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Moon Lake
From an Edgar award-winning author comes the gripping and unexpected tale of a lost town and the dark secrets that lie beneath the glittering waters of an East Texas lake.
Daniel Russell was only thirteen years old when his father tried to kill them both by driving their car into Moon Lake. Miraculously surviving the crash—and growing into adulthood—Daniel returns to the site of this traumatic incident in the hopes of recovering his father's car and bones. As he attempts to finally put to rest the memories that have plagued him for years, he discovers something even more shocking among the wreckage that has ties to a twisted web of dark deeds, old grudges, and strange murders.
As Daniel diligently follows where the mysterious trail of vengeance leads, he unveils the heroic revelation at its core.
Daniel Russell was only thirteen years old when his father tried to kill them both by driving their car into Moon Lake. Miraculously surviving the crash—and growing into adulthood—Daniel returns to the site of this traumatic incident in the hopes of recovering his father's car and bones. As he attempts to finally put to rest the memories that have plagued him for years, he discovers something even more shocking among the wreckage that has ties to a twisted web of dark deeds, old grudges, and strange murders.
As Daniel diligently follows where the mysterious trail of vengeance leads, he unveils the heroic revelation at its core.
337 pages, Hardcover
First published June 22, 2021
149 people are currently reading
6033 people want to read
About the author
Joe R. Lansdale
818 books3,833 followersChampion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over forty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites. His work has been collected in more than two dozen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies. He has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. His novella Bubba Ho-Tep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. His story "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" was adapted to film for Showtime's "Masters of Horror," and he adapted his short story "Christmas with the Dead" to film hisownself. The film adaptation of his novel Cold in July was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Sundance Channel has adapted his Hap & Leonard novels for television.
He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.
He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 401 reviews
June 21, 2021
" 'The moon is up. The water is high. Dark souls walk the earth and cry.' "-Jerzy Fitzgerald.
"My name is Daniel Russell. I dream of dark water." So begins MOON LAKE. This is the story of Daniel Russell, a young white boy with no living parents, rescued from a lake by a mermaid. Sent to live with the Candle family until his only living relative could be located-those days with the Candles ended up being some of the best of his life. But back in the late 1960's, a white boy couldn't live with a black family for long and soon enough he was reunited with his white aunt. Years later, though, returning to town due to his aunt's death, Danny decides to stick around. He's now a journalist and there is a mystery in New Long Lincoln, one that still bothers Danny to this day. This time, he's going to get an answer, come hell or high water. Will Danny solve his mystery? What does it have to do with the moon and the dark water? You'll have to read this to find out!
I just love Joe Lansdale's use of language and I have since the first time I ever read his work. He makes me laugh and he's also made me cry. At one point, in a boat in a storm:
"The water pushed at us like a thug wanting our lunch money."
Another time, when he finally met his aunt:
"Way she looked at me, I might as well have been a small pox blister."
Just simple words and phrases, but put together, in the way that only Joe R. Lansdale, Champion Mojo Storyteller, can do.
He writes in all genres, and as I once heard Brian Keene say on his now defunct podcast, Joe R. Lansdale is a genre unto himself. He writes westerns, mysteries and bat-shit crazy horror like the Drive-In novels. He writes suspense and he writes buddy novels, (Hap and Leonard.) There's nothing he can't write.
In this narrative we have a crime story, evil in a small town, a cult-like group of city councilors and a lake full of sunken cars. How can you not be enticed? I enjoyed the hell of out this book and I think you would too!
Highly recommended!
*Thanks to Mullholland Books and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*
"My name is Daniel Russell. I dream of dark water." So begins MOON LAKE. This is the story of Daniel Russell, a young white boy with no living parents, rescued from a lake by a mermaid. Sent to live with the Candle family until his only living relative could be located-those days with the Candles ended up being some of the best of his life. But back in the late 1960's, a white boy couldn't live with a black family for long and soon enough he was reunited with his white aunt. Years later, though, returning to town due to his aunt's death, Danny decides to stick around. He's now a journalist and there is a mystery in New Long Lincoln, one that still bothers Danny to this day. This time, he's going to get an answer, come hell or high water. Will Danny solve his mystery? What does it have to do with the moon and the dark water? You'll have to read this to find out!
I just love Joe Lansdale's use of language and I have since the first time I ever read his work. He makes me laugh and he's also made me cry. At one point, in a boat in a storm:
"The water pushed at us like a thug wanting our lunch money."
Another time, when he finally met his aunt:
"Way she looked at me, I might as well have been a small pox blister."
Just simple words and phrases, but put together, in the way that only Joe R. Lansdale, Champion Mojo Storyteller, can do.
He writes in all genres, and as I once heard Brian Keene say on his now defunct podcast, Joe R. Lansdale is a genre unto himself. He writes westerns, mysteries and bat-shit crazy horror like the Drive-In novels. He writes suspense and he writes buddy novels, (Hap and Leonard.) There's nothing he can't write.
In this narrative we have a crime story, evil in a small town, a cult-like group of city councilors and a lake full of sunken cars. How can you not be enticed? I enjoyed the hell of out this book and I think you would too!
Highly recommended!
*Thanks to Mullholland Books and NetGalley for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*
June 28, 2021
Review originally published at Tor Nightfire:
https://tornightfire.com/moon-lake-is...
Moon Lake by Joe Lansdale is this year’s summer read. I hesitate to mention that I burned through several chapters in my backyard hammock because it sounds cliche, but I really did and it was magical.
Lansdale’s storytelling voice feels like coming home and sleeping in your own bed. It’s welcoming, comfortable, and familiar. The main character, Daniel Russell, captures reader’s hearts immediately at age thirteen when the story begins. A sudden and life-threatening trauma leaves Daniel an orphan, and he is temporarily placed with an African American family who takes him in as though he were their own kin.
The small town of Long Lincoln, Texas, in the late sixties, does not look favorably upon a young white boy assimilating so well into the home of a Black family, no matter how well they’re taking care of his needs or how happy he seems to be there. Lansdale does an excellent job exploring social issues while preserving Daniel’s naiveté as he comes of age.
I am a longtime fan of what I like to call ‘horror with heart’. Raised on the character-driven stories of Stephen King, I have developed a hunger for fictional people that I can emotionally invest in. Horror is at its best when the lives of characters you care about are at risk. In Moon Lake, readers watch Daniel process through grief, loss, first love, loneliness, betrayal, abandonment, and fear. We go through it with him. His struggle becomes our struggle. Ultimately, we want nothing more than to see Daniel get closure and find a community of people that will love him so that he can find some sense of belonging.
These basic human needs are at the core of every Lansdale story I’ve read.
Moon Lake transitions into a Southern Gothic crime-noir when grown Daniel returns to Long Lincoln after he gets a call from the local sheriff with some new information about his childhood trauma. Like any small-town horror or crime noir drama, once someone starts digging around in the past, peeling back layers and uncovering secrets, the townsfolk find out and put up their defenses. The town of Long Lincoln is a major character itself. Just like Lansdale’s famous fictional town of LaBorde, Texas, from the Hap & Leonard series, Long Lincoln is rife with ingrown systemic racism and has a long history of corruption in local government. The townies don’t take too kindly to anyone stirring up trouble or asking too many questions.
Daniel Russell teams up with some vibrant characters to assist in his urgent quest to solve a decades-old mystery, both for his own sake and for the sake of everyone else involved. There is so much to love about this story–I especially enjoy Lansdale’s sense of humor that helps lend a certain authenticity to the narrative. Life is never serious one hundred percent of the time, and horror doesn’t have to take itself so seriously. Characters, even the ones you fall in love with as a reader, do not have to be morally pure or make the best decisions–they can be flawed and a little fucked up, because honestly, if they’re not, who can relate?
It’s easy to single out specific characters and assign motives and theories to their involvement in Daniel’s mystery. At the end of every chapter, Lansdale tempts readers to keep investing, stay hungry and curious. Moon Lake seduces its audience into a smoldering, tantalizing mystery peppered with humor and heart. Don’t miss it!
https://tornightfire.com/moon-lake-is...
Moon Lake by Joe Lansdale is this year’s summer read. I hesitate to mention that I burned through several chapters in my backyard hammock because it sounds cliche, but I really did and it was magical.
