Is it safe for a woman to travel alone around Australia? That is the premise of Red River Road. As you arrive at stunning location after stunning location you encounter the same travellers. You share your amazing experiences on social media, but who is really following you? Solo female van travellers have started to go missing, is there a Wolf Creek-like serial killer on the loose?
Such is the worry for Katy, whose sister, Phoebe, disappeared a year ago after beginning her solo van journey around Australia. Katy gives up her job to fly across the country, buy a van and begin to trace Phoebe’s journey, hoping to find out what happened to her sister.
Katy starts in Perth, following Phoebe’s route through Instagram.
Then Katy comes across the mysterious Beth hiding in the back of her van, clearly terrified. Something very bad happened to her but she refuses to say what.
And then there is teenager Wyatt who desperately misses his mother, who apparently left her family to head back on the road, but no-one has heard from since.
From Perth to the Ningaloo Reef, touting the wonders of WA with its pristine beaches, white sands, and blue water, Red River Road showcases the amazing scenery of the west coast. But there is someone following Katy and Beth, threatening them. Did Phoebe have an Instagram stalker, and if so, are they about to catch up with them?
If you are a fan of the Australian outback crime noir you will enjoy this well-written and twisty story, although I found it a bit too slow paced for my liking.
Reviewed by Joanne Brewer
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Downes grew up in Sheffield, UK. She studied drama at the University of Manchester before winning a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and moving to London to pursue an acting career that included credits in EastEnders, Casualty and Dalziel and Pascoe, as well as a long-running stage production of The Dresser in London’s West End. She moved to Australia in 2011 and started writing a few years later just after her second child was born.
Anna’s internationally bestselling debut novel, The Safe Place, was published simultaneously in Australia, the US and the UK in 2020 and was shortlisted for the 2021 Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards. Her second book, The Shadow House, was published in 2021 in Australia and New Zealand followed by publication in the UK and the USA in 2022.
She lives on the NSW Central Coast with her husband and two children.
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