This book is nearly 500 pages so be prepared to try to follow all that was happening and figure out who was doing what! I was totally lost by the time the book ended! And, Wow, what a climax! The key to this hold over readers' attention is because there are so many secrets! But they don't necessarily have anything to do with what happened on that back road... So how are you going to know who is doing what?! Sure, there are hints, but they are just guesses, at the most. This author surely keeps a white board handy nearby to keep her characters and plots straight... for her mind cannot keep each track straight on its own...LOL... In whatever way she does it, I've got to praise her skills in plots, twists and turns!

I was amazed at the things Leo faced as she returned to certain spots in town--amazed to realize that people could have been so cruel to a young child who had absolutely no responsibility for the sins of her father...

At the same time, I enjoyed watching a relationship develop between Leo and Tom, the sheriff... Leo, I was surprised to learn, was now a "life coach" who had obviously gotten over the trauma of her past and now was reaching out to help others. In fact, her blog entries run through the novel and are a pleasant diversion of "good thoughts..."

But Leo's occupation and offer to provide free life coaching introductions to a number of women in town really brought about a reaction from many of the men--who also had secrets that they had no intention their wives share!

This is one of the best mystery suspense novels I've read this year! I certainly recommend it to everybody that loves to be stumped by an author! I sure was...and if you figured it out, let me know what "clue" got you started on solving it!
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It actually took just a couple of days to read. The reading was interrupted by a surgery. I thought the book was well done. I didn't like every character but I wasn't supposed to. I did figure out the mystery before the end but it was close enough to the end for me. There are plenty of twists and turns to this one. I loved the character of Leo and the inclusion of her blog. Super good stuff in that. ( )

The book kept me guessing right till the end....great read! ( )

I don't really know how to begin with this one...
The first Tom Douglas' book I read left me speechless and made me an admirer of Rachel Abbott's work, no exaggeration - and by the way, I really recommend Only the Innocent. Her style in that book reminded me of my favorite mysteries’ writer, Agatha Christie, but she went even deeper: the story itself, the depth of the characters, the way she described it all, all impeccable. So, as it can be imagined, I couldn’t wait to read the second Tom Douglas’ book.
The Back Road tells us many stories in one, all of them involving secrets, lies, violence, and relationships, which makes you relate to at least one of its aspects, inevitably. The main plot goes around Ellie and Leo, sisters who had gone through quite an awkward childhood, and how they decided to move on from it.
Ellie inherited a lot of money when her mother passed away and decided to move back to the house in which she spent her childhood after renovating it, taking her husband Max and her twin babies with her. Once the house was completely renovated, they invited some friends over for dinner to celebrate it and present it to them – being Tom Douglas one of the new neighbors invited.
During dinner, all they could speak of was an accident that happened the night before, in which a girl, Abbie, was found heavily injured after a hit-and-run. As Ellie was the nurse in charge, and as the girl was a student in the school Max worked, they all felt somehow more connected to it.
However, even though he was not working on the case, Tom Douglas soon realized that people were not being exactly honest that night, and he gets involved in solving this and other mysteries of this story.
The book is amazingly well-written, which I believe is inherent to Rachel Abbott. Tom Douglas, impeccable as I remembered from her first book. However, The Back Road left me with many things “unsolved”. It feels that, in an attempt to reveal key pieces more to the end of the book, which I usually like, some side-plots were not totally explored, and somehow just added volume to the story, with no actual added value.
It is true that after you finish it, you kind of guess what the closures were for those side-plots, but it would have been nicer if those were addressed still in the story.
Overall, it is a very good book, and I will surely keep up with Tom Douglas soon. ( )

It was ok

The book was not my favorite but had good character development. I felt story was a bit long. I do like this author overall. ( )