Moon Lake

by Joe R. Lansdale

Overview

From an Edgar award-winning author comes the gripping and unexpected tale of a lost town and the dark secrets that lie beneath the glittering waters of an East Texas lake.

Daniel Russell was only thirteen years old when his father tried to kill them both by driving their car into Moon Lake. Miraculously surviving the crash—and growing into adulthood—Daniel returns to the site of this traumatic incident in the hopes of recovering his father's car and bones. As he attempts to finally put to rest the memories that have plagued him for years, he discovers something even more shocking among the wreckage that has ties to a twisted web of dark deeds, old grudges, and strange murders.  

As Daniel diligently follows where the mysterious trail of vengeance leads, he unveils the heroic revelation at its core.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316540650
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	06/22/2021
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	346,273
File size:	670 KB

About the Author

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of nearly four dozen novels, including Rusty Puppy, the Edgar-award winning The Bottoms, Sunset and Sawdust, and Leather Maiden. He has received nine Bram Stoker Awards, the American Mystery Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature. He lives with his family in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Editorial Reviews

04/26/2021

This thought-provoking crime novel from Edgar winner Lansdale (More Better Deals) opens in 1968 in the East Texas town of Long Lincoln, where Daniel Russell, a 13-year-old white boy, survives drowning after his father intentionally drives them into Moon Lake. Orphaned, Daniel is left in the care of a local African American family, the Candles, before spending the remainder of his teenage years with his mercurial aunt in another town. Ten years later, Daniel gets a call from Long Lincoln’s sheriff: his father’s car has been found with a suspicious pile of bones in the trunk. Daniel returns to claim the remains and inadvertently gets entangled in the murky history of Moon Lake, Long Lincoln’s elders, and the economic plight of the racially divided town. He teams up with Ronnie Candles, now a police officer, to investigate the discovery of even more bodies while rekindling their teenage affair from a decade before. As usual with this author, the Texas dialect is pitch-perfect, though some explanatory dialogue can be a bit didactic. Lansdale effectively dramatizes racial and economic conflict in this searing gothic tale. Agent: Danny Baror, Baror International. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Lansdale nails the storyline, nails the suspense, seriously nails the dialogue and has created yet another character worthy of a series.”—BookPage

"Daniel... is a winning mixture of curiosity, hesitancy, and gumption."—Sarah Weinman, New York Times Book Review

Praise for More Better Deals

"When funky books need to be written, Joe R. Lansdale writes them. . . . The plot is pure James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice, but steeped in hillbilly noir."—Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

"The prolific Mr. Lansdale…draws on the spirit and themes of James M. Cain in this stand-alone book, which works clever variations on such Cain classics as The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity.
 —Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal

"Lansdale really makes this used car purr."—Booklist (starred review)

"Highly enjoyable . . . Populated with an admirable array of laughable miscreants, this droll, savage novel is vintage Lansdale. The author's storytelling powers remain as strong as ever."—Publishers Weekly

" [A] down-and-dirty riff on Double Indemnity, a provocative new variation on James M. Cain’s noir classic...an enjoyably cynical cruise down the back roads to perdition."—Lisa Henricksson, Airmail

"He's genre dextrous, moving fleetly between westerns, mysteries, thrillers, horror, sci-fi, literary fiction, and nonfiction, and doing it all extremely well."—Publishers Weekly

"Southern crime legend Joe Lansdale channels his best James M. Cain world vision...Readers can expect to be transported in the usual Lansdale fashion, as nobody does those East Texas period details quite like Lansdale, who always delivers with a finely-crafted, engaging, compulsive crime story in his home terrain."—Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads

From the Publisher

Brace yourself for this horrific Southern gothic narrated by Jason Culp in a rich Texas twang. Daniel Russell was 13 when his father drove them off a bridge into Moon Lake. Nearly 10 years later, Daniel returns when the car is pulled from the lake and a grisly discovery changes everything he knew about his hometown. Culp's accent and characterization bring Daniel to life with an earnestness that both complements and contrasts with the heavy use of scatological similes in the darkly humorous writing. His portrayals of supporting characters are equally vibrant. He expertly spins this yarn, giving appropriate weight to the themes of racism and greed, capped off with a gruesome conspiracy that will keep listeners up at night. S.T.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2021 - AudioFile

Brace yourself for this horrific Southern gothic narrated by Jason Culp in a rich Texas twang. Daniel Russell was 13 when his father drove them off a bridge into Moon Lake. Nearly 10 years later, Daniel returns when the car is pulled from the lake and a grisly discovery changes everything he knew about his hometown. Culp's accent and characterization bring Daniel to life with an earnestness that both complements and contrasts with the heavy use of scatological similes in the darkly humorous writing. His portrayals of supporting characters are equally vibrant. He expertly spins this yarn, giving appropriate weight to the themes of racism and greed, capped off with a gruesome conspiracy that will keep listeners up at night. S.T.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2021 - AudioFile