Lansdale’s storytelling voice feels like coming home and sleeping in your own bed. It’s welcoming, comfortable, and familiar. The main character, Daniel Russell, captures reader’s hearts immediately at age thirteen when the story begins. A sudden and life-threatening trauma leaves Daniel an orphan, and he is temporarily placed with an African American family who takes him in as though he were their own kin.
The small town of Long Lincoln, Texas, in the late sixties, does not look favorably upon a young white boy assimilating so well into the home of a Black family, no matter how well they’re taking care of his needs or how happy he seems to be there. Lansdale does an excellent job exploring social issues while preserving Daniel’s naiveté as he comes of age.
I am a longtime fan of what I like to call ‘horror with heart’. Raised on the character-driven stories of Stephen King, I have developed a hunger for fictional people that I can emotionally invest in. Horror is at its best when the lives of characters you care about are at risk. In Moon Lake, readers watch Daniel process through grief, loss, first love, loneliness, betrayal, abandonment, and fear. We go through it with him. His struggle becomes our struggle. Ultimately, we want nothing more than to see Daniel get closure and find a community of people that will love him so that he can find some sense of belonging.
These basic human needs are at the core of every Lansdale story I’ve read.
Moon Lake transitions into a Southern Gothic crime-noir when grown Daniel returns to Long Lincoln after he gets a call from the local sheriff with some new information about his childhood trauma. Like any small-town horror or crime noir drama, once someone starts digging around in the past, peeling back layers and uncovering secrets, the townsfolk find out and put up their defenses. The town of Long Lincoln is a major character itself. Just like Lansdale’s famous fictional town of LaBorde, Texas, from the Hap & Leonard series, Long Lincoln is rife with ingrown systemic racism and has a long history of corruption in local government. The townies don’t take too kindly to anyone stirring up trouble or asking too many questions.
Daniel Russell teams up with some vibrant characters to assist in his urgent quest to solve a decades-old mystery, both for his own sake and for the sake of everyone else involved. There is so much to love about this story–I especially enjoy Lansdale’s sense of humor that helps lend a certain authenticity to the narrative. Life is never serious one hundred percent of the time, and horror doesn’t have to take itself so seriously. Characters, even the ones you fall in love with as a reader, do not have to be morally pure or make the best decisions–they can be flawed and a little fucked up, because honestly, if they’re not, who can relate?
It’s easy to single out specific characters and assign motives and theories to their involvement in Daniel’s mystery. At the end of every chapter, Lansdale tempts readers to keep investing, stay hungry and curious. Moon Lake seduces its audience into a smoldering, tantalizing mystery peppered with humor and heart. Don’t miss it!
September 4, 2021
When Danny Russell was thirteen, his father drove their car into Moon Lake and only Danny managed to survive. Now, years later, the car has been found and Danny returns to Moon Lake, only to find his father's car wasn't the only thing hidden in Moon Lake's depths...
On the heels of More Better Deals, I grabbed the next Lansdale book from the priority pile. It was one hell of a read. Moon Lake is a completely different animal from More Better Deals. Moon Lake felt more like small town horror to me, though there weren't exactly any supernatural elements.
Moon Lake is a tale of a man digging into his past and unearthing something rotten. Danny Russell's father drove the family car into a lake with he and Danny in it in a bid to kill them. When it's finally found, there's a pile of bones in the trunk and more questions than answers.
Lansdale weaves a tale of small town racism and paranoia in Moon Lake. The town council is a bunch of bastards and has most of the town under their collective thumb. Can Daniel Russell drag them out into the light before he winds up with a bullet in his brain or worse?
Long Lincoln is almost a character in itself, a small town on the shores of a lake where a town was flooded decades before. Lansdale peppers the text with colorful similes but it's not one of his lighter affairs. It's a pretty dark book, honestly, one that's almost impossible to put down once it gets going.
When the manure hits the windmill, things come to a satisfying conclusion, although it's not completely happily every after.
Moon Lake is another winner from Joe Lansdale. Four out of five stars.
On the heels of More Better Deals, I grabbed the next Lansdale book from the priority pile. It was one hell of a read. Moon Lake is a completely different animal from More Better Deals. Moon Lake felt more like small town horror to me, though there weren't exactly any supernatural elements.
Moon Lake is a tale of a man digging into his past and unearthing something rotten. Danny Russell's father drove the family car into a lake with he and Danny in it in a bid to kill them. When it's finally found, there's a pile of bones in the trunk and more questions than answers.
Lansdale weaves a tale of small town racism and paranoia in Moon Lake. The town council is a bunch of bastards and has most of the town under their collective thumb. Can Daniel Russell drag them out into the light before he winds up with a bullet in his brain or worse?
Long Lincoln is almost a character in itself, a small town on the shores of a lake where a town was flooded decades before. Lansdale peppers the text with colorful similes but it's not one of his lighter affairs. It's a pretty dark book, honestly, one that's almost impossible to put down once it gets going.
When the manure hits the windmill, things come to a satisfying conclusion, although it's not completely happily every after.
Moon Lake is another winner from Joe Lansdale. Four out of five stars.
June 23, 2021
This small-town mystery thriller is sure to appease the Lansdale fans. I loved it. My full review coming from Cemetery Dance soon.
May 28, 2021
My wife and I were lucky enough to get an ARC from the publishers, i actually danced a little jig when they approved her for the ARC. i have had the book preordered since the announcment, and if you didnt know you can preorder the book and get a signed bookplate if you send in a copy of your preorder. check out Joe's facebook page for more details. But do yourself a favor and BUY THIS BOOK.
Another five star read from one of the best. Joe R Lansdale never ceases to deliver a great story. this one follows Daniel Russel, a writer who returns back to a small town where he had a very disturbing night with his father when he was 13. He works to uncover secrets buried in that small town and ends up with a little more than he bargained for. Another historical story taking place in the 60's it has a great location and characters in this one, Ronnie is a great character and just wait till you meet Creosote Joe. Lansdale finds a way to inject some race relations in the book without it becoming the total story, just enough to get his point across. Overall a great read, hated to see it end, but thats the way it is with all of Lansdale's stories, you want the story to last forever.
Another five star read from one of the best. Joe R Lansdale never ceases to deliver a great story. this one follows Daniel Russel, a writer who returns back to a small town where he had a very disturbing night with his father when he was 13. He works to uncover secrets buried in that small town and ends up with a little more than he bargained for. Another historical story taking place in the 60's it has a great location and characters in this one, Ronnie is a great character and just wait till you meet Creosote Joe. Lansdale finds a way to inject some race relations in the book without it becoming the total story, just enough to get his point across. Overall a great read, hated to see it end, but thats the way it is with all of Lansdale's stories, you want the story to last forever.
May 20, 2024
A real page turner, this, the latest by Joe R. Lansdale, kept me up late at night to finish. I give it 5 stars as I thought it was the perfect summer read. Lansdale is a great storyteller and I enjoy his stories, having read several other books of his. He is able to bring some great characters to life, good and bad ones. And there are some real baddies in this one that you can't wait to see get their just desserts. I also like the dialogue and the sense of humor in all of his stories, this book being no exception. This story is noir, but not unrelentingly so. And, above all, Lansdale gives us a small town in East Texas ( most of his books are set in East Texas I believe), a place with a sinister atmosphere and almost as bizarre as Lovecraft's New England. I mean, Moon Lake itself--it's a man-made lake, which, when it was created, submerged a whole town, before all the black residents were able to leave.
Daniel Russell is a journalist who was orphaned and then adopted and left the new town that was built by Moon Lake. Ten years later ( it's the 70s), Daniel has become a journalist and returns to Moon Lake. There is a drought and the lake has dried up--revealing long-hidden secrets. Daniel investigates and, as he gets closer to the rotten evil beating heart of Moon Lake and its surroundings, his life will be placed in mortal danger...
Thanks to Mulholland Books for the free copy.
Daniel Russell is a journalist who was orphaned and then adopted and left the new town that was built by Moon Lake. Ten years later ( it's the 70s), Daniel has become a journalist and returns to Moon Lake. There is a drought and the lake has dried up--revealing long-hidden secrets. Daniel investigates and, as he gets closer to the rotten evil beating heart of Moon Lake and its surroundings, his life will be placed in mortal danger...
Thanks to Mulholland Books for the free copy.
