On a Dark Deadly Highway

by Amy M. Bennett

Thanksgiving brings family, friendship, and foul play to New Mexico in this seventh Black Horse Campground mystery from the author of Fiesta of Fear.
 
An unseasonably warm November is a financial boon to Corrie Black’s campground, but her personal life has taken a hit. Her friend, recovering addict RaeLynn Shaffer, disappeared two months ago, after some funds from a church festival goes missing. Det. J. D. Wilder immediately suspects RaeLynn is behind the heist, creating a wall of tension between Corrie and the officer.
 
Then, while jogging late one night, Wilder sees a body being dumped from a car. It’s RaeLynn—and she’s still alive. Drugged and beaten, she’s whisked away from the village of Bonney for her own protection, and Corrie is warned that the criminal Shaffer family may be coming after her for turning RaeLynn against her own kin.
 
With everyone on edge and the Shaffers under surveillance, it becomes clear that the family who has terrorized Bonney for years may now have something to fear. And to draw out the villain, Corrie is willing to use herself as bait . . .

311 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 13, 2024

About the author

Amy Bennett's debut mystery novel, End of the Road , started as a National Novel Writing Month project in 2009. It went on to win the 2012 Dark Oak Mystery Contest and launched the Black Horse Campground mystery series, followed by No Lifeguard on Duty , No Vacancy , and At the Cross Road . A Summer to Remember is the fifth book in the series. When not sitting at the laptop actively writing, she works full-time at Walmart of Alamogordo (not too far down the road from fictional Bonney County) as a cake decorator and part-time at Noisy Water Winery in Ruidoso (where you can find some of the best wines in the state of New Mexico, including Jo Mamma's White!) She lives with her husband and son in a small town halfway between Alamogordo and Ruidoso.

Reviews

[Betsy Cornwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first book in the Black Horse Campground series. There is a lot of background information, but Amy Bennett does a good job of filling the reader in without bogging the story down. When you find an injured person lying in the middle of a highway, it has to be a case of hit and run, right? Or maybe not.
The mystery was interesting with good momentum. I especially liked the cameo appearance by some of Mike Orenduff's characters from the Pot Thief series. The New Mexico setting is a plus for me. I don't get out there enough but reading books like this one helps.
There wasn't much movement in the romantic tension, but it is a series. I'll just have to pick up the next one to find out which of Corrie's beaus comes out on top.