Dark Road Home

Gin Sullivan #1

by Anna Carlisle

The summer after she graduated from high school, Gin Sullivan's little sister Lily went missing. Her family fell apart, not to mention her relationship with her high school sweetheart, Jake. Now, almost twenty years later, Gin is living in Chicago and working as a medical examiner when she gets the call: a body's been found in the woods outside her small hometown. It could be her sister. After all these years, it's time for Gin to go home and face the demons she tried to leave behind.

Confronting your past is never easy, but for Gin it also means confronting Jake, who was the prime suspect in Lily's disappearance. To find an answer to the question of what happened to her sister that fateful summer, Gin makes the difficult decision to use her talents as a medical examiner to help the police investigation. But as Gin gets deeper into the case, she uncovers a shocking truth that could change everything--if it doesn't destroy what's left of her and her family first.

Buried secrets come to light in Dark Road Home, Anna Carlisle's sharp and simmering debut mystery.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Audiobook, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Crime

300 pages, Hardcover

First published July 12, 2016

About the author

Anna Carlisle is an American author and teacher based in Northern California.

Reviews

[Namita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lilly disappears during Gin's final year of high school . It disrupts Gin's life especially when her boyfriend Jake is accused . Gin leaves her hometown behind and goes to Chicago to become a forensic pathologist . But a phone call from Jake informing her that Lilly's body has been discovered brings all the memories back. Will she finally be able to discover what happened to Lilly all those years ago and bring closure to her family ?

This was a good mystery but quite predictable. It was easy to guess who killed Lilly though the reason was interesting but just could not get into the characters . It seems like a series so maybe there is more character development in the next book .Overall 3 -3 1/2 stars

[Aussie54 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found myself not particularly liking the main character of this story. Her characterisation was all over the place, along with many other people’s. The writing was disjointed at times, and the plot was erratic too, with a couple of “what is happening?” and/or “why is this happening?” moments. I guessed a few of the denouements, but kept reading to see how it all tied in together at the end. 2.5 stars

[Chris Conley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this is a roller coaster of a mystery. Just when you think you have it, whoosh, new twist.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Gin had heard that he'd eventually built on that land. He'd done all the work himself, over the course of years; whether that had been his choice or a means of economizing, she didn't know. But as she pulled into the drive, she realized that she already recognized the home that Jake has built for himself: it was the one he'd once promised her he would build for the two of them someday, before Lily died, when they still had the luxury of naive dreams of a shared future."


Gin Sullivan is a forensic pathologist. A simple phone call brings Jake Crosby back into her life. A body has been found. Is it Lily? Gin sister disappeared years ago as a teenager. Now Gin is headed back home to deal with her parents and the aftermath of finding her sisters body. She has every intention of involving herself in this case.

The only suspect was Jake. Can Gin get him to talk about the night her sister disappeared? He was Gin's boyfriend. Why was Jake the last one to see Lily alive? Gin is going to do whatever she can to uncover the truth. There will be more people hurt and truths uncovered. Will her family be able to get through this together?

Family complicates the pursuit of the truth. Is Jack's dad protecting him? Does Gin's dad think she may really have known the truth all along? Have others been keeping secrets? This mystery will have you guessing until the end. Is it the obvious, or was there more to the story? I enjoyed this story and the characters. Jake is someone you'll feel bad for. Accused in the court of public opinion with no recourse. Is he guilty, or was it someone else? Gin will do her best to uncover the truth and bring healing to all involved. A few surprises as the story goes, with a great ending!

Thank you Anna Carlisle, Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ha. This might be a bit difficult to explain, but remember, these reviews are simply us reader's personal feelings.

A couple prime things that I like and want in a good novel is easy to read, and is interesting enough to keep turning the pages all the way through. Too rare does the latter occur for me, but the biggest positive of this read is it held my interest for the entire 345 pages, possibly setting a new reading record for me finishing this in less than a day. This is a big, significant positive, so I wanted to highlight that right off. It's also plenty easy to read.