April 12, 2021
To be published by Mulholland Books on 22 June 2021
A standalone novel by Joe and a tremendously entertaining one. Reading a Joe R. Lansdale novel is like sitting next to a colorful character at a bar. As he tells you his long yarn, you know he's not being completely truthful (in fact, he's making it all up), yet you don't want to miss a word of it. Its like the spinning of a myth. A young man returns to his hometown, where his father had committed suicide and had almost taken the lad with him, to find out what had happened to his mother, his father, and to the black family that had fostered him. He uncovers a web of rot and deceit and a network of some shady characters. In some ways, MOON LAKE is a fable about black/white relations in a small Texas town. The novel is rich with mystery, horror imagery, and the trademarked Lansdale humor. Do not miss it.
A standalone novel by Joe and a tremendously entertaining one. Reading a Joe R. Lansdale novel is like sitting next to a colorful character at a bar. As he tells you his long yarn, you know he's not being completely truthful (in fact, he's making it all up), yet you don't want to miss a word of it. Its like the spinning of a myth. A young man returns to his hometown, where his father had committed suicide and had almost taken the lad with him, to find out what had happened to his mother, his father, and to the black family that had fostered him. He uncovers a web of rot and deceit and a network of some shady characters. In some ways, MOON LAKE is a fable about black/white relations in a small Texas town. The novel is rich with mystery, horror imagery, and the trademarked Lansdale humor. Do not miss it.
April 20, 2024
4.0 Stars
I loved this coming of age story. There is a mild mystery element to the story but it's not really one to read for that element. (The reveal is pretty easy to guess if you read a lot of crime fiction). However I ended up really loving this one. The main character was instantly easy to care about. The story has an emotional weight, which pulled on my heart strings. I would recommend this one to readers who love a well written coming of age narrative. This was one of the best.
I loved this coming of age story. There is a mild mystery element to the story but it's not really one to read for that element. (The reveal is pretty easy to guess if you read a lot of crime fiction). However I ended up really loving this one. The main character was instantly easy to care about. The story has an emotional weight, which pulled on my heart strings. I would recommend this one to readers who love a well written coming of age narrative. This was one of the best.
June 27, 2021
MOON LAKE is a tricky book to try and review, other than to say it's a wonder. For a reader like me, this is a dream-come-true kind of book.
Broken into four sections, MOON LAKE tells the story of a corrupt small town, a boy who uses tragedy as a slingshot to become a man willing to take risks, the hate and vile underbelly of segregation and prejudice, a doomed romance and--for good measure--a glimpse of cosmic horror.
Part coming-of-age tale, part mystery, part batshit horror show, MOON LAKE delivers on every level. This is one of those books you slow down while reading because you want to make the experience last, the kind leaving you with an emptiness inside after you turn the last page because you realize that world has been closed forever, the story left behind in an old footstep. Regardless, I finished it in three sit-downs, because the pages turned themselves, despite my efforts to extend the ride.
This is vintage Lansdale with sprinklings of McCammon and Barron, a pinch of King and Steinbeck for taste. One of my favorite books of the year, if not a top contender for my all-time shelf.
My thanks to Mulholland Books for sending me a copy of the book. Highly recommended.
Broken into four sections, MOON LAKE tells the story of a corrupt small town, a boy who uses tragedy as a slingshot to become a man willing to take risks, the hate and vile underbelly of segregation and prejudice, a doomed romance and--for good measure--a glimpse of cosmic horror.
Part coming-of-age tale, part mystery, part batshit horror show, MOON LAKE delivers on every level. This is one of those books you slow down while reading because you want to make the experience last, the kind leaving you with an emptiness inside after you turn the last page because you realize that world has been closed forever, the story left behind in an old footstep. Regardless, I finished it in three sit-downs, because the pages turned themselves, despite my efforts to extend the ride.
This is vintage Lansdale with sprinklings of McCammon and Barron, a pinch of King and Steinbeck for taste. One of my favorite books of the year, if not a top contender for my all-time shelf.
My thanks to Mulholland Books for sending me a copy of the book. Highly recommended.
November 4, 2021
This starts out feeling like a coming of age story, after Danny and his father drive off a bridge into Moon Lake. Danny is rescued by a black girl named Ronnie, but his father is not. He lives for a time with Ronnie's family, and her parents become the family he never had. Jump forward ten years and he is back in town seeking the reason his dad killed himself and other mysteries of the lake, now completely dried up and revealing what was once a town many years prior. Also revealed are a great many dead bodies. He becomes embroiled in some shenanigans and a cast of unique characters, some endearing, some odd, some dangerous.
If you enjoy a good Lansdale story, you won't want to miss this one. He spins a tale full of intrigue and fun phraseology. The audio version is excellent.
If you enjoy a good Lansdale story, you won't want to miss this one. He spins a tale full of intrigue and fun phraseology. The audio version is excellent.
September 1, 2024
Plotwise this was enjoyable enough, if a taaad far-fetched, but the writing felt oddly flat, like it was rushed to meet a deadline, leaving no time to polish certain phrases and thoughts during a final edit; even the humor read hollow. It was a weird reading experience because I kept waiting for that Lansdale touch to show itself as the pages turned...but t'was not to be this time around.
Sigh.......
3 Workaday Stars
Heisstillthemanthoyo
Sigh.......
3 Workaday Stars
Heisstillthemanthoyo
July 1, 2021
This is super raw and will be popular.
Lansdale is an exceptional writer. Very top of the line forms. His conversations, metaphors, similes, era context nuance language- all 4 or 5 star. And he has always been grit for the most part too.
But this is a sea change or even an East Texan change, IMHO. Quite a few bridges, sewers AND virtual septic tanks were crossed so to speak here. They call it Gothic? Come on.
Be warned. Seriously this book is just about as nasty, pure Horror genre- and also bottom feeder populated as they come. Some parts of it make Deliverance just a hiking story. That's how harsh, crude, low life this one gets. Do not let the Part I of his 13-15 old year fool you.
I do not suggest this book to anyone with thin skin, anyone who detests torture or snuff scenes. Or for those who don't like potty humor. I'm not kidding. In the 3rd and last parts I started counting the defecation, urinating, or other bowel or general bottom end references there were in the real speech and in the colorful comparative language skills. Dozens upon dozens. It reminded me of how kids will be (maybe not any more come to think of it) fascinated by calling each other Fart Face or such for periods before they are 10. Also there are monsters of the rather related It ilk and they aren't even all on the same "side".
In fact, this reminded me of early to just before mid-time Stephen King SO much that if it wasn't Joe R. Lansdale, who I have read and known in other forms and many published works read? Well, I do think this will be popular. It's really the bottom of the barrel disgusting quotient. Actually pretty close in parallel to the declining sensibilities and actions and mores of the present real time too. UGH! Tawdry, duplicitous, morose, negativity championed. Yes, that all fits.
And so this is just about it for me and Lansdale. So many 4 star books! That read like the first part of this one did. Yet now, this kind of stuff is way too much over the top for me.
And in conclusion to this reaction. The time frames too???? What happened to cell phones? Looking and using a phone booth. And the Vietnam vet is in his 40's. And yet all of the primes are recording quite easily? Somewhere and some how a whole lot of era sequences are just off. Lot of it doesn't at all sound like 1983 to me either. Not anywhere.
Well, Scrooge before the ghost visits was absolutely your cheery uncle compared to this town and these people. It would have been 2 stars if he hadn't had the excellent prime premise of the town flooded under water theme. But still! 2.5 stars rounded up for that setting of a dead flooded town.
Lansdale is an exceptional writer. Very top of the line forms. His conversations, metaphors, similes, era context nuance language- all 4 or 5 star. And he has always been grit for the most part too.
But this is a sea change or even an East Texan change, IMHO. Quite a few bridges, sewers AND virtual septic tanks were crossed so to speak here. They call it Gothic? Come on.
Be warned. Seriously this book is just about as nasty, pure Horror genre- and also bottom feeder populated as they come. Some parts of it make Deliverance just a hiking story. That's how harsh, crude, low life this one gets. Do not let the Part I of his 13-15 old year fool you.
