Revolver Road

January 1, 2020

In her third adventure (after A Beautiful Corpse), crime reporter Harper McClain goes into hiding on Tybee Island, off the coast of Savannah, GA, after she's warned that the man who murdered her mother 16 years ago is coming after her. Several months later, she wonders if she overreacted and welcomes the distraction of a breaking story--musician Xavier Rayne has disappeared on the eve of his debut album tour. She interviews the three people closest to him, but Harper's instincts tell her something is wrong. Then two fishermen discover Rayne's body in the ocean with two bullet holes in his chest. As she tries to get a lead on the murderer, Harper gets another anonymous message urging her to look more closely at her estranged father's career as a criminal attorney. Harper's search for the truth in both cases might cost her her life. VERDICT Daugherty has created a complex, likable heroine whom readers will root for, fully fleshed-out secondary characters, and a compelling plot. Fans of fictional newshounds created by Laura Lippman, Hank Phillippi Ryan, and Edna Buchanan will enjoy this series. [See Prepub Alert, 8/19/19.]--Julie Ciccarelli, Tacoma P.L., WA

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January 1, 2020
A driven reporter works a murder while hiding from a stalker. Harper McClain's Savannah paper has been teetering on the verge of bankruptcy as the rapacious owner cuts staff to support her lifestyle. Since a warning from an unknown man that her mother's killer has her in his sights (A Beautiful Corpse, 2019, etc.), Harper has fled her apartment for a rental on nearby Tybee Island, where she keeps a low profile. Her boredom is alleviated when friends report that up-and-coming music star Xavier Rayne went for a walk on the beach and never returned. Talking their way into Rayne's rented Tybee mansion, Harper and her photographer meet his girlfriend, actress Cara Brand, his keyboardist, Hunter Carlson, and backup singer Allegra Hanson, all distraught over his disappearance. Harper's had a special relationship with the police ever since Robert Smith, the detective assigned to her mother's murder, watched over her when her father remarried, moved, and started a new family. When she exposed Smith as a murderer, that relationship was ruined along with her on-again, off-again love affair with homicide detective Luke Walker. The present case heats up when Rayne's found shot to death. Harper receives a cryptic message telling her to look into gangster Martin Dowell, who's just been released from prison, and his lawyer, who turns out to have been Harper's father. Her source warns her that Dowell may be out for revenge. Continuing to cover Rayne's murder, Harper finds it difficult to believe that any of the friends the police clearly suspect could have killed him. Fearing for her life, she buys a gun and starts looking for somewhere else to live. Although Harper and Luke have serious doubts about being able to maintain their relationship, they're still deeply in love, and Luke helps her in every way he can while she tries to escape her mother's fate. An exhilarating hunt neatly dovetails with the complex heroine's determination to find her mother's killer.

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January 27, 2020
Daugherty’s winning third Harper McClain mystery (after 2019’s A Beautiful Corpse) finds intrepid Savannah, Ga., reporter Harper on Tybee Island, where she has been lying low since receiving a threatening phone call from “a man who knew far too much about her mother’s murder” 16 years earlier. On the resort island, she eventually gets drawn into the disappearance of eminent musician Xavier Rayne, who was staying there. Xavier’s bandmates describe him as moody and contemplative, taking off for hours or days at a time. But this time is different: the band was supposed to go on tour to support a new album. Writing about Xavier keeps Harper’s mind off her impending doom and provides front-page stories for her Savannah newspaper. Then everything implodes, and Harper is on the run, tracking a killer while another killer tracks her. With help from her newspaper colleagues and ex-beau Luke Walker, she’s determined to solve Xavier’s disappearance and put her own dark past behind her. In lesser hands this complex tale of love and revenge might falter, but Daugherty never sounds a false note. Agent: Madeleine Milburn, Madeleine Milburn Literary (U.K.).

February 1, 2020
In this third Harper McClain novel, gutsy journalist Harper is still at the struggling Savannah newspaper that readers will remember from Echo Killing (2018), which saw her investigating a murder that appeared to copy her mother's brutal slaying. This time the paper and Harper's other haunts turn sinister as a mysterious caller suggests that someone is threatening her life; suddenly nowhere feels safe. That doesn't keep Harper from investigative journalism, though. While dodging danger, she's also befriending some lost souls?young artists left behind and suspected of foul play when their housemate, a talented musician, goes missing after a late-night visit to the beach. As usual, Daugherty deftly handles the multiple plot strands, including a romantic thread that sees Harper in on-again, off-again confusion with a local cop whom readers will root for in his efforts to win Harper's affections. Recommend this one to fans of the author's previous works as well as those who enjoy mysteries starring strong women who've had it tough.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)