The Birth of a New Moon [Import] [Hardcover]

Laurie R. KING (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers; First Edition edition (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 000232654X
• ISBN-13: 978-0002326544
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,183,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

New York Times bestselling crime writer Laurie R. King writes both series and standalone novels.

In the Mary Russell series (first entry: The Beekeeper's Apprentice), fifteen-year-old Russell meets Sherlock Holmes on the Sussex Downs in 1915, becoming his apprentice, then his partner. The series follows their amiably contentious partnership into the 1920s as they challenge each other to ever greater feats of detection.

The Kate Martinelli series, starting with A Grave Talent, concerns a San Francisco homicide inspector, her SFPD partner, and her life partner. In the course of the series, Kate encounters a female Rembrandt, a modern-day Holy Fool, two difficult teenagers, a manifestation of the goddess Kali and an eighty-year-old manuscript concerning'Sherlock Holmes.

King also has written stand-alone novels--the historical thriller Touchstone, A Darker Place, two loosely linked novels'Folly and Keeping Watch--and a science fiction novel, Califia's Daughters, under the pseudonym Leigh Richards.

King grew up reading her way through libraries like a termite through balsa before going on to become a mother, builder, world traveler, and theologian.

She has now settled into a genteel life of crime, back in her native northern California. She has a secondary residence in cyberspace, where she enjoys meeting readers in her Virtual Book Club and on her blog.

King has won the Edgar and Creasey awards (for A Grave Talent), the Nero (for A Monstrous Regiment of Women) and the MacCavity (for Folly); her nominations include the Agatha, the Orange, the Barry, and two more Edgars. She was also given an honorary doctorate from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

Check out King's website, http://laurierking.com/, and follow the links to her blog and Virtual Book Club, featuring monthly discussions of her work, with regular visits from the author herself. And for regular LRK updates, follow the link to sign up for her email newsletter.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Plan to do Nothing Else That Day..., March 7, 2000

By 

Amy Steinberg (Tucson, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Birth of a New Moon (Paperback)

This book was one of Laurie King's best written works...and she's no slug to begin with. Her heroine is so very human, full of inconsistencies and faults, but so brave and ready to sacrifice herself for innocents that you find yourself admiring her even if you wish you didn't. I was mesmerized by the book. I wanted so very badly for all to end well - my idea of "well", which would be for Anne to survive and adopt both children and live happpily ever after. This is, of course, not exactly Laurie King's style. So I began to experience a sense of forboding, that went something like this - ohmygod, don't tell me she's going to die, that would be so unfair, that would be so awful, ohmygod, don't let those kids die, that would be so unfair...well, you get the picture. And I read faster and faster, hoping for the best, because I certainly wasn't going to get to sleep until I KNEW.

And after all that agony and suspense, the ending was NOT GRATIFYING. It didn't fulfill my worst fears, nor my fondest hopes. It was, in fact, a bit on the lukewarm side, which was quite surprising since the book absolutely sizzled until the very last paragraph! Laurie, wherever you are, I would have given a lot for an "afterword" telling us what happened to Anne and the kids! (And I'd love to read a sequel!)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Early Laurie King, August 24, 2009

By 

Jan L. Collins "scenester" (Somerville, Ma. United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Birth of a New Moon (Paperback)

I've read all of Laurie's Mary Russell books, and all of her Kate Martinelli books and Folly....Folly went with me on last years vacation and I chose Birth of A New Moon for this years vacation...because I knew it would be something I could sink my teeth into....I trust Laurie R. King's writing to keep me interested and keep me guessing. I wasn't disapointed. Having become so familiar with Russell and Martinelli, their ins and outs, it was different and exciting to delve into Anne Waveryly. I found her very complex. I think it's interesting to read a character who isn't young, who isn't particularly beautiful, but has courage in spades, who has something to give even if you have to drag it out of her. I found her relationship with the FBI guy really intriguing. I admired her for holding together to come out the far side of the tradgedy she endured. I found her thoughts about the boy were kind of right on the money. Being a mother of boys, I thought King's character development of Jason, the way he opened up slowly was enriching. Alchemy isn't a subject I'd go out of my way to find out about, but, I can see somebody like the character's in the book believing that they can in fact do what no one else has been able to do, and covering up the fact that they can't...and who doesn't know that people who are at loose ends would grab at something like living in that compoud of people...or that they could live within a cult/religion and not necessesarily know what the leaders true or ulterior motives are. Anyway. I loved the book, couldn't put it down in fact. I was happy with the ending and didn't think that Laurie needed to take it a step futher than she did.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From the "cultist's" point of view, July 17, 2000

By 

K. Salmon "salmon_of_the_wicca" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Birth of a New Moon (Paperback)

Reading the reviews, I realized that this is a book of hers I have read. I don't do titles on the memory chache... I was interested in seeing that other people found flaws where I found gratifying realities in the book.

Anne Waverly is a very believable character to me, at 43, and a long time member of one of those "odd" cults. (I am of the Wicca.) I found her outsider's view very consistent with that of many others I have known that have tried to understand WHY I am what I am.

It has to do with emotions, the physical alchemy is supposed to be allegorical, but I know many hollow people who cannot handle the multi-tiered reality we work with and therefore desperately try to find a physical manifestation that will fill the need they have.

The criticism of the ending of the book surprised me. Whether Anne survives or not is not germane to the needs that drove her there and the resolution she obtained. The end is implicit in the beginning. I won't spoil it, but that IS the ending of that part of her story. Anything else that may happen will be another woman, another story.

Honestly, I hope Laurie revisits her. How she changes and does would be a very interesting story.