A romantic suspense about a woman truck driver traveling a dangerous wintry route with a serial killer on her tail and a truck-driving hitchhiker in her cab that she feels she’s falling in love with…and fears, at times, he’s the murderer.
To keep the bank from repossessing her eighteen-wheeler and putting her and her daughter on the street, trucker Loretta Brennan takes a dangerous route to Wyoming with a winter storm approaching. She worries if she can make the deadline and navigate the icy roads since her driving partner husband died in an accident the year before.
At a truck stop, Loretta meets handsome hitchhiker Sam Emerson, who helps her out of a bind. She feels compelled to return the favor and offers him a ride to Cheyenne. Blizzards, a series of trucker murders, and a sinister truck haunt them along their route. They grow close despite Loretta's fear that Sam may be aligned with the killer. Is Sam a good man down on his luck or is she falling in love with a murderer?
Excerpt
EXCERPT:
“Yeah, yeah. I wish you were on this case instead of me, Hayden. It’s getting too weird. That trucker at the I¬-55 and now this. No apparent motives. Nothing stolen. No evidence left behind whatsoever. This is the work of a serial sicko if you ask me. I’ll talk to you later.”
Loretta gripped the edge of the table, trying to catch her breath.
Two more murders! A serial killer. Oh, no.
The rest stop on eighty-six was the same one Sam and she had been at earlier. Loretta remembered the red Volvo Semi with the open door. She frantically tried to make excuses, but she knew the odds of being at the scene of two related crimes in two days had to be infinitesimally small. What did it mean?
That Sam could he a killer.
You should run away now, Loretta. Get up, go out the door and drive off before Sam gets back. Leave him behind along with your fears that he’s the murderer.
Yet doubts filled her. They’d only been apart as long as she’d been in the bathroom and that hadn’t been more than fifteen minutes. Was that enough time to kill two people? She didn’t know. She didn’t want to know.
But why would Sam kill anyone? It made no sense. Only a deranged maniac would kill complete strangers like that. Only a deranged maniac.
The state trooper left and, stealing a peek, Loretta saw him push through the crowd toward the front of the diner.
She looked at the door. Sam would return any second. What was she going to do? She desperately wanted to talk to the trooper about the murders and try to get some information that would help her to decide. The officer would know more about the crimes than she did.
She was frozen like a bug in an ice cube. Her head warred with her heart. Was it worth it to be so wrong about Sam when being wrong could risk her life? What if Sam were a killer? Then why hadn’t he killed her, too? Unless he needed her and her truck to get away. What would happen when he no longer needed her? She didn’t dwell on that possibility.
Her eyes followed the state trooper as he halted at the cash register and spoke to a man in a stained apron who probably ran or owned the diner. The man’s face clouded up and his friendly grin faded as the trooper grabbed a wet rain slicker off a wall of other coats and fled. The diner’s owner knew about the new murders now, too.
The man in the apron hurried over to a waitress serving coffee to a bearded guy in a plaid shirt. The three of them huddled together, whispering.
At a nearby table, a thin woman with dull brown hair and too much make-up asked for more coffee and the waitress with the coffeepot bustled over. The two gossiped as the coffee poured, and after the waitress had gone on to another customer, the thin woman leaned over and yakked excitedly to another woman. There was murder in her eyes.
The bad news was spreading.
Loretta was poised to jump up and run to the other cop’s table when she caught sight of Sam working his way to her through the crowd. It was too late. There was no way she could get to the officer and ask for help before Sam got to her. She could run for it, but Sam was only a few feet away. She could see the fake empathy on his face, see his lying eyes above a killer’s smile that she’d been so foolish to mistake as being sexy. She knew that if she tried to run he’d come after her. Maybe he’d even kill her to keep his secrets.
Professional Reviews
Mystery that builds and builds into a nail-biting thriller!
This story starts with a simple problem which builds into a mystery and then builds into a nail-biting thriller! I was on a plane during heavy turbulence when I hit the exciting end and I didn't even care about the turbulence because I was so terrified about the situation in the book! I really enjoyed it. One of my favorite thrillers now.
