cover image Bad Moon

Bad Moon

Todd Ritter. Minotaur, $24.99 (368p) ISBN 978-1-4299-7817-0

In Ritter's compelling second mystery featuring Perry Hollow, Pa., police chief Kat Campbell (after 2010's Death Notice), Eric Olmstead, a successful author and Kat's former high school flame who's recently returned to the area, asks Kat to look into the disappearance of his brother, Charlie, who went missing at age nine 40 years earlier, during the first moon landing. Kat uncovers not just one missing boy but several, all of whom disappeared during moon landings. As the evidence mounts, Kat must balance her duties as top cop and single parent to James, her fifth grader, who doesn't appreciate her all-consuming passion for her work. Ritter does a fine job evoking the dreams, mores, and political upheavals of the '70s, '80s, and '90s, along with the evolution of the U.S. space program and its deceleration in the 2010s. Readers will find themselves ensnared by this unusual tale of love, loss, enduring pain, and betrayal. (Oct.)