Reef Road: A Novel

by Deborah Goodrich Royce

Overview

A Publishers Weekly Bestseller

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.

“Reef Road is magnificent. It feels utterly real, a novel of deeply personal context. It swerves between truth and lies—the lies that lead to an even deeper—and more devastating—truth. Though pure fiction, it reads as compellingly as a mixture of memoir and exposé. It has left me shaken to the core. Deborah Goodrich Royce writes with brilliant understanding of the mystery and occasional grace of trauma.” —Luanne Rice, New York Times bestselling author

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781637584965
Publisher:	Post Hill Press
Publication date:	01/10/2023
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	138,981
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Deborah Goodrich Royce’s thrillers examine puzzles of identity. Reef Road hit Publishers Weekly’s Bestseller list, Good Morning America’s Top 15 list, and was an Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association for January 2023. Ruby Falls won the Zibby Award for Best Plot Twist in 2021 and Finding Mrs. Ford was hailed by Forbes, Book Riot, and Good Morning America’s “best of” lists in 2019.

She began as an actress on All My Children and in multiple films, before transitioning to the role of story editor at Miramax Films, developing Emma and early versions of Chicago and A Wrinkle in Time.

With her husband, Chuck, Deborah restored the Avon Theatre, Ocean House Hotel, Deer Mountain Inn, United Theatre, Savoy Bookstore, and numerous Main Street revitalization projects in Rhode Island and the Catskills.

She serves on the governing and advisory boards of the American Film Institute, Greenwich International Film Festival, New York Botanical Garden, Greenwich Historical Society, and the PRASAD Project.

Deborah holds a bachelor’s degree in modern foreign languages and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Lake Erie College.

Editorial Reviews

11/07/2022

The discovery of a severed hand washed ashore on the Florida barrier island of Palm Beach propels this tightly constructed psychological thriller from Royce (Ruby Falls). Linda Alonso, who lives on Palm Beach, fears the hand may be a clue to the recent disappearance of her husband and their two small children. Another resident affected by this grisly find is a reclusive writer who identifies herself as Noelle, the name of a 12-year-old girl whose murder 75 years earlier obsesses her. Linda is more than the distraught wife and mother she seems to be, and Noelle’s obsession is rooted in a grim truth that has been buried for nearly a century. The stakes increase as the Covid pandemic forces the two into lockdown. A deadly cat-and-mouse game ensues, but who is the predator and who the prey? Royce keeps the plot twists coming as she vividly depicts the uncertainty and mistrust generated by the pandemic, which drives both Linda and Noelle inexorably toward madness. Readers should be prepared for some disturbing scenes. This is an expertly paced thrill ride. Agent: Beth Davey, Davey Literary and Media. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Reading Reef Road feels like bingeing a particularly addictive true crime series. Mysteries intersect in this haunting page-turner as Deborah Goodrich Royce explores the ripple effect of violence, generational trauma, and the emotional weight of a case gone cold.

Megan Collins

Reef Road careens from a decades-old unsolved murder in Pittsburgh, to a grisly discovery washing up on the shore of the breezy, ocean town of Palm Beach. With expert touch and nuance, Deborah Goodrich Royce weaves the lives of a novelist searching for the truth, a bored housewife, and the menacing figure of a man or two, through the claustrophobic, early days of the COVID pandemic. The result is an asteroid-like collision of deceit, guilt, and greed in an unexpected, stunning climax that will stay with you long after you finish reading. A page-turning, incredible read!

Brian Cuban

Reef Road is 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

Taut and suspenseful, Reef Road reveals how one horrific act of violence can reverberate through multiple lives, even generations. Based on a real-life event, this book will keep you turning the pages well into the night as secret upon harrowing secret unfolds.

Wendy Francis

Reef Road is magnificent. It feels utterly real, a novel of deeply personal context. It swerves between truth and lies—the lies that lead to an even deeper—and more devastating—truth. Though pure fiction, it reads as compellingly as a mixture of memoir and exposé. It has left me shaken to the core. Deborah Goodrich Royce writes with brilliant understanding of the mystery and occasional grace of trauma.

Luanne Rice

Reef Road, a taut, expertly-crafted psychological thriller, grabbed me from the first page and kept me hooked with its many dark twists. Set in Palm Beach, Florida, during the strange, locked-down days of Spring, 2020, the novel alternates between two narratives: an unnamed mystery writer, who is researching the murder in 1948 Pittsburgh of her mother’s childhood friend, Noelle Grace Huber; and Linda Alonso, the unhappily married mother of two young children. As layer by layer is peeled away, the connection between these two women and the long-dead girl is revealed—and along with it, a powerful rendering of how trauma from one violent act can reverberate for generations.

Virginia Hume

In Deborah Goodrich Royce’s propulsive and riveting novel Reef Road, nothing is what it seems. You will keep turning pages into the night, unraveling the threads of two women’s intersecting lives to reveal a shocking act of violence and the devastating reverberations that echo decades later.

