Hi everyone!
February is “Women in Horror” month, and horror is one of my
favorite genres. I love scaring (or at least unnerving) readers with my horror
fiction. But sometimes horror stories don’t feature “traditional monsters” like
vampires or werewolves… sometimes human beings are capable of terrifying us
more than any ghost ever could.
The Route 9 Killer is one of those stories. It’s a bit dark…
but then again, how could a story about a serial killer not be?
Years ago, I had an idea for a serial killer/mystery/thriller
story that was sparked by something simple: I was driving somewhere and saw a
woman’s shoe lying in the road.
Immediately, my writer brain started asking questions: Whose
shoe was it? What happened to the woman? Where was the other shoe? Why was this
shoe in the road? Strange? Yes. But writers think that way. Anything that
catches our attention can spark a flurry of questions and develop into a story
idea.
I started wondering about the shoe and then an idea hit me.
It was a simple “What if…” premise: What if a woman was abducted and the only
evidence left behind was her shoe in the road? I bounced this idea off of a few
people, and they scoffed. “Who cares about a shoe? Why would anything think
someone was abducted based on a shoe?” But, when I explained my story idea,
they were intrigued.
I wrote an outline for the story and filed it in my “someday
I’ll write this” folder and moved on to other projects. (At the time, I was
writing romances and not focusing on horror/mysteries.) Then “someday” arrived
and I wrote the story.
As the title implies, the book is a mystery/thriller
involving a serial killer. The hero, Detective Jim Rourke, thinks he’s
discovered a serial killer operating in Central New Jersey. The only problem
is, nobody believes him. The women are abducted from different towns in the
same county and their bodies are dumped in different towns in another county.
This makes it hard for the police to connect the crimes or even see a pattern.
To them, the killings are random.
Detective Rourke is also investigating the disappearance of
a woman named Allison Kendrick. When the book opens, her boyfriend is at the
police station, reporting her missing. Are the two cases related? Rourke thinks
they might be.
The book then switches to the point-of-view of a young woman
who wakes up in a strange place, handcuffed to a bed. When I wrote her
character, I knew didn’t want to make her a helpless victim. Yes, she’s
hurting, scared, and in a really, really bad situation, but she’s smart and a
fighter—and determined to escape. She knows she’s responsible for her own fate.
Nobody is coming to rescue her.
No thriller would be complete without a peek into the life
(and mind) of the antagonist. Our not-so-nice killer has a few scenes of his
own where we get inside his mind, see what makes him lose control, and gives a
hint at why he does what he does.
Without giving away any plot details or spoilers, I can say
that our three main characters come together in the end, and the story packs a
great twist ending. (If you’ve read the book and loved it, please post a
positive review online (no spoilers, please!).
But then… there’s the Epilogue, where we get a little more
info on Rourke’s case—and another shocker.
Although the story has a very serious/dark subject matter, I
stayed away from overt sexual violence toward our heroine. I didn’t want to
write anything too dark, too graphic, and nothing along the lines of “torture
porn” or an unsettling episode of Criminal Minds. I concentrated on Rourke and
his investigation. The other characters are there to pull the reader into the
story through their points-of-view and increase the drama and tension. I think
it worked. (Readers and reviewers seem to agree, too!)
And just in time for Women in Horror Month, I released a new
mystery/thriller featuring Detective Jim Rourke, The Route 9 Stalker. (I’ll be
blogging more about that book soon, but you can read about it here:
https://www.kelliwilkins.com/horror/the-route-9-stalker)
Here’s the book summary and order links for:
The Route 9 Killer
(A Mystery/Thriller)
It started with a search for a missing woman — and turned
into a hunt for a serial killer.
Early one morning, a distraught young man enters a police
station and reports that his girlfriend disappeared on a deserted stretch of
road the night before.
With no witnesses and no leads, it falls to Detective Jim
Rourke to find out the truth — and Rourke’s investigation leads him to believe
that Allison Kendrick might have fallen into the clutches of a serial killer.
Several other missing women have turned up dead — tortured
and dumped along secluded sections of Route 9. Rourke is alone on a manhunt,
and time is running out.
Can Rourke catch the killer and rescue the next victim
before it’s too late?
Order your copy here:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Route-Killer-Mystery-Thriller-ebook/dp/B0C63NHC51
All other platforms: https://books2read.com/u/m2qd16
Read reviews here:
https://www.kelliwilkins.com/the-route-9-killer
Want more? Join Detective Jim Rourke on a disturbing new
case, The Route 9 Stalker:
https://www.kelliwilkins.com/horror/the-route-9-stalker
If you love horror and are celebrating all things scary this
month, visit the Horror, Mystery & More page on my site:
https://www.kelliwilkins.com/horror to read about all of my spooky stories!
Until next time…
Happy Reading!
Kelli A. Wilkins
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kelli A. Wilkins is an award-winning author who has
published more than 100 short stories, 24 romance novels, and 9
mystery/thriller/horror ebooks. Her romances span many genres and settings, and
she likes to scare readers with her horror, mystery, and thriller fiction.
Her latest book, The Route 9 Stalker, was published in
January 2026. This mystery/thriller is set in Central NJ and follows Detective
Jim Rourke on a disturbing new case. Meet him for the first time in The Route 9
Killer.
Kelli's 24th romance, For Love’s Sake, an epic historical/fantasy romantic adventure, was published in 2025.
In 2024, she released Surreal Escapes, a collection of 7 speculative/spooky stories. Anything can—and does—happen in this anthology.
Follow Kelli on her Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorKelliWilkins
and visit her website/blog
www.KelliWilkins.com for a full title list, social media links, and more.
