When I started reading Winter's Journey I was interested the female view of long distance driving. Especially since I once knew a long haul driver and know how hard it is to maintain a relationship with people left behind. Being a long haul driver is not an easy job: long hours, loneliness, the temptation of drugs, and, if you are in a relationship, the temptation to cheat. Knowing what I know of Kathryn Meyer Griffith’s writing, I knew I was going to get a story that gave me a female perspective of a very male-dominated job.

Loretta Brennan is one of the few female independent truckers, but like most she is in desperate need of money. The last payment, the “balloon” payment is due on her big rig “Baby Blue”. Everything hinges on that last payment: her livelihood, her home, and the well-being of her child. So when she gets a call from a trucking contractor offering her a bonus to deliver oranges to Cheyenne, WY, she takes it. Due to the time constraints, the weather, and the road conditions on the mountain passes, this job could make or break her. But with the chance of getting on with a big trucking company, which would mean steady work, she takes on what she knows is a risky job.

From the start the job is plagued with problems: the truck has mechanical problems, there are tools missing, and then she is almost accosted by another driver. When he grabs her in the parking lot as she leaves the diner where they had an argument earlier, a drifter steps up and rescues her. Knowing all the risks of offering a hitchhiker a ride, Loretta does just that and soon learns he is a more than capable driver.

Now their route is haunted by a series of trucker murders, and a sinister truck that seems to be following them. This is the same route that two years earlier she and husband were traveling when he was rundown by a passing truck. Can Loretta trust an unknown drifter with her livelihood and her life? What is it about Sam that attracts her so, is it just her hormones? Can she trust her instincts when they tell her that he is just a good man down on his luck? Or could it be she is falling in love with a murderer?

Winter’s Journey is a tale of a single mother who is fighting to save the life that she has made for herself and her daughter after her husband’s tragic death several years earlier. Ms. Griffith does an excellent job expressing the feelings of her main character -- feelings that we all feel at some time or another. The dreams she has for her daughter and the doubts she feels as a single mother trying to make a living. Sam is a man with a tragic past of his own which he is struggling to overcome. Loretta and Sam risk everything that they are to learn to trust and love again. This is the kind of tale Kathryn Meyer Griffith does best people, relationships and a touch of mystery. Winter’s Journey is another keeper.

Reviewed by Theresa
© December 2008