Crime• Thriller

Audiobook: Where the Road Ends by Brian Freeman

October 25, 2026

Synopsis:

The murder of a judge and his wife turns Jonathan Stride’s world upside down and leaves him facing a shocking crossroad in this electrifying mystery from New York Times bestselling author Brian Freeman

Jonathan Stride’s partner, Maggie Bei, is driving home after midnight when a call comes shots fired at the home of a Duluth judge.

Moments later, she finds Gordon and Tracy Hartwick murdered in their bed. But someone is hiding in the judge’s house, and as Maggie lays chase, she’s forced to make a split-second decision that leaves the intruder dead.

When Stride arrives at the scene, he has to give Maggie devastating news. The intruder had no gun. He wasn’t the killer. She shot an innocent man.

With Maggie facing a firestorm over her actions, Stride must discover who really killed Gordon and Tracy Hartwick—and what secrets they were hiding that put them in the gunsights of a murderer. The shattering finale will change Stride’s world in ways he can’t imagine and leave everyone he loves asking the same When you reach the end of the road, where do you go from there?

Review:

The story started off rather quietly, with a wife waiting for her husband to come home. Only for him to arrive at a murder scene. When Maggie arrives after hearing the call, both are dead, and another person is still there. A split-second decision will set the stage for what’s to come for her.
As the investigation unfolds, the findings show that the married couple had a lot of secrets to hide. But which one got them killed?
Another story arc follows a boy who knows some details that might be linked to a girl who went missing years ago. How is he connected to her?

When I initially read the synopsis, I wasn’t aware that there were already so many books in the series before this one. When you start a series at a later point, you miss out on the connections the characters have built and the continuous storylines that have been established, and you might feel a bit lost at first. Was that the case for me with this one? Yes. I think there were parts of the story that I didn’t connect with as much as I wanted to because I was missing the history behind them.
Did the author do a good job of giving me enough background? Yes. It was presented in a way that allowed a new reader, which would be me, to follow along while ensuring established readers didn’t feel as though everything was being repeated over and over again.

The overall story felt nuanced and drew me in early on. The characters were very well written, and the investigation and its findings felt thoroughly thought out. When things started to seem too easy, the characters didn’t simply accept the status quo and move on. They kept digging to find out what had really happened.
Not once did I feel that anything failed to resonate with me, and the narration was done very well.
I think I now have a new series that I want to pick up from the beginning. What a nice problem to have. 🙂

🌙 Recension: Where the Road Ends (Jonathan Stride #12) by Brian Freeman
📚 Genre: Thriller, Crime
📅 Release Date: October 6, 2026
📖 Publisher: ‎ Blackstone Publishing
👤 Narrator: January LaVoy
📗 available in various formats
📱 Read as: Audiobook
💸 I received a free copy and am voluntarily leaving a review.
🗣️ Language: English
📆 Pages / Listening Length: 11h 44min
⭐️ 4.5/5