I do not suggest this book to anyone with thin skin, anyone who detests torture or snuff scenes. Or for those who don't like potty humor. I'm not kidding. In the 3rd and last parts I started counting the defecation, urinating, or other bowel or general bottom end references there were in the real speech and in the colorful comparative language skills. Dozens upon dozens. It reminded me of how kids will be (maybe not any more come to think of it) fascinated by calling each other Fart Face or such for periods before they are 10. Also there are monsters of the rather related It ilk and they aren't even all on the same "side".
In fact, this reminded me of early to just before mid-time Stephen King SO much that if it wasn't Joe R. Lansdale, who I have read and known in other forms and many published works read? Well, I do think this will be popular. It's really the bottom of the barrel disgusting quotient. Actually pretty close in parallel to the declining sensibilities and actions and mores of the present real time too. UGH! Tawdry, duplicitous, morose, negativity championed. Yes, that all fits.
And so this is just about it for me and Lansdale. So many 4 star books! That read like the first part of this one did. Yet now, this kind of stuff is way too much over the top for me.
And in conclusion to this reaction. The time frames too???? What happened to cell phones? Looking and using a phone booth. And the Vietnam vet is in his 40's. And yet all of the primes are recording quite easily? Somewhere and some how a whole lot of era sequences are just off. Lot of it doesn't at all sound like 1983 to me either. Not anywhere.
Well, Scrooge before the ghost visits was absolutely your cheery uncle compared to this town and these people. It would have been 2 stars if he hadn't had the excellent prime premise of the town flooded under water theme. But still! 2.5 stars rounded up for that setting of a dead flooded town.
February 12, 2021
Maybe his best yet.
July 1, 2021
I've often thought there are two things that identify a novel as a good one:
1. How quotable is it? How many passages do you find yourself wanting to copy and share with the world?
2. Do you wish it was twice as along because you'd like to be even more immersed in the world of the story, in every little thing past and present about the characters?
When it comes to Joe R. Lansdale's latest, MOON LAKE, I can cheerfully answer "yes" to both question. And that makes it a great novel, one of the best I've read in a long time. It's like its own survey course in Lansdale's career, combining his love of East Texas, low-rent characters and locales, legends and myths, a splatter of spectral horror and a couple of flyspecked screens' worth of drive-in grindhouse atmosphere.
It's fine as it is, but oh, how I wished for more. I would have liked to seen Danny Russell, the orphan turned newsman turned novelist whose life is inextricably intertwined with the namesake lake that claimed his family (and the families of dozens) struggle more in his search for the truth — too many pieces of this dark puzzle about the truth behind all those deaths came to him perhaps a little too easily. And , as someone who believes a story of crime is only as good as those behind the crime, I would have liked to seen a lot more of the evil members of Long Lincoln, Texas' city council, who rule the twon like Third World potentates. I feel that Joe R. Lansdale has earned the right to write — and publish and mass-distribute a Stephen King-sized doorstop novel that leisurely unpacks all the legends and cats long pleasant dark shadows over every character.
But that's an observation, not a criticism. Lansdale does just fine with the length he's got, and on the whole, MOON LAKE is a h*ll of a lot of black, bleak, nightmarish fun.
Oh, and that quotability I mentioned? Here are some favorite lines:
— "We were in our broken-down Buick that had come from a time when cars were big and the American dream lay well within reach for just about anyone white and male and straight who wanted to reach for it. All others, take a number and wait."
— "That bridge was narrow and long, the railing on the side was made of thin, rusting strips of metal, and when we drove onto it, it shook and moaned like a sad old woman about to die."
— "It was a warm kiss and I liked it more than the one on the cheek she had given me before. I felt it all the way down to my toes and it made the milk and corn bread in my stomach spin around."
— "Dreams get crippled from time to time, and the people dreams cripple the most are those without the right kind of backbone. You keep your backbone.”
— "Your father wasn’t worth the collected cells that made him, that handsome bastard. There was always something dark and suspicious about him, like a snake in your underwear drawer."
— "Buy some condoms and use common sense. Enjoy yourself for a few years. Better yet, die a bachelor. It saves on groceries.”
— "I finished up the piece on the partially dog-eaten woman, wrote a half a page of the novel I had started, then tried a few poems, and as usual, all of them sucked. But writing, like boxing, lets the pressure off my mind, no matter what I’m writing about."
— "Look, I’m locking up and going home, and tomorrow I’m going fishing. I’ve never been, so I thought I might. Course, I need to get some gear first, so I might not go after all. It seems like a big damn bother to catch a fish and clean it, more I think about it.”
— "“City council folks. Think they look old there, now they look like death in a wheelbarrow. Thing is, though, old dogs can bite same as young dogs.”
— "The man turned and looked at us. There was an old-fashioned manly air about him. He was thin-lipped and squint-eyed; a lock of his dark hair hung down on his forehead. It was like someone had jacked up Elvis and driven John Wayne up his *ss."
— "Strange place. Missing people. Those bones in car trunks. The lake and people drowning in it. It’s like that go**amn lake is made up of misery, pettiness, every mean, soulless act you can imagine, all of it wet with robber-baron dreams. This town is full of oddities, Danny.”
— "The sun was so bright that the idea of there being a kind of darkness moving through this rather all-American small city seemed as unlikely as discovering a talking pigeon with a recipe for hot-water corn bread."
— "Just give the switch a quick flick. First time I turned it on, I managed to touch the wire instead of the switch and got lit up well enough I d*mn near sucked my panties up through my *sshole. I could taste them in my mouth. Pardon my language, but I’m dying of cancer, so what the f*ck.”
— "Jim Crow rides in the back now, but he still gets plenty of trips around town and rests his forearms on the back of the driver’s seat."
1. How quotable is it? How many passages do you find yourself wanting to copy and share with the world?
2. Do you wish it was twice as along because you'd like to be even more immersed in the world of the story, in every little thing past and present about the characters?
When it comes to Joe R. Lansdale's latest, MOON LAKE, I can cheerfully answer "yes" to both question. And that makes it a great novel, one of the best I've read in a long time. It's like its own survey course in Lansdale's career, combining his love of East Texas, low-rent characters and locales, legends and myths, a splatter of spectral horror and a couple of flyspecked screens' worth of drive-in grindhouse atmosphere.
It's fine as it is, but oh, how I wished for more. I would have liked to seen Danny Russell, the orphan turned newsman turned novelist whose life is inextricably intertwined with the namesake lake that claimed his family (and the families of dozens) struggle more in his search for the truth — too many pieces of this dark puzzle about the truth behind all those deaths came to him perhaps a little too easily. And , as someone who believes a story of crime is only as good as those behind the crime, I would have liked to seen a lot more of the evil members of Long Lincoln, Texas' city council, who rule the twon like Third World potentates. I feel that Joe R. Lansdale has earned the right to write — and publish and mass-distribute a Stephen King-sized doorstop novel that leisurely unpacks all the legends and cats long pleasant dark shadows over every character.
But that's an observation, not a criticism. Lansdale does just fine with the length he's got, and on the whole, MOON LAKE is a h*ll of a lot of black, bleak, nightmarish fun.
Oh, and that quotability I mentioned? Here are some favorite lines:
— "We were in our broken-down Buick that had come from a time when cars were big and the American dream lay well within reach for just about anyone white and male and straight who wanted to reach for it. All others, take a number and wait."
— "That bridge was narrow and long, the railing on the side was made of thin, rusting strips of metal, and when we drove onto it, it shook and moaned like a sad old woman about to die."
— "It was a warm kiss and I liked it more than the one on the cheek she had given me before. I felt it all the way down to my toes and it made the milk and corn bread in my stomach spin around."
— "Dreams get crippled from time to time, and the people dreams cripple the most are those without the right kind of backbone. You keep your backbone.”
— "Your father wasn’t worth the collected cells that made him, that handsome bastard. There was always something dark and suspicious about him, like a snake in your underwear drawer."
— "Buy some condoms and use common sense. Enjoy yourself for a few years. Better yet, die a bachelor. It saves on groceries.”
— "I finished up the piece on the partially dog-eaten woman, wrote a half a page of the novel I had started, then tried a few poems, and as usual, all of them sucked. But writing, like boxing, lets the pressure off my mind, no matter what I’m writing about."
— "Look, I’m locking up and going home, and tomorrow I’m going fishing. I’ve never been, so I thought I might. Course, I need to get some gear first, so I might not go after all. It seems like a big damn bother to catch a fish and clean it, more I think about it.”
