by Richard
Normally, when I review books and suchlike for this site, I try to make them books that would be enjoyed by little dudes. Or books that little and big dudes would enjoy at the same time. This go round, though, I’d like to talk about something expressly for the older dudes out there. It’s a book called Loot The Moon and I really enjoyed it.
The book is by a talented writer named Mark Arsenault. Before we go any farther, fair disclosure time. (Sorry about this, but it’s from my training as a former newspaper reporter. It’s carved into my writing fingers much too deep to be excised.) Arsenault sent me a copy with the express intent of having me review it here. I told him to send it along and, if I liked it, I’d be happy to give him a review here.
Well, here’s the review. Can you guess what I thought of it? I’m sure you can. However, I’m going to tell you anyway.
Loot The Moon is something I don’t find myself in the middle of normally; a straight-up mystery, without ray guns, rocket ships or shambling hordes of the undead moaning after brains. But I’m certainly glad I made the effort with this one.
The book is the story of Billy Povich, a newspaper reporter on the outs with his bosses enough to be sentenced reassigned to the graveyard shift writing obituaries, his 8-year-old son, Bo, and his aging, dying father, William, in an apartment above a funeral home. Billy isn’t just a reporter, though, he also occasionally works as an investigator for Providence, RI, lawyer Martin Smothers. The lawyer comes to Billy because he’s convinced that his old partner, a respected judge, wasn’t killed in a robbery gone bad, but was murdered as part of a plan.
Taking a rather subdued track, Billy begins tracing the judge’s murder from burglary, through carjacking and finally to the death of the killer, the wounding of the judge’s kidnapped son and the mauling of the man who gets carjacked. It’s a complicated mystery that involves threats to the judge’s life by a local mobster, and a less-than-savory side to the judge that Billy has to unearth.
The ending, while a surprise, nevertheless feels inevitable once it’s over. Which, I’m thinking, is the sign of a good mystery. Arsenault has a real feel for dialogue and pacing.
More importantly, though, is the relationship between the three William Povichs. There’s great theme of fathers and sons, fathers versus sons, and everything in between. I especially loved the conversations between Billy Povich and his dad, circuitous and full of hidden depths as the older man tries to convince his son that it would be a good idea to stop dialysis and let the old man die. Great, great stuff here. That’s not to say the book is perfect. I thought there were a couple of dangling plotlines (mostly the infidelity and someone contesting a will) that I thought could have been cleared up a bit more, but overall it was pretty good.
I’ll give this four out of five dudes, basically taking a one-dude hit because it lacks shambling hordes of the undead. What can I say? I love my zombies.
As a special, added treat, tomorrow we’re going to hear from the author himself, Mark Arsenault. I’ve asked him to stop by and give us a little heads-up about the father-son relationships in the book. Come back then, won’t you?
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