Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. This was an enjoyable book.

Section Roads is about a group of friends who meet again over periods of time through school reunions.

It's about tragedy and growing up. I liked this novel but I wanted to know more about the people hurt in the novel so that I'd care, but I didn't feel like enough was done.

I liked the growing up parts much more, as adults sometimes the story got a little too out there for me.

2.5/5, thanks to Netgalley and the author.

This book was almost comedic and not suspenseful. The best character was Mr CIA. I really couldn’t believe in this story due to the silly characters. I rate this book a 2.7

First, I need to define a section road. I am using the information supplied by the publisher: In a small town on the high plains of Eastern New Mexico, life and culture are shaped by the farm roads defining the 640-acre sections of land homesteaders claimed at the turn of the Twentieth Century. Cullen and Shelby Blaine explore first love along these section roads during the 1960's, forging a life-long emotional bond.

The character development was intriguing. The mystery of who actually was at fault kept the reader in suspense. I am a mystery reader by genre, so this book complemented my choice in books. I recommend this book to other mystery readers and anyone who has experienced friendship lasting decades.

Section Roads was excellent. I devoured it and didn’t want it to end. I love when protagonists lives have moved on but an event from the past forces them to regroup and look back to inspect where it all went wrong. Three dramatically different characters who had an unshakable bond in high school come together once again at their high school reunion and revisit the crime that sent Buddy, one of the trio to a juvenile detention centre for the murder of a class mate. We see rural New Mexico as the setting of the novel and can picture ourselves walking those roads, experiencing first love, forging friendships and breaking some rules. The characters were realistic and very likeable. Shelby and Cullen knew Buddy wasn’t guilty and were committed to uncovering the identity of the real killer.
This is a real page turner, a coming of age novel that we can all relate to, one that certainly will not disappoint. I give it 5 stars.

Section Road is well written with a good plot. Enjoyed this book. The author is new to me and I look forward to reading more of his books. Thanks to the publisher for my advance ebook.

I was not familiar with Mike Murphey's work when I ask for this novel, Section Roads. I still know very little about Mike, but I do know where he was in the late 1960s! This b00k had me laughing and crying so many times - everything about it screams life in New Mexico in the '60s and beyond. I graduated from Roswell High school - and life was very much like this for the class of 1967. Several of us were pretty weird... and the high plains desert has a lifestyle that is set up around section roads.

These people feel like friends and family. I adored Shelby and Cullen and loved Buddy. And Weard... I knew him well. The work of the police department could have been a transcript of life at the RPD as well - good buddies didn't always follow the rules. This was an interesting mystery wrapped up in a coming of age story, set in the place I will always love.

This is a novel I can highly recommend to friends and family. I hope there will be more from Mike Murphey - SOON, please.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Mike Murphey, and Acorn Publishing. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work.

When Cullen heads home for his 40th high school reunion, he is eager to see old friends (especially Shelby, his high school girlfriend) but he never expects to be thrown into the midst of a decades-old murder investigation that still influences his home town of Arthur, New Mexico. Murphey does a great job of moving the story backward and forward in time so we see these engaging characters as the teenagers they once were and the adults they have become. Toward the end, the investigation becomes almost farcical but Murphey pulls it back from the brink and creates a fine and believable ending. Fun read.

What a gloriously twisty mystery packed within a combination coming-of-age plus aging-and-looking-back literary feat! In a tiny little community inexplicably founded by settlers in Eastern New Mexico and homesteaded at the turn of the 20th century, a locale without rivers, mountains, or canyons to recommend it, life is slow and entertainment sometimes found at the expense of others. In October of 1966, a group of high school kids create a prank, causing injury, and inevitably as the consequences roll out, fatality and the ruination of a life.

As time passes, the high school graduation class reunions bring some of the former classmates back to little Arthur, New Mexico, and during the 40th reunion of 2009, trouble wakes its ugly head. From that point on, a series of unreliable characters, each of whom keeps secrets from the others, from the community, and even from themselves, reveal little by little a plot which has to be read to marvel at. I had to wonder how some of these folks managed to live to 40 years after high school graduation, because some of them are their own worst enemies. Nonetheless, their entwined troubles make for a fascinating novel.