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BURNING MOON
by Richard Barre
Capra Press, May 2003
348 pages
$25.95
ISBN: 1592660118


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

There is one historical event that tends to reside in the memory of just about every member of the Baby Boomer generation, and that is the Vietnam War. Many of our number served in that war, and to this day, their lives are impacted by what they experienced so many years ago.

Wil Hardesty is carrying around the memories of his time on the battlefield, and they come back to haunt him yet again when he is approached by a Vietnamese man named Vinh Tien looking for answers about an accident involving his late son, Jimmy, and his girlfriend, Wen. The fact that Vinh was Viet Cong makes him an enemy in Wil's mind, as he was fighting on the other side and was likely responsible for the deaths of American soldiers.

Wil tries to put that aside and find out what happened to the boat that Jimmy and Wen were sailing when they disappeared. As it turns out, Vinh's estranged brother, Luc, who is definitely on the wrong side of the law, seems to be the key to the puzzle. Not only is he causing trouble within the family, but he's also attracted the attention of two ATF agents who try to get Wil to cooperate with them in a separate investigation. Corruption, gang warfare, terrorism, murder all erupt in some action-packed sequences.

Wil was introduced in 1996 in THE INNOCENTS, which won the Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel. That book presented a surfer-turned-private eye who lost his young son to a surfing accident, an event from which he is only now recovering. BURNING MOON takes the Hardesty series to an even deeper level than the four previous books. There are more emotionally compelling moments, both as a result of Wil's past in Vietnam and his ever-changing relationship with his ex-wife, who has some major issues which Wil is trying to address. The plotting is more complex, and the characterization richer.

BURNING MOON concludes with Wil pursuing an interesting new personal direction. Barre leaves the door open for some significant changes in Wil's life. That bodes well for the future of this series. Much of this book deals with his past, and a not very happy past at that. It's encouraging to think that there may be some hope for his future. As for Barre's future, I wouldn't be surprised to find his name listed in another Shamus Award category, Best PI Novel of 2003.

Reviewed by Maddy Van Hertbruggen, December 2003

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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