Mary Dixie Carter

Superbly written and elegantly structured, the oh-so-talented Deborah Goodrich Royce brings her unique voice and mesmerizing style to an altogether original novel of suspense. Instantly immersive and deeply felt, Reef Road is both intensely personal and powerfully universal. Royce creates a haunting (and surprising!) portrait of a troubled wife—and the relentless writer on the trail of her past. I could not put it down.

Hank Phillippi Ryan

Reef Road paints the unforgettable portraits of two deeply flawed, yet mesmerizing women and how an unsolved mystery seventy-two years ago still haunts them today. Deborah Goodrich Royce crafts an unforgettable thriller full of captivating twists and deeply compelling characters. It is a chilling story of generational trauma and an evocative tale of unresolved grief exploding into the kind of novel readers will never want to put down.

Joani Elliott

Reef Road is a thriller of a roller-coaster ride, an elixir of murder, mystery, and mental instability, built on foundational questions—whether we are destined to inherit or repeat the psychological trauma of our parents, whether we can ever really trust assumptions we make of another, or trust the limits of what we, ourselves, are capable of. Ms. Goodrich Royce is expert at weaving a tale where the interplay among characters rebounds between the real and the imagined, exposing a shocking backstory with current-day repercussions in the process. The backdrop of glitzy Palm Beach, contrasting with staid, mid-century Pittsburgh, reminds us that evil can be found anywhere, unconstrained by geography, education, or social status. 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

11/11/2022

In 1948, 12-year-old Noelle Huber was brutally murdered. Seventy-two years later, an obsessed, lonely writer named Noelle (after the murdered girl) stalks Linda Alonso in search of the truth. Noelle is convinced that her namesake was killed by Matthew Huber, her older brother. She latches onto Linda because Linda is Matthew's daughter−Noelle Huber's niece−and inserts herself into Linda's life and befriends her. Noelle wants to know everything about Linda's marriage, her children, and the secrets in her house. Noelle even knows what happens when Linda's husband and children supposedly fly to Argentina, leaving Linda behind−she can't go during the pandemic because she's not an Argentine citizen, unlike her family members. Linda isn't suspicious until Noelle reveals her ties to the long-ago murder. Now, Linda is trapped in Palm Beach, FL, her family is AWOL, and she's being stalked by a writer who believes she knows everything. VERDICT Inspired by an actual murder, this title by actress and author Royce (Ruby Falls) will be appreciated by fans of psychological thrillers and stories of traumas affecting multiple generations.—Lesa Holstine

Library Journal

★ 2022-11-11
Royce’s murder mystery, involving generational vengeance in the time of Covid-19, would make the ancient Greeks proud.

In 1948, 12-year-old Noelle Huber was brutally murdered in Pittsburgh. The case was never solved; her older brother, Matthew, was a perennial suspect but was never charged. Shift now to Linda Alonso in Palm Beach, Florida. It’s 2020; she and her Argentina-born husband, Miguel, have two young kids and a shaky marriage. Enter “the writer,” whose identity we won’t learn until later. The chapters toggle between “The Wife” (Linda) and “A Writer’s Thoughts.” The writer, we learn—because as the narrator, she tells us so—is a moderately successful mystery writer also living in Palm Beach, a loner and a stalker and more than a little scary. And let us not forget Miguel’s older brother, Diego, who shows up on the Alonsos’ doorstep after many years when he was presumed dead. Royce is a wicked good writer (“Diego had carved out pieces of each of the children’s hearts and inserted himself inside”). Her portrait of Linda Alonso is good, but her portrait of the writer is even more impressively creepy. Shall we call her Nemesis? A very clever gimmick is that the writer is certainly meant to be a stand-in for Royce, the author behind it all. This is meta with a vengeance, a story about telling a story, and fascinating for students of that stuff. Another clever trick is that characters that we have a bias to trust, like Linda, may not be so trustworthy. If this is dirty pool, the reader will have to decide. And there are some serendipitous developments, as the writer is the first to admit. But overall, the gears of this clever plot mesh like those of a Swiss watch. There is some time shifting, but the chronology works out in the end.

A truly absorbing mystery by a writer at the top of her game.

Kirkus Reviews

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.”

author of Secrets of Our House Rea Frey

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.”

authors of The Miracle Collectors Joan Luise Hill and Katie Mahon

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.”

New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice

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.”

USA Today bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan

Saskia Maarleveld narrates this intriguing thriller about two apparently unconnected women in south Florida during Covid lockdown. A young wife reports that her husband and two children have been missing from their toney home on Reef Road. Nearby, an eccentric, solitary writer is obsessed with the unsolved murder of her mother’s childhood best friend many years earlier. Maarleveld employs a similar tone for the alternating chapters, but her well-paced narration is vested with an underlying tension that sustains the listener through the slower-paced first half of the audiobook. As the characters’ stories overlap and deceptions are exposed, Maarleveld’s portrayals reveal the cunning and desperation of the more sinister players. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2023 - AudioFile