Winter's Journey ny Romancing the Book
Once I started reading this book I couldn't stop. I never knew what was around the corner and needed to keep flipping those pages so that I could find out.
Loretta Brennan lost her husband Jed two years ago to a trucking accident. Widowed and trying to survive with a mortgage, a balloon truck payment due shortly and an eleven year old, Loretta decides to take a job with a big named trucking company. This could be her break and give her the money needed to make the payments.
But the route she is to take is the same one her husband was killed on two years ago. There is a winter storm approaching and the deadline is almost impossible. She is to transport oranges from Oklahoma to Wyoming. Because she needs the money she agrees to do the run even with the dangers of the impeding storm chasing her.
From the onset she faces mechanical problems, harassed by another driver, stranger steps in coming to her rescue. Loretta meets Sam Emerson who is hitchhiking his way to Wyoming. She needs the help, he can drive a truck and he needs a ride. So she agrees to get him to Wyoming in return he will help drive giving her the chance to get the shipment there on time.
When truck drivers are murdered along the same route she is taking, she starts suspecting Sam. By this time he has stolen her heart and she wonders if he is the serial killer and he made her fall for him?
As they continue on their route we find that this sweet tender romance, between Loretta and Sam continues, but not without doubt and problems.
Ms. Griffith shows us the dangerous side to truck driving while building a romance between to souls that so desperately need each other to help them find their way.
Not wanting to spoil the storyline for you as it is a compelling page turner, Ms. Griffith takes your imagination on a journey right to the end.
I enjoyed the strong women making it on her own, but how the tenderness of the romance told her that she can be strong but she has needs also. This book offers romance, mystery and suspense. A great read and highly recommended.
Review by Robin
Winter's Journey Review by Arlena Dean
"Winter's Journey" by Kathryn Meyer Griffith was a very good thriller that will keep you turning the pages. After Loretta Brennan's husband (Jed)had died she desperate needed money for her last payment, the balloon payment that was due on her "Baby Blue" rig, her home and the well being of her daughter, Tessa.
Getting a call from the trucking company, Loretta excepted a job (since she was a truck driver) with a bonus to deliver oranges to Cheyenne, WY. This was a very risky job due to the bad weather on the mountain roads but again Loretta need the
money.
Loretta being a female independent trucker was off on the job and soon she started to have problems ...first with her big rig Baby Blue ...then accosted by a truck driver...then she got help from a hitchhiker...Sam Emerson.... Was Loretta falling for Sam? ....then a series of murders start happening.. maybe this was Sam...so she leave a note on the cops car .... and this story gets even more exciting with every page turned. There are a lot of questions to be asked and answered.
Will Sergeant Wilder believe this hitchhiker... Sam Emerson is not the killer? Will they find Loretta before something horrible happens to her? Was Sam in love with
Loretta and did she have feeling for him? The Sergeant Wilder and Sam later went to look for Loretta and the weather was now a blizzard.
Now Loretta is thinking about Sam and what had happened to him after she left on at the truck stop. Had Sam be arrested? Now she was still having problems again with her 'Baby Blue truck... someone had cut 2 of her tires...Who had a grudge against Loretta? Had Sam come and did this to Loretta? There are a lot of questions that needed to be answered but Loretta still left the truck stop and only had a few hour left to get to Cheyenne. Now a 'white freight liner truck' was trailing Loretta too close. What was she to do? Loretta now realized she should not have left the last truck stop....
There is No escape...She was being trailed very closely...deeply into the mountains.
I don't want to give away any more so..... Now you are going to have to read the novel to find out what is happening with Loretta and Sam. Will Loretta get out of this nightmare and back to her daughter and sister safely? Will she see Sam again? Will she make it to Cheyenne? Did any this mess have anything to do with Loretta's husband Jed?
Ms. Griffith characters were off the chart....all were so good and really made this story! This is a great suspenseful story and you will soon know just who the hero is in this wonderful read. "Winter's Journey" was well written, suspenseful with mystery and even some romance. I would definitely recommend this novel as a good read
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