Fiction Addict

Genre: Suspense

Publisher: Bethany House

Publication Date: February 2010

Josh Olds’ Review:

If you asked any one of the members of the historic Baxter line, if they had any political luck, they’d rival the Kennedys in terms of legacy. But without that political clout, they’re just another wealthy New York family with a better sense of history than most. Graham Baxter, grandson of Sal Baxter, seems likely to turn that around if he can secure the Senate seat. Already a State senator, he and his family have their eyes on the spot in D.C. Like any political race, you grease the right hands you get the right results, right? Just so long as you keep all those skeletons in the closet.

Meanwhile, bestselling novelist CJ Baxter—Graham’s brother—is finding his life in Tennessee collapsing around him. A lawsuit over here, a divorce settlement there, and then he gets the phone call that his grandfather Sal is dying. And after 17 years of telling himself that he would never face his family again, he finds himself staring them face to face.

To say that there was bad blood between CJ and the rest of the Baxter clan would be a gross understatement. CJ’s novels, which he claims but can’t quite convince himself aren’t autobiographical, have never portrayed those characters that might be modeled on family in a good light. But there’s more. A haunting secret that CJ has lived with since childhood, and seeing his family has kindled his desire to uncover the truth.

But digging into the closets to find the skeletons of a Senator-to-be can be a dangerous business, even if that one is your brother—perhaps especially if that one is your brother, in CJ’s case. In Hunter’s Moon, Hoesel takes the reader on a suspenseful story of a powerful family and their horrible secrets.

Unlike many authors, Hoesel takes Hunter’s Moon and really takes time to lay the foundations for the deep and complex relational storyline. Sure, it’s a little slow at first—I wouldn’t classify this as your page-a-minute thriller—but once the foundations are laid, Hoesel sufficiently fleshes out the story. Perhaps most appealing to this book for me was Hoesel’s subtlety, which really required the reader to dig down and think about what had happened. The contrasts and changes in the characters of CJ and Graham really draw the reader into the story. Moreover, mostly due to Hoesel’s subtle methods, the plot twists are both major and hard to predict.

Hunter’s Moon is a great novel. It’s a little weighty, a book to read if you want to think. And yet the charms of small-town life and the thrills of high-stakes politics make it a compelling and page-turning read.

Tim George’s Review:

CJ Baxter has managed to forge a life for himself far from his home town of Adelia in Upstate New York and the dysfunctional family he left behind there. Though a successful novelist, CJ doesn’t feel much like a success. His marriage is on the rocks and he has begun to doubt his talent as a writer. And now news has come that his grandfather, the one relative he truly related to, has died. Now CJ returns to a family he hasn’t seen in years with nothing but his dog and a newfound faith in God that he hasn’t quite sorted out the details of yet. Matters are not made any easier by the fact that everyone in CJ’s family and town is sure his novels are autobiographical.

Hunter’s Moon is a suspense story in which the characters hold center stage. Those characters include: CJ’s mother, whose own divorce and sadness has changed her, in CJ’s words, from June Cleaver to a hard drinking, chain smoking woman he hardly recognizes; a stuttering, some say simple-minded friend from the past, who coincidentally won a ton of money in the state lottery; a father who has long since lost interest in being a father; the girl he should have asked to marry him now wed to his own cousin; and a brother whose political ambitions threaten to tear down the last vestiges of hope for the family and perhaps the town.

The spiritual insights in this story work their way out in a most natural and yet powerful way. The hero of the story struggles with the tension between grace and human responsibility. Ultimately he must learn what it means to forgive and be forgiven. And, like most of us, he has to learn these lessons the hard way. There are no canned answers in Hunter’s Moon, just really good questions.

Don Hoesel does a brilliant job of drawing us into one man’s realization that most secrets, especially family secrets, have a bad habit of resurrecting themselves at the most inopportune moments. And the secret CJ holds about his family may prove to be the death of him. Or, it may just hold the key to a freedom he has yet to discover.

Review copies provided by Bethany House Publishers.