The story is good. It is well written and it's an imaginative and creative plot. I don't think it would appeal to just narrow genres, but should be pretty mass appealing, which is another plus.

So why just 2 stars? Firstly, because I finally re-read what the stars actually mean here on GoodReads and turns out I was rating things a little too high. Therefore, I classify this as "it was ok" which is actually a shame BECAUSE I loved it for probably 90%+ of it. Without giving any spoilers here, it just got too brutal at the end, and how things turned out was a little overly complicated, yet it was still easy enough to follow, but more so unnecessary and too extreme.

Until that happened, I had planned on tracking down the other books in this series, but after finishing this I won't bother. It was too much time spent to have it end the way it did and the feeling I was left with was not good. Maybe that's a bit extreme, but that's just it-it's a good novel, just too extreme! At least for me.

[Kathy Martin]

Gin Sullivan is called back home to the town where she grew up when the body of her younger sister is discovered.

Lily disappeared just at the end of Gin senior year in high school. Her disappearance caused all sorts of changes. Gin fled to Chicago for college, medical school, and for her work as a pathologist for Cook County. She has been keeping herself busy so that she doesn't have to think about the unanswered questions but nothing keeps her from feeling empty. Another casualty of Lily's disappearance was Gin's estrangement with her first love Jake. Some things led Gin to lose faith and trust in him.

Jake had his life disrupted too. He has been the focus of the town's suspicions that he killed Lily since he was the last to be seen with her. Now all the old feelings are coming back with the discovery of Lily's body buried in a cooler that the gang had claimed during their summers up at the water tower.

The suspects range from Jake to Tom who was Lily's boyfriend to both Gin's father and Tom's father. The gang consisted of Gin and Lily and Tom and Christine with the later addition of Jake. Gin's father and Tom and Christine's father were working together to establish a medical clinic. They grew up together and were like brother and sister until Tom and Lily fell in love. But after the tragedy, they all drifted apart.

I was engrossed in this mystery as I tried to figure out what had happened to Lily and who caused her disappearance. Gin was an interesting character who needed to confront her own demons and her own trust issues in order to solve the case.

[Majanka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Review originally published here: http://www.iheartreading.net/mini-rev...

Gin’s little sister went missing years ago. Now she’s called back home because Lily’s body was found. She’s confronted with the past, with secrets guarded for years, and with Jake, who was the prime suspect in Lily’s disappearance. Amazing writing, and I had no trouble understanding Gin and her thoughts and actions. While some twists were predictable, overall I really enjoyed the book.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging, but I figured out the murderer way too fast (and I can usually never guess).

[Palimpest Living · Rating 5 out of 5]

Murder mystery is a genre I read sparingly, because they're too often predictable or cliched. This was neither - it captured my attention from page one and was fantastic all the way through. The author did a fantastic job of setting up the plot line and the characters in such a way that you could really believe that any number of them could have committed the crime, while still somehow making them realistic and sympathetic.

Characters' memories, feelings, and history were seamlessly woven into the unfolding of the story. They all felt like real people from the beginning, but they fleshed out even more deeply as you got further in and saw more pieces of what made them who they are. The author obviously worked very hard to keep the story within the realm of reality; test results don't come back instantly, relationships are messy and complex but for very real and understandable reasons, and there are no easy fixes to their challenges. You genuinely feel for the characters, and appreciate the environment in which they move.

I will not only be recommending this to others, but looking up the author to see what else she's got that I can check out next - the highest praise I can offer.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great mystery thriller. Gin’s little sister went missing years ago and now her body has just been found in woods where she used to love. There are secrets and twist and turns everywhere- can she discover who was responsible? There could be any number of suspects which keep you guessing right through the book.
You can feel the emotions seeping through the pages of the heartbreak the original tragedy caused. No one can imagine a worse tragedy to befall a family and the horror of waiting for years with that hanging over you.
I was pleased to read that this is the first in a series following Gin Sullivan and I will be keen to read future books.
With many thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for a copy of this book

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from Goodreads Giveaway program.

