Review by Maria Antokas
Picture this: a guy walks into a dive bar in some backwater Louisiana town. The Eagles’ “Desperado” is playing on the jukebox. The way Sandra Brown describes him, I’m picturing Josh Duhamel in all his rugged glory. He takes off his sunglasses, scans the room, and spots the hot babe in the booth waiting for him. Page three and it’s already steamy – I’m in.
In Blood Moon by Sandra Brown, it turns out this babe, Beth, is a TV reporter covering a story connected to an unsolved case worked by our broody detective, John Bowie (pronounced Booie — which kind of kills the mood, but okay). John’s been bitter ever since the case went cold, the kind of bitterness that seeps into your personality and makes you no one’s favorite coworker. Beth convinces him to reopen it, despite his boss — who clearly wants the case buried — breathing down his neck. The “gee, I wonder if the boss was involved” suspicion is not exactly subtle here.
Soon, John and Beth are teaming up, the tension between them simmering until it boils over exactly when you expect it to. They’re chasing a serial killer who’s murdered four other women, striking only under a blood moon. (Thanks, Sandra Brown — I’ll never look at one the same way again.) Naturally, we get the requisite petulant teenager — John’s daughter from his delightfully awful ex-wife — who thinks she knows everything and promptly lands herself on the possible-victim list.
The pace is fast, the twists are plentiful, and Brown piles on enough ticking clocks to keep you sweating right along with the characters. I read the last half in one sitting because, frankly, sleep was not an option until I knew how it ended. Blood Moon is pure Sandra Brown — steamy romance, high-stakes suspense, and just enough melodrama to make it delicious.
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