— "“City council folks. Think they look old there, now they look like death in a wheelbarrow. Thing is, though, old dogs can bite same as young dogs.”
— "The man turned and looked at us. There was an old-fashioned manly air about him. He was thin-lipped and squint-eyed; a lock of his dark hair hung down on his forehead. It was like someone had jacked up Elvis and driven John Wayne up his *ss."
— "Strange place. Missing people. Those bones in car trunks. The lake and people drowning in it. It’s like that go**amn lake is made up of misery, pettiness, every mean, soulless act you can imagine, all of it wet with robber-baron dreams. This town is full of oddities, Danny.”
— "The sun was so bright that the idea of there being a kind of darkness moving through this rather all-American small city seemed as unlikely as discovering a talking pigeon with a recipe for hot-water corn bread."
— "Just give the switch a quick flick. First time I turned it on, I managed to touch the wire instead of the switch and got lit up well enough I d*mn near sucked my panties up through my *sshole. I could taste them in my mouth. Pardon my language, but I’m dying of cancer, so what the f*ck.”
— "Jim Crow rides in the back now, but he still gets plenty of trips around town and rests his forearms on the back of the driver’s seat."
April 26, 2022
Lontano anni luce dai capolavori In fondo alla palude e La sottile linea scura cui la quarta di copertina rimanda, a malincuore non arrivo a dargli 4 stelle...
I personaggi e lo stile sono "alla Lansdale", nessun dubbio, ma la storia è davvero troppo debole e farraginosa. E lo dico da amante di lunga data dello scrittore texano.
Lo finisco con la sensazione che si tratti di uno di quei libri che generano grandi aspettative, poi purtroppo del tutto disattese nei fatti.
I personaggi e lo stile sono "alla Lansdale", nessun dubbio, ma la storia è davvero troppo debole e farraginosa. E lo dico da amante di lunga data dello scrittore texano.
Lo finisco con la sensazione che si tratti di uno di quei libri che generano grandi aspettative, poi purtroppo del tutto disattese nei fatti.
May 31, 2022
Strong beginning, faltered toward the end.
June 4, 2022
Dopo aver apprezzato La foresta, eccomi al secondo libro che leggo di questo autore, Joe R. Lansdale. Stavolta il genere non è western ma una sorta di thriller/romanzo di formazione per così dire.
Ci troviamo nel Texas degli anni 60/70 dove il nostro protagonista, Danny, sopravvive a un terribile incidente causato da suo padre che si suicida gettandosi con tutta la sua auto nel Moon Lake. Il bambino, per puro miracolo, viene tratto in salvo da una bambina e verrà momentaneamente affidato alla sua famiglia per alcuni mesi, fino a quando sua zia deciderà di portarselo a casa sua. Nella seconda parte ritroveremo i due bambini ormai adulti (Ronnie è una poliziotta e Daniel è diventato giornalista) ed entrambi indagheranno su delle misteriose morti tutte collegate a quel tetro Moon Lake, e lui ritornerà in quei luoghi proprio perché viene ritrovato il corpo di suo padre.
Se nella prima parte si fatica un po' ad ingranare nella storia che ci viene presentata, nella seconda esce fuori la suspense e l'azione che ti tiene incollato alle pagine, fino alla fine.
Ci troviamo nel Texas degli anni 60/70 dove il nostro protagonista, Danny, sopravvive a un terribile incidente causato da suo padre che si suicida gettandosi con tutta la sua auto nel Moon Lake. Il bambino, per puro miracolo, viene tratto in salvo da una bambina e verrà momentaneamente affidato alla sua famiglia per alcuni mesi, fino a quando sua zia deciderà di portarselo a casa sua. Nella seconda parte ritroveremo i due bambini ormai adulti (Ronnie è una poliziotta e Daniel è diventato giornalista) ed entrambi indagheranno su delle misteriose morti tutte collegate a quel tetro Moon Lake, e lui ritornerà in quei luoghi proprio perché viene ritrovato il corpo di suo padre.
Se nella prima parte si fatica un po' ad ingranare nella storia che ci viene presentata, nella seconda esce fuori la suspense e l'azione che ti tiene incollato alle pagine, fino alla fine.
April 2, 2022
Un ritorno di Joe Lansdale in gran stile, quello di “Moon Lake”. Perché ricorda immediatamente, per la storia narrata e per i temi esplorati, i due romanzi che l’hanno consacrato come narratore di successo, ovvero “In fondo alla palude” e “La sottile linea scura”: un equilibrato mix fra thrilling e romanzo di formazione, con un giovane e coraggioso protagonista maschile che, sullo sfondo del Texas rurale degli anni a cavallo tra i 60 e i 70, sperimenta la perdita di ogni innocenza e conosce il male. In “Moon Lake” tale protagonista si chiama Danny e, in una sera dell’ottobre del 1968, si trova in macchina col padre quando costui, improvvisamente, si lancia nelle acque del sottostante Moon Lake, alla luce della luna…solo Daniel sopravvive, mentre l’auto e i resti del padre verranno recuperati solo dieci anni dopo. E, insieme a loro, dalle profondità delle nere acque del lago, vengono alla superficie misteri che la cittadina a avrebbe voluto tenere sott’acqua per sempre. Niente di sovrannaturale, vi avviso. Lansdale è un autore ancorato alla realtà, quella americana degli anni 60-70, la quale esce da poco, ancora zoppicante, dalla segregazione dei neri, ancora tristemente impregnata di pregiudizio, superstizione, violenza. Accanto a Daniel non manca poi una bella figura femminile, Ronnie, sensuale e coraggiosa quanto lui, decisa a capire e ad affrontare il mistero della cittadina.
Sì, le atmosfere alla “In fondo alla palude” ci sono tutte. E non mancano diverse somiglianze con tanti personaggi, compreso l’”Uomo-Torcia” (là c’era “L’uomo Capra”), ad alimentare le superstizioni di chi vive il mistero in prima persona.
Eppure il finale non mi ha convinta pienamente, l’ho trovato scontato e poco appagante, dopo una lettura di questo calibro. Avrei giocato maggiormente di semplicità, proprio come in “In fondo alla palude”, addossando il male a un solo colpevole…insomma, mi è parso come consumare un ottimo pasto e poi, entusiasta, trovarmi in bocca il sapore di un dessert mediocre, che non era ciò che speravo. Così l’asticella del mio gradimento si è fermata a un 80%. Ma va bene così.
Sì, le atmosfere alla “In fondo alla palude” ci sono tutte. E non mancano diverse somiglianze con tanti personaggi, compreso l’”Uomo-Torcia” (là c’era “L’uomo Capra”), ad alimentare le superstizioni di chi vive il mistero in prima persona.
Eppure il finale non mi ha convinta pienamente, l’ho trovato scontato e poco appagante, dopo una lettura di questo calibro. Avrei giocato maggiormente di semplicità, proprio come in “In fondo alla palude”, addossando il male a un solo colpevole…insomma, mi è parso come consumare un ottimo pasto e poi, entusiasta, trovarmi in bocca il sapore di un dessert mediocre, che non era ciò che speravo. Così l’asticella del mio gradimento si è fermata a un 80%. Ma va bene così.
April 19, 2022
Ambientato nella città immaginaria di New Long Lincoln, nel Texas orientale, Moon Lake inizia nel 1968.
Il padre del quattordicenne Daniel Russell ha toccato il fondo.
Sua moglie, la madre di Daniel, li ha abbandonati, vivono strangolati dai debiti , passando da una casa fatiscente all’altra.
Gli è rimasta solo l’auto, la sua Buick, simbolo di “un’epoca in cui le macchine erano grandi e il sogno americano era alla portata di quasi tutti i bianchi, maschi ed etero che volevano realizzarlo. Agli altri, un numerino e mettetevi in fila"
La sua "soluzione" è quella di togliersi la vita insieme al figlio lanciandosi con la macchina, nel lago che dà il titolo al libro .
Daniel sopravvive grazie agli sforzi eroici della giovane Veronica "Ronnie" Candles e di suo padre.
Per alcuni mesi vivrà con loro, una famiglia afroamericana che gli ha regalato affetto e attenzioni, ma verrà poi affidato alla ruvida e odiosa zia materna, perché un ragazzo bianco cresciuto in una famiglia nera nel 1968 in Texas non è accettabile.
