Title: Headlights

Author: CJ Leede

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Headlights-CJ-Leede-ebook/dp/B0FMSCNGRJ/

Release Date: June 9, 2026

Summary

Every instinct tells him to run. Every memory tells him he can’t.

Special Agent Daniel Stansfield is ready for a change. Burnt out and defeated by the job, it’s his last day with the FBI. But before he can turn in his badge, he’s summoned back to Denver, the city he ran from four years ago, with a chilling message: it’s happening again.

Seemingly innocent people are waking up on the side of the highway, with no memory of how they got there, wearing the skin of victims they’ve allegedly never met. And they each share one haunting detail: a strand of a stranger’s hair is tied around their tongue.

Now Daniel is pulled back into the gruesome cycle, and every clue leads him deeper into the shadows of his own past. He will have to confront the ghosts of his traumatic childhood and face what’s been hunting him all along— before he and the people he loves become the next victims.

Perfect for fans of The Shining and Longlegs, bestselling author CJ Leede’s Headlights is a pulse-pounding hunt across the frozen wilderness of Colorado.

My Review

3/5 Stars

Daniel Stansfield is ready to split from the FBI. Or so he thinks. When he’s summoned back to Denver, a new string of murders starts, forcing him to face his past in order to find out who’s responsible.

I admit, I struggled to get into this one. I adored Maeve Fly and American Rapture, but this one didn’t hold my attention in the same way, and it’s a shame because I really love Leede’s style. One of the problems I had with this book was that it felt too long. It could’ve been polished a bit to keep the story suspenseful without being bogged down by too much description and internal monologue.

The story started to pick up around the halfway point, and I thought the supernatural elements were well done. The story wrap up? That was a little disappointing. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but that ending wasn’t it. I also didn’t connect with the romantic subplot toward the end and felt it a bit unnecessary.

All in all, this is a solid book blending psychological, crime, and suspense elements well. Fans of Stephen King’s the Shining will like it for the references sprinkled throughout, but it was an unfortunate miss for me.