A land war in a Florida coastal town during the First World War is the setting of Michael Morris's Man in the Blue Moon. Ella Wallace's gambling, opium-addicted husband has disappeared, leaving her to raise three young sons and keep her general store out of foreclosure. She is forced to choose between making a partial payment on the property or paying the freight charges for a fancy clock her husband must've ordered before he vanished in the hope reselling it might pay off her debt.
Ella's decision complicates matters in the quiet little town. Then Lanier Stillis, a distant cousin of Ella's absent husband, shows up under mysterious circumstances, and her dilemma takes some more surprising twists and turns. Is this man, with his "Samson-like" blond hair and eyes that sparkle with "either hope or mischief," running from trouble? When Lanier miraculously heals one of Ella's sons and makes a lame mule walk, Ella suspects he might be an answer to her prayers, but others perceive him as a charlatan. His presence exacerbates the land battle, especially between the local preacher and a conniving banker.
Spiritual undercurrents abound in this well-plotted novel, as Morris raises provocative questions about faith and providence. With astute perception, he has crafted a story (rooted in actual events) about survival in the early 20th century, with a plausible evocation of small-town life--and the judgments and modus operandi found therein. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines