Dark and, at times, amusing fiction from award-winning author Dave Zeltserman

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Bad Moon Rising by Ed Gorman

I've long maintained that Ed Gorman is one of the best mystery, horror, Western, short story writer working today, and if his Sam McCain took place on either coast instead of the Midwest, these books would be best sellers. Well, Bad Moon Rising is on sale for only $2.99, so here's your chance to try one if you haven't already, And here's what PW said about this book in a starred review.

Social turmoil overshadows the sleuthing in Gorman’s excellent ninth Sam McCain mystery (after 2009’s A Ticket to Ride). In 1968, a hippie commune near Black River Falls, Iowa, both horrifies and entices the townsfolk with its uninhibited lifestyle. Sardonic lawyer and investigator McCain becomes involved after the discovery of the body of Vanessa Mainwaring, the teenage daughter of a well-to-do local, at the commune, and a Vietnam vet who’s one of its members flees. Interference by a bigoted sheriff, an opportunistic preacher, and a hysterical father makes matters even worse as Sam tries not just to solve the murder but to help the people around him caught in an intensely stressful situation. The real crime, as Sam eventually realizes, is how one generation exploits the next—while the younger generation devours itself. In turn mellow and melancholy, this book grapples with problems that are too complex for any detective to untangle.

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