This book was a good mystery/thriller. Overall a good story with descriptive characters it became somewhat predictable with a few twists. I had a hard time relating to the main characters, too unbelievable.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Anna Carlisle's Dark Road Home, the first installment in the Gin Sullivan Mystery series, this debut would leave you speechless with this dark tale of secrets and lies. Seventeen years ago, Virginia "Gin" Sullivan's sister Lily had mysteriously disappeared from home. Now twenty of years later, she gets a call from home that her body has been found in the cooler. She drops everything and leaves Chicago to return home to Trumbull, Pennsylvania. But her welcome home had been a bumpy one. Though she reunited with her former boyfriend Jake Crosby and her best friend Christine Parker-Hart and her twin brother Thomas, she had stirred up most than a hornet's nest. At the time, and even now, people accused Jake of the crime, including her father. When she asked first to consult on the case, she learned a shocking truth concerning her sister and the secret she was hiding at her disappearance. As she asked questions and pointed things closer to her, she bridged a wider distance between the people she cared for the most and how they invaded her questions. And when Jake's father Lawrence was found dead under usual circumstances, she dug a little deeper to know who had done it and why. The more desperate she was to find the answers, the most daunting it was to hear it. And when she had finaly figured it out with Jake with a twisted truth that hit closer to home, she would have to face the killer dead on and seek justice.

[Gladys Gonzales Atwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark Road Home was a heartbreaking story of five friends who were on the cusp of adulthood. Four were going away to college to start their lives while the youngest Lily was staying behind to finish school. Regardless of their promising future, the all start their summer with a tragedy. Lily goes missing. Some say she ran away to start her brilliant life as an artist; some say she was killed by her sister's birthday, Jake and others just escape.

After twenty years, Gin returns home when the remains of her beautiful young, vibrant sister were found near a water tower the five friends use to hang out by during the sweltering summers during their childhood. Can Gin return home and face old ghosts and whispers of her past. Can she redeem herself for leaving her parents and three of her best friends behind? She must, because she has been living on auto-pilot for years not knowing what happened to her little sister. Guilt consumes her, but it also makes her come to term with everything she has lost "hiding."

This is such a sad heartbreaking tale, and Anna Carlisle did a fantastic job researching forensic science and the process of healing a heavy burden. I would have liked to see more about Anna's past. More flashbacks, more insight to the five teens who lives turned upside down.

A Dark Road Home is a clean and fast read. Mystery lovers will enjoy it! Four Stars for Ms. Carlisle's debut novel!! Can wait to read more!!!

*This review was done in conjunction with Nerd Girl Official

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written, engaging from the start. Main character, Gin Sullivan’s teenage sister Lily goes missing the summer Gin is to leave for college. Her family falls apart, not to mention her relationship with her high school sweetheart, Jake.
Twenty years later, Gin is living in Chicago and working as a medical examiner when she gets the call: a body’s been found in the woods outside her small hometown. It could be her sister. After all these years, it’s time for Gin to go home and face the demons she tried to leave behind and finally find out what happened that summer.

[Adel Fountain · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to this story via an audiobook and although I made it to end, it wasn’t very enjoyable

The characters are wooden and the book lacks details so I couldn’t really picture much of what anyone looked like or their surroundings really
Seemed all a bit daft really but I did care enough to see it through

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good suspense and likable characters make this a great afternoon read.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

rtc

[Lauren Hofmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, but it moved a little slow for me. The plot seemed to drag on a bit in the middle. I did figure out who did it, but the ending was surprising. I'm not sure if I'll continue the series or not.

[Jovdb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was this a first novel? It read like one.

The characters, especially Gin, were a little unfathomable, and their motives and actions questionable. There are some moments that don’t really track; for instance when Gin and Jake break into her father’s study, find some evidence that incriminates her father and then Jake says that he now believes her father didn’t commit murder. What?

The plot is a little disjointed, the characters not believable. A disappointing read.

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a first book, I thought it was good, but not great. I really didn't care for the main character Virginia or Gin as she was called in the book. It seemed for such a professional in her job as a medical examiner, that there would have been more about that piece of it instead of all the angst that was attached to the death of her sister. I was wanting the medical side to help figure out who did the crime and when I finally knew, I really didn't care.

The writing was good, I just don't think the story or the premise was good. I am giving it 3 out of 5 stars, because of the writing, but this book just didn't have me wanting to read the next page or any page for that matter. It really needed to move along a little faster for me. Had the writing not been up to standard it probably would have received a 1 and I probably would not have finished.

I am not sure if I would read another by this author either, and that to me is the sign of a GREAT book.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway. It was a wonderful read. With all the twist in turns that you expect in a mystery but with a lot of explanation of why each of the characters are or where the way they were. Gin gets a call from her high school sweetheart to let her know that they found the body of her missing sister that has been missing or 14 years and she needed to call her parents and get home to her small town. She had a great career as a ME in Chicago but she knew her skills would be needed in her little town in Penn. and she needed to find out what happened. You really don't know who did it until the end but with all the twist and turns it is a book that you just don't want to put down and find out who really did it. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good read.

[Val · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this one up from the local library...it is the first in a series about a medical examiner from Chicago. The plot follows this young woman as she is summoned home to Penn. where the body of her sister has been located. --The sister has been missing for almost 20 years. The plot line fills in bio of the main character. The story line depends on the friendship of five young people. The author does keep you guessing until the end as to the one responsible for the murder.

[Pete Partin · Rating 3 out of 5]

good but not great. The story was very slow developing, then there was a rush to the conclusion. The characters could have been developed better to add some richness to the slow parts. Sister of the central character disappeared when she was 16. When the body is discovered 18 years later the sister who is an ME in Pittsburgh comes home, reconnects with her hs sweetheart and learns a long kept family secret.

[Brynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.25 stars.
It was an easy read but really pretty boring and unremarkable. It's the same old story of the unfounded brilliant professional that reluctantly goes home to solve an old crime (making most evidence inadmissible), goes back into teen mode over someone she went to high school with then somehow uncovers the truth and is saved in the nick of time by her high school crush. I'm am going to cut and paste this review because I've read a million books like this.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mystery/thriller is not my favorite genre since I prefer more character-driven novels ... however, if I'm going to read a mystery, it needs to fit a long string of negatives--not predictable, not too violent, not too scary, not imsomnia-inducing. This one was a fun read and a great way for me to escape reality the day after surgery. I almost guessed the murderer but not quite, which is how I like it.

[Julie Hansberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I wanted to give this book a 4 because of the second half of the book but the first half wasn’t worth a 4. Definitely hard to get into as the characters developed, but once learning about the “high school friends” a little more I was becoming more addictive. Also having a forensic background myself, I really liked Gin and her desire to be involved and use her expertise. The book goes to the very last page. Enjoy! I do plan on reading Carlisle’s other Gin Sullivan mysteries.

[Nattie]

I checked this out because I was born and raised in Chicago and I like reading books set in Chicago. I should have known better. It's not the book's fault, but I can't stand going past the medical examiner's office or even thinking about it.

I tried to get into the story, but it just wasn't working for me.

[BBMoreB ~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anna Carlisle wrote a delightful dark twist on the typical small town story, and the composition of small town life.

She set the bar with her debut novel, Dark Road Home. I expect her next release, All the Secret Places, will solidify her as a must read for me. All of the elements of a great mystery were here but, the story unfolded roughly.

[Arlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another slow mystery that made me start skimming about mid way through. Authors could we move our stories along at a faster pace. Several books that I have read lately move at a snail's pace when there is really no reason to do so. The premise of this book was unusual but the end was predictable.