Book Review: Revolver Road

REVOLVER ROAD | Christi Daugherty
(Harper McClain #3)
03.10.2020 | Minotaur Books
Rating: 4/5 stars

Harper McClain has retreated to the isolated area of Tybee Island after receiving a mysterious phone call warning her that someone wants her dead. The call was too specific to ignore and too dangerous to not take seriously. The caller knew everything about Harper. After months of no threats against her life, Harper is restless to get back to Savannah. Her daily commute to work at the newspaper is her only time back in the town she calls home. 

Soon Harper’s private and work lives find themselves colliding over the disappearance of Xavier Rayne. The musician has a hit album on his hands and is about to head out on tour, but one night he decides to walk out of his beachfront home and never return. Harper is convinced all clues lead to murder and tries to befriend his roommates and bandmates in an attempt to find the truth. As Harper digs deeper into the case, threats from those after her start back up. A killer is coming for her and now she must solve two cases or end up as a victim.

REVOLVER ROAD is the third installment in Christi Daugherty’s Harper McClain series. This book picks up not long after the events of book two, so while I think this book could work as a standalone, I do believe it is more beneficial to the reader to know Harper’s backstory and read them in order. 

Immediately within the opening of REVOLVER ROAD the reader knows that they are headed to investigate an interesting and complicated case. The disappearance of Xavier Rayne is much more than a missing person scenario. Daugherty gives the reader complex characters that Harper must work to get close to in the form of Xavier’s roommates. The trio closest to Xavier are clearly hiding something from Harper, but at the same time appear to want to tell their story. It’s a delicate balance we watch unfold as Harper also has to take into consideration how to write about them for the newspaper where she is a journalist. 

Support characters are always vital in the success of a novel for me and with this series I know that Daugherty consistently delivers in the form of recurring and new individuals. Harper McClain’s presence as the main character is also something I always know will be successful within this series. McClain is probably one of the strongest female leads that I have read about in the crime fiction genre who is not a police officer or a detective. I love that Daugherty has created McClain as a journalist who has zero fears about putting herself out there to get a story. She has an unstoppable commitment to honesty and discovering the truth, which is evident in her willingness to place herself in harm’s way. Harper McClain is both a character who is complicated, yet easy to bond with, which is ultimately one of the reasons I find myself coming back for more with this series.

If you haven’t met Harper McClain yet, now is the time to get started! The series is still relatively small and the books are absolutely bingeable, so you’ll be caught up before you know it!

This book is available to buy from: Amazon | Book Depository

A huge thank you to Minotaur Books for my free copy of this book!

Disclosure: What Jess Reads is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This in no way influences my opinion of the above book.