Passano dieci anni.
Daniel è uno scrittore e giornalista promettente.
Chiamato dallo sceriffo, torna a New Long Lincoln perché l'auto e i resti di suo padre e sono stati finalmente trovati, grazie a una siccità che prosciuga il lago.
Daniel ritrova Ronnie, diventata la prima donna poliziotta nera della città, e scoprono che la siccità ha fatto riaffiorare molto di più, come succede ogni volta che si scava nel passato.
C’è un sacco razzismo a New Long Lincoln e una lunga storia di corruzione.
Daniel usa le sue capacità investigative e il suo talento per entrare in contatto con il suo subconscio attraverso i sogni per trovare la triste verità sulle azioni oscure e l’esistenza contorta degli abitanti della città.
Al di là dei protagonisti, la bravura di Lansdale è la creazione di bei personaggi secondari, imperfetti e incasinati, così come le battute, l’umorismo, l’ironia , l’originalità di una bella prosa, la ricerca del senso di appartenenza e la cultura del Texas.
La forza di questo romanzo è il percorso di Daniel attraverso il dolore, la perdita, il primo amore, la solitudine, il tradimento, l'abbandono e la paura.
È quasi inevitabile affrontare tutto questo con lui.
La sua lotta diventa la nostra lotta.
Fino alla resa dei conti
Il padre del quattordicenne Daniel Russell ha toccato il fondo.
Sua moglie, la madre di Daniel, li ha abbandonati, vivono strangolati dai debiti , passando da una casa fatiscente all’altra.
Gli è rimasta solo l’auto, la sua Buick, simbolo di “un’epoca in cui le macchine erano grandi e il sogno americano era alla portata di quasi tutti i bianchi, maschi ed etero che volevano realizzarlo. Agli altri, un numerino e mettetevi in fila"
La sua "soluzione" è quella di togliersi la vita insieme al figlio lanciandosi con la macchina, nel lago che dà il titolo al libro .
Daniel sopravvive grazie agli sforzi eroici della giovane Veronica "Ronnie" Candles e di suo padre.
Per alcuni mesi vivrà con loro, una famiglia afroamericana che gli ha regalato affetto e attenzioni, ma verrà poi affidato alla ruvida e odiosa zia materna, perché un ragazzo bianco cresciuto in una famiglia nera nel 1968 in Texas non è accettabile.
Passano dieci anni.
Daniel è uno scrittore e giornalista promettente.
Chiamato dallo sceriffo, torna a New Long Lincoln perché l'auto e i resti di suo padre e sono stati finalmente trovati, grazie a una siccità che prosciuga il lago.
Daniel ritrova Ronnie, diventata la prima donna poliziotta nera della città, e scoprono che la siccità ha fatto riaffiorare molto di più, come succede ogni volta che si scava nel passato.
C’è un sacco razzismo a New Long Lincoln e una lunga storia di corruzione.
Daniel usa le sue capacità investigative e il suo talento per entrare in contatto con il suo subconscio attraverso i sogni per trovare la triste verità sulle azioni oscure e l’esistenza contorta degli abitanti della città.
Al di là dei protagonisti, la bravura di Lansdale è la creazione di bei personaggi secondari, imperfetti e incasinati, così come le battute, l’umorismo, l’ironia , l’originalità di una bella prosa, la ricerca del senso di appartenenza e la cultura del Texas.
La forza di questo romanzo è il percorso di Daniel attraverso il dolore, la perdita, il primo amore, la solitudine, il tradimento, l'abbandono e la paura.
È quasi inevitabile affrontare tutto questo con lui.
La sua lotta diventa la nostra lotta.
Fino alla resa dei conti
July 4, 2021
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for sending a review copy of this book my way!
Moon Lake is is the story of a small-town mystery involving a corrupt town government, a lake, buried bodies, and sunken cars. A young reporter who faced a tragedy in the small town has come back and, with the help of a couple friends from childhood, will try to untangle the mystery.
Because this is Joe Lansdale, this book is immensely readable with characters you immediately care for and turns of phrase that will make you think, and smile. No one tells a story like the Mojo Storyteller. But I must admit this isn’t my favorite Lansdale, and I can’t quite put my finger on why. I just found myself struggling to come back to it, and that’s why it took me so long to finish. Still, this is an objectively well-written story—so 4 stars.
With a bit more edge and horror imagery than Lansdale has used in quite a while, Moon Lake is distinctive amongst this author’s output and sure to please fans of small-town mysteries with touches of the horror and gothic.
Moon Lake is is the story of a small-town mystery involving a corrupt town government, a lake, buried bodies, and sunken cars. A young reporter who faced a tragedy in the small town has come back and, with the help of a couple friends from childhood, will try to untangle the mystery.
Because this is Joe Lansdale, this book is immensely readable with characters you immediately care for and turns of phrase that will make you think, and smile. No one tells a story like the Mojo Storyteller. But I must admit this isn’t my favorite Lansdale, and I can’t quite put my finger on why. I just found myself struggling to come back to it, and that’s why it took me so long to finish. Still, this is an objectively well-written story—so 4 stars.
With a bit more edge and horror imagery than Lansdale has used in quite a while, Moon Lake is distinctive amongst this author’s output and sure to please fans of small-town mysteries with touches of the horror and gothic.
July 5, 2021
Joe R. Lansdale is one of the most versatile authors working today. He can write horror stories, mysteries, science fiction and thrillers while either firmly ensconcing his latest tale in one genre or effortlessly blurring the lines between two or more of them. MOON LAKE is an example of the latter, a work of historical fiction that combines mystery and thriller elements with a love story and even some horror to boot. It is also a coming-of-age tale, at least at the beginning.
Set in the east Texas town of New Long Lincoln, the book begins with 14-year-old Daniel Russell, who narrowly escapes his father’s murder-suicide plan that involves driving their car into Moon Lake. Moon Lake was formed when the original town of Long Lincoln was deliberately submerged in water with a number of its residents still present, either by accident or by design. Daniel’s mother had disappeared some months before, an incident that apparently led to the elder Russell’s suicide. In the aftermath, Daniel is temporarily placed with a local family until his mother’s sister returns from abroad, at which point he will join her in another city. Her passing a decade later coincides with Daniel being summoned back to New Long Lincoln.
It seems that Moon Lake has evaporated from a drought, and the car that doomed Daniel and his father to an all-but-certain death has been recovered. In addition to the body of Daniel’s father, the vehicle contains a surprise in the trunk: a dead woman, who is assumed to be his mother. But Daniel is not so sure as the corpse lacks her distinctive mark. Also, it appears that a local graveyard has been pillaged, with dead bodies placed in the trunks of other previously submerged cars. During his absence from New Long Lincoln, Daniel became a journalist and penned a novel of some renown. This impresses a number of the hometown folks, including Ronnie Candles, a police officer who happens to be a member of the family that took Daniel in on that fateful night 10 years ago.
The two of them, all grown up, become involved as Daniel begins a journalistic investigation concerning the bodies found in the trunks. His research leads him to the reasons that Long Lincoln was flooded, as well as the motives behind the actions of the council members who have ruled the town with a collective iron fist. Daniel, Ronnie and others are warned off of the investigation but persist, aided by an enigmatic ally who has been part of the town folklore for decades. However, the council members have a powerful supporter of their own whom Daniel and Ronnie may not be able to overcome.
MOON LAKE contains plenty of Lansdale’s trademark elements, including colorful turns of phrase, plot twists and some of the strangest characters you’ll ever come across. Even at this late date, he shows no signs of rust or slowing down.
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Set in the east Texas town of New Long Lincoln, the book begins with 14-year-old Daniel Russell, who narrowly escapes his father’s murder-suicide plan that involves driving their car into Moon Lake. Moon Lake was formed when the original town of Long Lincoln was deliberately submerged in water with a number of its residents still present, either by accident or by design. Daniel’s mother had disappeared some months before, an incident that apparently led to the elder Russell’s suicide. In the aftermath, Daniel is temporarily placed with a local family until his mother’s sister returns from abroad, at which point he will join her in another city. Her passing a decade later coincides with Daniel being summoned back to New Long Lincoln.
