Death On The Road: A Van Life Cozy Mystery

by Nancy McGovern

Rio Cushing is tired of fighting against the tide. She’s worked hard her whole life. Sacrificed. Struggled.

And for what? Her walking papers.

She’d worked at Lucky Trucker's Truck Stop since she was a kid. She knew practically every person who walked through the front door by name. And Pop and the rest of the staff? Like family.

Just like her family, in fact, because they had just thrown her out, too. But these snakes did it with smiles on their faces, simply because they called it retirement. They even told her she was lucky to have reached the point in life where she could travel, spend time with loved ones and pursue her dreams!

But that was just the problem. She didn’t have any dreams. She had no loved ones — certainly not anymore. And her broken-down Honda wasn’t traveling anywhere farther than the junkyard. She had simply been surviving for as long as she could remember. So now what?

Enter three new acquaintances with somewhat similar stories to hers. And, after far-too-little consideration and planning, the four of them decide to pack up their lives, pool their measly resources and take to life on the road, traveling as modern-day nomads.

None of them would argue it was the greatest idea ever considered…

154 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 24, 2024

About the author

I'm a mother, wife, homemaker, pet lover, teacher, student, reader, writer, drinker of tea & wine (depending on the time of day) and sleep-deprived dreamer. I live in Syracuse, NY, with my husband, Doug (also a writer with books available on Amazon), our three children and too many furred & feathered friends to list!

Reviews

[Joanna Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Fun Read

This book wasn’t at all what I expected. I guess I was thinking it would be more cutesy and formulaic. It wasn’t. These are flawed characters, like people I’d actually come across in real life. Unusual things happen, some that almost made me gasp at their audacity. It’s nice to be surprised.

[Sarka B · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book by my favourite Nancy McGovern. It is a cozy mystery with more realistic main characters who have each their problems. The book is told of points of view of all four women. It is well written. I like cozy mysteries related to nomadic life and camping. I will read also other series by Nancy McGovern.

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not quite sure what I expected from this, but I'm fairly sure I didn't get it. I downloaded this as a Kindle freebie after reading a description that made it pretty clear the author had been influenced by watching (or possibly reading) "Nomadland," but as her other series seem to be pretty generic cozies about perky small-town cupcake bakers, I wasn't sure how she was going to integrate the two. The multiple POVS at the start made me expect that each of the four main characters would experience some sort of growth arc as they bonded to form a cohesive unit that would go on to have further adventures together, but this absolutely didn't happen. Only one character, the one whose POV mostly took over about halfway through, was the only one who seemed to make any progress. While she seemed well on her way to an HEA by the book's end

HERE COME THE SPOILERS

Of the other three main characters, two had gone off with strangers (separately), while the third was clearly dying.

While I would have enjoyed a series about four very different older women facing economic and other challenges as they adjusted to life on the road (plus a murder in each new town), I will not continue reading a series about a fairly well-off retired couple (the about to be ex-cop bf being the other half of that couple) enjoying life (plus the occasional murder) in Arizona while living in a luxury motor home. Bleah.

I also have two more issues with the book, one being a minor quibble about the misleading subtitle --- how can this be a "van life cozy mystery" with no actual vans? A lunch wagon and an RV don't really count.


The other issue, though, is so disturbing that I rated the book two stars instead of three: the disappearance of the Pekingese. At the start of the trip, both a dog and a cat are part of the company. The cat, while not mentioned and seemingly abandoned for most of the book, puts in a brief appearance at the end, although no reassurances are given as to his continued well-being after his owner dies (which seems imminent). The dog, however, is not spoken of at all after her first appearance, and her owner seems to become temporarily homeless for a short while before being given a very dubious resolution in a throwaway sentence or two. If I'd known that the dog's fate would be left hanging, I wouldn't have read the book at all because I can't stand dogjep.