Book twenty-nine: Blue Moon

Blue Moon (2004)
Lori Handeland

Rating: 2.25/5

In my continuing quest to read this series in entirely the wrong order, this is the first book. I have already read the sixth and forth (in that order). You know why I think I have been so confused? The listing at the front of the book looks like it is in reverse order. Then to make it even more confusing, some people list them as two separate series.

So, I’m going straight to the source and trusting that as she wrote them, she knows what order they are supposed to be read in.

It doesn’t really matter that much in terms of the plot of the book – in this instalment, Jessie, a local cop is sent to investigate a car accident. When she gets there she finds the driver is uninjured except for a wolf bite. Jessie decides to track the injured wolf into the woods, but finds nothing but a naked man.

But I guess I did already know a bit about the minor characters before they were introduced. Which perhaps explains some of my impatience with it at times.

It was an good mystery – and thankfully didn’t involve my least favourite character, the Voodoo princess of long exposition – and fast paced for the most part. Although I think Handeland has a habit of dragging out the disbelief too much. Usually the main character (who is clueless about the whole werewolf deal*) spends way too long wandering through trying to solve the mystery without knowing anything about it.

And maybe if I had read these books in the correct order, it wouldn’t have mattered so much, but I think that the evolution of the relationship between the two main characters and Jessie’s opinions on werewolves very closely mirrored Crescent Moon. And in both cases it took way too long.

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* I don’t think the fact that this is about werewolves to a spoiler. I mean, just look at the cover. What did you think it’s about…bunnies? (That’s what I get for watching one too many repeats of Buffy, as Anya said “what do they need such good night vision for anyway?”)