailey decides she has to run away before Vaughn does his worst to her, her staged disappearance sets in motion a string of tragic events that involve her would-be love Amber, her best friend Jonny, and Amber's sister Beth. All are hostages not just of the fear of being murdered but the setting that seems to echo their fear — endless forests and mountains and strange shadows and spooky night sounds. You'll twitch a little — or a lot — with each snapping twig in the primitive stillness. That said, I believe that a thriller is only as good as its villain — and the extent to which the villain feels justified in doing horrible things to innocent people — and I dock DARK ROADS one star because it denies us that complicated bond with the forces of darkness. But I'll say this: while the reveal of the killer lacks impact and resonance, the emotional experiences of the victims — living and otherwise — ultimately are what keep the pages turning in this taut, tension-thrumming thriller. That some plot strands lack satisfying resolutions doesn't detract from that. They merely make a potentially novel into a merely pretty good one. And for fans of females-in-peril thrillers, that's pretty good enough. Chevy Stevens's heart is with the victims — the living and the dead — and there's no fault to be found in that.
Mrs. VJim Thomsen
I demolished this book. A little fast paced but in a good way. You really have to use your imagination to keep up. Great book, can't wait for the next.
PaulKMrs. VJim Th
Inspired by the years of indigenous women murders alongTrail of Tears Highway in North British Columbia, Chevy Stevens delivers a powerful story with a better than expected outcome. I read / listened to digital editions. In the prologue, a dead woman’s spirit speaks for others like her who seek resolution for their surviving families and final peace. It is so much more than a small town; Young people whose lives are ofttimes at the mercy of a petty controlling crooked cop; A truck stop; The main diner;Thefts; Hard drugs; String of young women’s deaths; New kid in town, and the final takedown. The epilogue tells of the overall challenges of the RCMP and Victim Advocate Groups. I also thought Chevy’s open letter at the end to be especially poignant.
