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BURNING MOON: A Wil Hardesty Novel
by Richard Barre
Capra Press, May 2003
330 pages
$25.95
ISBN: 1592660118


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Burning Moon is a welcome sight, as Richard Barre brings back P.I. Wil Hardesty in a case that will bring people together, and also shows the character development that has taken place since Mr. Barre's last book.

The opening scene during a squall off the San Miguel Island is just a prelude to the violence which occurs as the novel progresses. Wil is asked by Vinh Tien to look into the disappearance of his son, Jimmy, and Jimmy's pregnant girlfriend, Wen. It seems that all the local and federal agencies are calling what happened to the missing boat, Harmony, an accident. However, Vinh believes that something more drastic happened to both Jimmy and Wen.

At first Wil is reluctant, because he is carrying around some baggage from Vietnam, and with Vinh being Vietnamese, it would seem inappropriate for Wil to take the job. But take the job, Wil does, and soon he is involved with an Asian gang called the Rising Dragons, run by Vinh's half brother, Luc Tien, a mobster who is evil beyond all means. Luc has a dream of running all the Vietnamese gangs in the U.S., and to this end, Jimmy was trying to please his uncle. But, soon two ATF agents show up, trying to get Wil to work for them, in order to destroy Luc's operation.

Wil's investigation leads him to hidden secrets involving the ATF agents, one, Inez Lorenz, is on suspended leave due to being insubordinate to her superiors. The other, Maccafee, has not been with the ATF for over ten years, after a failed raid left his partner dead. Then Wil stumbles upon Lorenz, dead, apparently a suicide, but was it. At the same time, Maccafee has disappeared.

Through all this, a shadowy figure from Wil's past is tailing him, trying to see what is going on. It seems, the shadow has intentions of finding out what happened to his money for the aborted hit on Luc Tien. The shadow is a ghost from Wil's past, both in Vietnam and recently from a case he worked, where this person apparently died, and his sister had Wil investigate the crime. As the pieces start to fit, Vinh's daughter is kidnapped, and Wil has to plan a rescue using forged information. The last 100 pages just rivet the reader until the final scene is over.

In this book, Richard Barre has shown a grown up Wil, a person with demons from the past, and some to come in the future. The character comes across as a real person, someone who would help another person out. It's a shame the reader has to wait for another Wil Hardesty, as this one left some unanswered questions.

Reviewed by Steven M. Sill, May 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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