Man in the Blue Moon

Man in the Blue Moon

Michael Morris

Fiction 

Tyndale House Publishing 

September 2012

"He's a gambler at best. A con artist at worst," her aunt had said of the handlebar-mustached man who snatched Ella Wallace away from her dreams of studying art in France. Eighteen years later, that man has disappeared, leaving Ella alone and struggling to support her three sons. While the world is embroiled in World War I, Ella fights her own personal battle to keep the mystical Florida land that has been in her family for generations from the hands of an unscrupulous banker. When a mysterious man arrives at Ella's door in an unconventional way, he convinces her he can help her avoid foreclosure, and a tenuous trust begins. But as the fight for Ella's land intensifies, it becomes evident that things are not as they appear. Hypocrisy and murder soon shake the coastal town of Apalachicola and jeopardize Ella's family

 

  

Ella's husband Harlan Wallace has run out on his family pursuing the lure of heroin leaving his wife alone to provide for herself and their 3 boys. Not only did he run out and leave his family but he left a substantial amount of debt. Ella is desperate to hold on to her property and her family while the town banker, Clive Gillespie, is doing his best to get his hands on her land. Clive, of course, has his own greedy nasty reason for trying to cast a single mother and her children out of their home. 

As Ella is reaching the end of her rope a mysterious package from Blue Moon clock company is waiting for her at the docks. All she has to do is pay the freight and what she thinks is a grandfather clock will be hers. Ella makes a plan to sell the clock to help pay off her husband debts to the bank. 

Ella and her sons are shocked to discover a man inside the crate! The man is no ordinary man. Claiming to be a relation to Ella's husband he has healing powers and a secret. 

As Ella and the mystery man and her boys fight to keep her land the battle rages a murder takes place that will forever change the town of Dead Lakes. 

I'll be completely honest, I had a very hard time getting into this book. I got about halfway and almost quit. Morris writes with a rawness that I found almost uncomfortable at times. Ella is an extremely unlikeable character and the stranger is just plain odd. However, there was just enough intrigue to keep me pressing on. The fact that this is losely based on actual events also kept me moving forward.

This book is not overtly Christian by any means. Ella never mentions God or brings him into her life in any applicable way. Thanks to that you will find non of the hokey forced salvation messages that are in so many Christian fiction books. However, I definitely found the God thread missing throughout. 

While I'm not sorry I hung on through the book I can't say that this will be finding a place on my shelves of favorite books. Morris writes with color and skill but it gets quite tedious at times. Although the story had everything everything from romance, to heartbreak, to murder, scandal, hope, trust, desperation, and survival it failed to completely win me over. 

My thanks to Tyndale Publishing for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.