Celebrate Women in Horror Month with The Route 9 Killer
By Kelli A.
Wilkins
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.
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