It seems that Moon Lake has evaporated from a drought, and the car that doomed Daniel and his father to an all-but-certain death has been recovered. In addition to the body of Daniel’s father, the vehicle contains a surprise in the trunk: a dead woman, who is assumed to be his mother. But Daniel is not so sure as the corpse lacks her distinctive mark. Also, it appears that a local graveyard has been pillaged, with dead bodies placed in the trunks of other previously submerged cars. During his absence from New Long Lincoln, Daniel became a journalist and penned a novel of some renown. This impresses a number of the hometown folks, including Ronnie Candles, a police officer who happens to be a member of the family that took Daniel in on that fateful night 10 years ago.
The two of them, all grown up, become involved as Daniel begins a journalistic investigation concerning the bodies found in the trunks. His research leads him to the reasons that Long Lincoln was flooded, as well as the motives behind the actions of the council members who have ruled the town with a collective iron fist. Daniel, Ronnie and others are warned off of the investigation but persist, aided by an enigmatic ally who has been part of the town folklore for decades. However, the council members have a powerful supporter of their own whom Daniel and Ronnie may not be able to overcome.
MOON LAKE contains plenty of Lansdale’s trademark elements, including colorful turns of phrase, plot twists and some of the strangest characters you’ll ever come across. Even at this late date, he shows no signs of rust or slowing down.
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
August 7, 2021
First time reading a Lansdale book and likely the last. This book's a dud and I'm being generous with a 2 star rating. The book reminded me of YA mystery type story, but the violence pushes it into adult territory although his many references to shit/ass/turd (too many too count) certainly puts this in question. On the plus side, the story line was engaging and I kinda liked the lead character. An extremely light summer read. Sorry Joe - I'm sure you have better books out there, but this one just didn't cut it for me.
April 29, 2021
I’ve been a Joe R. Lansdale fan since … well, not quite the beginning of his career, but pretty close. I remember picking up his groundbreaking weird western Dead in the West at a Fangoria Weekend of Horrors around 1986, and that wasn’t long after he burst onto the scene with his brutal horror novel Act of Love. Later, working for a bookstore in southern California in the early nineties, I discovered (and devoured) his down-n-dirty paperbacks Cold in July, Savage Season, and, of course, The Drive-In 1 and The Drive-In 2. After those outrageous cult classics, I was hooked for life. You should see my library shelves today: They hold an awesome assortment of Lansdale’s work, which now spans not only genres but also decades. He’s been knocking them out of the park for forty years, and now he’s one of the most decorated crime writers in history, with such memorable and legendary titles as Mucho Mojo, the Hap and Leonard series, The Magic Wagon, Freezer Burn, The Bottoms, not to mention scads of sharply observed short stories.
The thing about Lansdale is his voice. He’s so irresistible because every time you immerse yourself into a new Lansdale yarn, you know you’re going to be transported into his own fascinatingly peculiar tone, that easy drawl, whether it’s embedded in a sweaty east-Texas crime yarn, or thrumming inside a supernatural western, or serving a high-flying fantasy filled with talking apes and militarized dirigibles. It’s always like he’s relaxing right in front of you, telling you his story with a crooked smile and a dark twinkle in his eye.
Moon Lake is one of Lansdale’s historical standalone novels, in the vein of his previous books The Thicket and Paradise Sky. Taking place in the 1960s and 1970s, it recounts a terrible crime that scarred the young life of Daniel Russell—and his later investigation as a journalist into that same crime. Looking into what at first seems a private tragedy involving his parents, Daniel eventually uncovers a morass of evil in his hometown of New Long Lincoln, a fictional Texas town that’s home to a unique man-made lake. You can bet that Daniel’s quest for the truth involves a veritable Coen Brothers cavalcade of memorable side characters. The book’s prose is also teeming with brilliant homespun turns of phrase and regional banter, impeccably written, jumping from the page as if from Lansdale’s mouth its-ownself. And true to Lansdale’s cultural preoccupations, Moon Lake is also a potent study of race relations in the south.
Moon Lake is a return to form for Lansdale (his previous effort, More Better Deals, didn’t completely satisfy this reader), fully harnessing that distinct voice I mentioned. This is the kind of story Lansdale excels at. Although it doesn’t quite reach the transcendent heights of a work like The Thicket (probably my favorite latter-day Lansdale), it nevertheless is very much worth your time. There’s some awful stuff that happens in this vivid tale, but the author makes the sordidness oddly approachable, pulling you into Daniel’s tale with a mixture of dread and delight.
The thing about Lansdale is his voice. He’s so irresistible because every time you immerse yourself into a new Lansdale yarn, you know you’re going to be transported into his own fascinatingly peculiar tone, that easy drawl, whether it’s embedded in a sweaty east-Texas crime yarn, or thrumming inside a supernatural western, or serving a high-flying fantasy filled with talking apes and militarized dirigibles. It’s always like he’s relaxing right in front of you, telling you his story with a crooked smile and a dark twinkle in his eye.
Moon Lake is one of Lansdale’s historical standalone novels, in the vein of his previous books The Thicket and Paradise Sky. Taking place in the 1960s and 1970s, it recounts a terrible crime that scarred the young life of Daniel Russell—and his later investigation as a journalist into that same crime. Looking into what at first seems a private tragedy involving his parents, Daniel eventually uncovers a morass of evil in his hometown of New Long Lincoln, a fictional Texas town that’s home to a unique man-made lake. You can bet that Daniel’s quest for the truth involves a veritable Coen Brothers cavalcade of memorable side characters. The book’s prose is also teeming with brilliant homespun turns of phrase and regional banter, impeccably written, jumping from the page as if from Lansdale’s mouth its-ownself. And true to Lansdale’s cultural preoccupations, Moon Lake is also a potent study of race relations in the south.
Moon Lake is a return to form for Lansdale (his previous effort, More Better Deals, didn’t completely satisfy this reader), fully harnessing that distinct voice I mentioned. This is the kind of story Lansdale excels at. Although it doesn’t quite reach the transcendent heights of a work like The Thicket (probably my favorite latter-day Lansdale), it nevertheless is very much worth your time. There’s some awful stuff that happens in this vivid tale, but the author makes the sordidness oddly approachable, pulling you into Daniel’s tale with a mixture of dread and delight.
June 15, 2021
“The moon is up. The water is high. Dark souls walk the earth and cry.”
—Jerzy Fitzgerald
“..moonlit memories of the dark depths, the taillights of the Buick going down, down, down.”
And with this Daniel Russell without mother or father and with an aunt somewhere found some early joy in youth staying with the Candles family ones he expressed as:“The Candles are wonderful people. Better than my family ever was.”
His Christmas present from them contained of one particular set of items, the first John Carter of Mars books ones he says:“The three books bent me happily out of shape for the next few days.”
These John Carter books are something from truth of the authors life and books he held dear to becoming an author and great to read this little insert from an authors real life.
The lake, sawmill, junkyard, and the black cemetery, elements in this small town mystery that may be of significance.
He advanced on in age and moved and lived with his aunt, became a reporter writing articles for a daily newspaper and went on to write and publish a novel.
His real journey of becoming and challenges ahead in the tale with the research and writing of a nonfiction book.
This book would uncover secrets and hope to decipher his chaos of the past in the east Texas town in Moon Lake, that time weighty with lose and tragedy part of far bigger set of demons, ghosts, crimes and memories forgotten but never dead to be uncovered that others just won’t want to be.
Life and death in the balance with great writing with underdogs, believable characters, social issues with vivid lucid potency and at the same time having you cracking a smile on a dull day or a serious set of facts before you on the page.
Indeed a ‘Gothic gumbo’ awaits.
A Russian doll tale one inside another.
His similes and metaphors cracking a smile, just love to read like these :
..watched him float around that bag, light as an angel’s ghost, slamming it with his fists.
It was like someone had jacked up Elvis and driven John Wayne up his ass.
Floods were as common as buttholes.
It’s like when you invite the family dog onto the couch for just one time, and then it becomes its home.
“Shit, let’s go to the office. It’s cold as a witch’s tit in here,”
..his words as cryptic as Sanskrit to a squirrel.
..it’s about time I let loose the badger in the angel cake.
..studying me like a cut of meat at a butcher shop.
..looked about as threatening as concrete yard gnomes.
