Bad Moon begins on the night of July 22, 1969: as Neil Armstrong walks on the moon, in the town of Perry Hollow, nine-year-old Charlie Olmstead goes missing, and the only thing left behind is a bike found just above the town waterfall. Forty years later, police chief Kat Campbell (introduced in Ritter's Death Notice) picks up the case her father didn't solve--at first to help an old friend, then an old flame, then to find justice for all the missing boys who have disappeared in the same way.
Charlie's surviving brother, Eric Olmstead, now a successful mystery writer, returns to Perry Hollow to oversee his mother's funeral. Her dying wish to her son was to "find Charlie," and that’s why he's hired Nick Donnelly, a former cop and a friend of Kat who runs a private investigation firm that specializes in cold cases like this one. Eric and Kat dated in high school and start to rekindle that flame when Nick involves her in the Charlie Olmstead case. Kat tries to reconcile her reawakening feelings with her guilt over not spending enough time with her Down's syndrome son, James, who is the same age as the missing boys. The plot rockets through its requisite twists and turns at a breakneck pace, leaving clues in its turbulent wake.
Bad Moon is a compelling, easy read with surprising depth and humor and dialogue that never creaks or groans awkwardly. Readers will thrill to discover the truth behind the moon landing abductions and will root for Kat, Eric, Nick and James as they interact with a host of well-drawn secondary characters and suspects. --Rob LeFebvre, freelance writer and editor