"Deadroads is an amusement park of the undead: ghosts, killers (and killed), demons abound. Robin Riopelle remembers to keep the dark fantasy nice and dark."
—Andrew Pyper, author of The Demonologist
"Moves deftly between the flashbacks of three children growing up in southern swampland (here Bayou Country in the 1990s) and contemporary scenes of the hunt for an uncanny serial killer [...] Riopelle knows what she's doing."
—Faren Miller, Locus
"Vividly drawn [...] maintains a nice pace with more than a few surprises along the way."
—Monsters & Critics
"Entertaining, its mystery compelling, but it was also far more emotionally complex than I’d expected [...] If you enjoy supernatural fantasy and a good ghost story then Robin Riopelle’s debut Deadroads should suit you to a tee"
—A Fantastical Librarian
"...a vivid, languorous, chilling tale of the supernatural."
—Linda Poitevin, author of the Grigori Legacy series
“A ghost story more haunting than most, about a family more haunted than most. […] Dangerously easy to sink into.”
—Kate Heartfield, writer and editor
Description
The Sarrazins have always stood apart from the rest of their Bayou-born neighbors. Almost as far apart as they prefer to stand from each other. Blessed—or cursed—with the uncanny ability to see beyond the spectral plain, Aurie has raised his children, Sol, Baz, and Lutie, in the tradition of the traiteur, finding wayward spirits and using his special gift to release them along Deadroads into the afterworld. The family, however, fractured by their clashing egos, drifted apart, scattered high and low across the continent.
But tragedy serves to bring them together. When Aurie, while investigating a series of ghastly (and ghostly) murders, is himself killed by a devil, Sol, EMT by day and traiteur by night, Baz, a travelling musician with a truly spiritual voice, and Lutie, combating her eerie visions with antipsychotics, are thrown headlong into a world of gory spirits, brilliant angels, and nefarious demons—small potatoes compared to reconciling their familial differences.
From the Louisiana swamps to the snowfields of the north and everywhere in between, Deadroads summons you onto a mysterious trail of paranormal proportions.
Reviews
"Deadroads is an amusement park of the undead: ghosts, killers (and killed), demons abound. Robin Riopelle remembers to keep the dark fantasy nice and dark."
—Andrew Pyper, author of The Demonologist
"Moves deftly between the flashbacks of three children growing up in southern swampland (here Bayou Country in the 1990s) and contemporary scenes of the hunt for an uncanny serial killer [...] Riopelle knows what she's doing."
—Faren Miller, Locus
"Vividly drawn [...] maintains a nice pace with more than a few surprises along the way."
—Monsters & Critics
"Entertaining, its mystery compelling, but it was also far more emotionally complex than I’d expected [...] If you enjoy supernatural fantasy and a good ghost story then Robin Riopelle’s debut Deadroads should suit you to a tee"
—A Fantastical Librarian
"...a vivid, languorous, chilling tale of the supernatural."
—Linda Poitevin, author of the Grigori Legacy series
“A ghost story more haunting than most, about a family more haunted than most. […] Dangerously easy to sink into.”
—Kate Heartfield, writer and editor
