Reef Road, Deborah Goodrich Royce
Reef Road, Deborah Goodrich Royce
45 Rating(s)
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
Club: $9.97

Reef Road
A Novel

Author: Deborah Goodrich Royce

Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld

Unabridged: 8 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/10/2023

Synopsis

When a severed hand washes ashore in the wealthy enclave of Palm Beach, Florida, the lives of two women—a lonely writer obsessed with the unsolved murder of her mother’s best friend and a panicked wife whose husband has disappeared with their children—collide as the world shutters in the pandemic lockdown of 2020.A young woman’s life seems perfect until her family goes missing. A writer lives alone with her dog and collects arcane murder statistics. What each of them stands to lose as they sneak around the do-not-enter tape blocking Reef Road beach is exposed by the steady tightening of the cincture encircling them.In a nod to the true crime that inspired it, Deborah Goodrich Royce’s Reef Road probes unhealed generational scars in a wrenching and original work of fiction. It is both stunning and sexy and, like a bystander surprised by a curtain left open, you won’t be able to look away.

About Deborah Goodrich Royce

Deborah Goodrich Royce launched her acting career in 1982 in the lead role of Silver Kane on ABC’s All My Children. She went on to star in dozens of feature films, television series, and TV movies. In the 90s, she was the story editor at Miramax Films. Royce serves on the national council of the American Film Institute, the executive board of the Greenwich International Film Festival, the international council of the Preservation Society of Newport, and the governing boards of New York Botanical Garden, the Greenwich Historical Society, and the PRASAD Project.

About Saskia Maarleveld

Saskia Maarleveld is an experienced voice-over actress and Earphones Award–winning narrator. Raised in New Zealand and France, she is highly skilled with accents and dialects, and many of her books have been narrated entirely in accents other than her own. In addition to audiobooks, her voice can be heard in animation, video games, and commercials.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jayme on January 14, 2023

3.75 rounded up! This book was very polarizing for my GR friends! A couple of two star reviews and a couple of five star reviews, and I can agree with the points made by each side! Usually a 4 star book from me, is one that I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone! BUT, in this case, I can say th......more

Goodreads review by Barbara on October 25, 2022

3.5 stars: Author Deborah Goodrich Royce drew on an event that happened to her mother. In December of 1948 her mother’s childhood best friend was murdered in Pittsburg, PA. The perpetrator was never found. This violent crime greatly impacted her mother. This incident is the fodder for her new novel,......more

Goodreads review by Melissa (Semi-hiatus for Work) on January 09, 2023

2.5 stars This book was a slow, slow burn. It's told from two perspectives and mostly alternates between events of 2019 and 2020. The first perspective is that of "The Writer" (we don't find out her name until later) whose mother was best friends with a girl who was murdered in 1948 and the case was......more

Goodreads review by JaymeO on January 10, 2023

HAPPY PUBLICATION DAY! Deborah Goodrich Royce’s Reef Road masterfully depicts the heightened anxiety, the struggles of a writer, and the generational scars that bind us together in a highly original book about how childhood trauma leads to murder during the early lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic. In......more

Goodreads review by Ceecee on July 22, 2022

4 stars In May 2020 two brothers illegally enter Reef Road beach, clutching their surfboards where they discover a severed hand washed up on the shore. They are watched but fail to notice a middle-aged woman, a lonely writer who is obsessed with the unsolved murder of her mother‘s best friend in 194......more

Quotes

“[Maarleveld‘s] well-paced narration is vested with an underlying tension that sustains the listener through the slower-paced first half of the audiobook…Maarleveld’s portrayals reveal the cunning and desperation of the more sinister players.” AudioFile

“Royce is a wicked good writer…the gears of this clever plot mesh like those of a Swiss watch. A truly absorbing mystery by a writer at the top of her game.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Royce keeps the plot twists coming…This is an expertly paced thrill ride.” Publishers Weekly

“Will be appreciated by fans of psychological thrillers and stories of traumas affecting multiple generations.” Library Journal

“Reef Road is magnificent. It feels utterly real, a novel of deeply personal context…Though pure fiction, it reads as compellingly as a mixture of memoir and exposé.” Luanne Rice, New York Times bestselling author

“Superbly written and elegantly structured…an altogether original novel of suspense. Instantly immersive and deeply felt, Reef Road is both intensely personal and powerfully universal…I could not put it down.” Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author

“A daunting masterpiece. A plot-driven thriller inspired by a real unsolved murder that you won’t be able to put down. This atmospheric thriller satisfies. A stunningly dark read.” Rea Frey, author of Secrets of Our House

“A thriller of a roller-coaster ride, an elixir of murder, mystery, and mental instability…Unraveling the characters’ motives and psyche, and the plot twists and turns, makes Reef Road a perfect book-club choice.” Joan Luise Hill and Katie Mahon, authors of The Miracle Collectors

Awards

  • Publishers Weekly bestseller
  • Good Morning America Selection
  • Indie Next List
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