Review @ "https://www.more2read.com/review/moon..." "https://www.more2read.com/review/moon..."
—Jerzy Fitzgerald
“..moonlit memories of the dark depths, the taillights of the Buick going down, down, down.”
And with this Daniel Russell without mother or father and with an aunt somewhere found some early joy in youth staying with the Candles family ones he expressed as:“The Candles are wonderful people. Better than my family ever was.”
His Christmas present from them contained of one particular set of items, the first John Carter of Mars books ones he says:“The three books bent me happily out of shape for the next few days.”
These John Carter books are something from truth of the authors life and books he held dear to becoming an author and great to read this little insert from an authors real life.
The lake, sawmill, junkyard, and the black cemetery, elements in this small town mystery that may be of significance.
He advanced on in age and moved and lived with his aunt, became a reporter writing articles for a daily newspaper and went on to write and publish a novel.
His real journey of becoming and challenges ahead in the tale with the research and writing of a nonfiction book.
This book would uncover secrets and hope to decipher his chaos of the past in the east Texas town in Moon Lake, that time weighty with lose and tragedy part of far bigger set of demons, ghosts, crimes and memories forgotten but never dead to be uncovered that others just won’t want to be.
Life and death in the balance with great writing with underdogs, believable characters, social issues with vivid lucid potency and at the same time having you cracking a smile on a dull day or a serious set of facts before you on the page.
Indeed a ‘Gothic gumbo’ awaits.
A Russian doll tale one inside another.
His similes and metaphors cracking a smile, just love to read like these :
..watched him float around that bag, light as an angel’s ghost, slamming it with his fists.
It was like someone had jacked up Elvis and driven John Wayne up his ass.
Floods were as common as buttholes.
It’s like when you invite the family dog onto the couch for just one time, and then it becomes its home.
“Shit, let’s go to the office. It’s cold as a witch’s tit in here,”
..his words as cryptic as Sanskrit to a squirrel.
..it’s about time I let loose the badger in the angel cake.
..studying me like a cut of meat at a butcher shop.
..looked about as threatening as concrete yard gnomes.
Review @ "https://www.more2read.com/review/moon..." "https://www.more2read.com/review/moon..."
July 10, 2021
Daniel Russell dreams of dark water. In 1968, his father attempted to commit a murder-suicide when he drove his car, with Daniel as passenger, off a bridge and into Moon Lake. Daniel survived, rescued by a young black girl and her father, and lived with them for a time, until being remanded into the custody of his aunt. Ten years later, a drought dries up Moon Lake and reveals Daniel’s father’s car — and bones of the dead woman locked in the trunk. Now a journalist and author, Daniel is adamant that the bones do not belong to his mother, and he sets out to figure out the truth.
Moon Lake is billed as a Texas Gothic, and author Joe Lansdale slowly unveils the secrets of Moon Lake and the community of New Long Lincoln. The original Long Lincoln was drowned to build a damn, and those citizens who refused to move were murdered in the ensuing flood. Overlaid atop these drought-revealed ruins are the ghosts of Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy, the much-too vibrant spirit of Jim Crow, and the corruption and evil upon which this fiefdom of New Long Lincoln was founded.
Given its Gothic sensibilities, Moon Lake toys with the supernatural but largely in the metaphoric. Daniel is haunted by the ghost of his father, but more in a psychological way rather than a literal fashion. More serious are the vile town elders and their murderous machinations that put Daniel’s life in danger more than once.
Lansdale incorporates Gothic traditions throughout, evoking decay and superstition via the setting and post-segregation time period, even as 70s-era Texan culture clings tightly to racism. All this is filtered through Lansdale honed, unique voice and spectacular writing, which regularly strikes humorous notes, wild turns of phrase, and quote-worthy dialogue.
Moon Lake is a spectacular read, and Lansdale keeps the pages turning with layers of mystery, the promise of evil, and the smooth, crisp prose he’s long since been known for.
Moon Lake is billed as a Texas Gothic, and author Joe Lansdale slowly unveils the secrets of Moon Lake and the community of New Long Lincoln. The original Long Lincoln was drowned to build a damn, and those citizens who refused to move were murdered in the ensuing flood. Overlaid atop these drought-revealed ruins are the ghosts of Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy, the much-too vibrant spirit of Jim Crow, and the corruption and evil upon which this fiefdom of New Long Lincoln was founded.
Given its Gothic sensibilities, Moon Lake toys with the supernatural but largely in the metaphoric. Daniel is haunted by the ghost of his father, but more in a psychological way rather than a literal fashion. More serious are the vile town elders and their murderous machinations that put Daniel’s life in danger more than once.
Lansdale incorporates Gothic traditions throughout, evoking decay and superstition via the setting and post-segregation time period, even as 70s-era Texan culture clings tightly to racism. All this is filtered through Lansdale honed, unique voice and spectacular writing, which regularly strikes humorous notes, wild turns of phrase, and quote-worthy dialogue.
Moon Lake is a spectacular read, and Lansdale keeps the pages turning with layers of mystery, the promise of evil, and the smooth, crisp prose he’s long since been known for.
October 9, 2021
Very good right up until the end, with a wrap up that feels rushed and that doesn’t really do justice to the relationships that preceded it. Kinda odd in truth but very good up to then.
November 14, 2021
In the opening chapter, a 13 year old white boy (Daniel Russell) is almost killed when his father drives off a bridge into East Texas's Moon Lake. He is saved by a black father and daughter (the Candles), who foster him until his Aunt can be located, returns from Europe, and take him away from New Long Lincoln. About ten years later, Daniel is a published author and decides to return for some answers when his father's body is recovered, upsetting the Town elders. New Long Lincoln was a town rebuilt after the original town was intentionally flooded, resulting in a number of accidental deaths. This reminded me of the Clooney movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, without the great music and comedic angles. Things get very dicey for Daniel and the Candles daughter, who is now a town cop, but essential help comes from a most unexpected person.
August 15, 2022
One hell of a ride from Joe Lansdale with Moon Lake. You know he's always gonna take you down an unexpected road. A true master at shifting gears in the second half.
Brilliant
Brilliant
July 27, 2021
Giving this a generous 3 stars. I would count Lansdale among my favorite authors, but in looking over my ratings of other things I've read of his I find it's pretty hit or miss. Everything from five stars down to two stars.
This started promisingly. 1968 East Texas. Adolescent boy survives father's suicide/homicide attempt. And Lansdale does adolescent boys so very well. Then jumps ahead ten years to 1978 and a plot that gets more unbelievable by the chapter. And what happened to the editor on this book, or barring that what happened to Lansdale's sense of time and place?
While still in 1968 our young hero confesses a love for country music, particularly George Jones and his song about the guy who stopped loving her today. Doesn't seem to matter that this song wasn't around until 1980.
In 1978 he rents a room with a tiny bathroom "just enough room for a shower stall, a commode and a sink." Yet on the next page he considers putting a foot up on the tub. And the trio of horrendous villains are "Methuselah-old" in 1978 yet the female is described in old pictures in poodle skirts, go-go boots, and mini-skirts. Little niggly details that might not bother most, but made me crazy.
This started promisingly. 1968 East Texas. Adolescent boy survives father's suicide/homicide attempt. And Lansdale does adolescent boys so very well. Then jumps ahead ten years to 1978 and a plot that gets more unbelievable by the chapter. And what happened to the editor on this book, or barring that what happened to Lansdale's sense of time and place?
While still in 1968 our young hero confesses a love for country music, particularly George Jones and his song about the guy who stopped loving her today. Doesn't seem to matter that this song wasn't around until 1980.
In 1978 he rents a room with a tiny bathroom "just enough room for a shower stall, a commode and a sink." Yet on the next page he considers putting a foot up on the tub. And the trio of horrendous villains are "Methuselah-old" in 1978 yet the female is described in old pictures in poodle skirts, go-go boots, and mini-skirts. Little niggly details that might not bother most, but made me crazy.
August 7, 2021
Book started with great promise..a boy in a small TX town almost perishes one night when his father drives off a bridge with him in the car, but he is rescued and goes on to lead a somewhat charmed life. Years later he returns to town when the car is found with not only his father's remains but those of a woman in the trunk. From there, the book took a super strange turn and got weirder than I cared for. Can't say I recommend this one, sorry.
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