Biting the Moon [Hardcover]

Martha Grimes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 21, 1999

She doesn't know who she is, where she's from, or how she got here, but after walking down from the mountains of Santa Fe into the life of 14-year-old Mary Dark Hope, she tells about the man she calls Daddy. She knows he's looking for her as she moves toward an inevitable and harrowing confrontation with the man who abducted her.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A teenage girl wakes up alone in a bed and breakfast in Santa Fe with no memory of who she is or how she got there. The innkeeper explains that the man who brought her there said he was her father. But the one thing she knows for sure is that he is not--and that she must flee before he returns. Taking his jacket, money, and gun, she hikes into the surrounding mountains; in an unlikely scenario that only a writer as talented as Grimes can make plausible, she survives the harsh winter and even flourishes, seeking solace in the company of coyotes she frees from their illegal traps. When she reemerges from the wilderness a few months later, seeking to unravel the mystery of who she is, she walks into the life of 14-year-old Mary Dark Hope, a lonely orphan who becomes her ally and companion. Together they track the stranger who abducted her, who holds the key to the secret of her identity--the man she knows only as "Daddy."

The thrilling odyssey that takes the two girls into the murky world of illegal dogfights, hunting, and wild-animal profiteers culminates in a dramatic confrontation, but it is the brilliantly realized characters rather than the plot that capture the reader's imagination and keep the pages turning. Another tour de force for Grimes, and a cause for celebration for her many fans. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Engaging adolescent Mary Dark Hope, who appeared in Rainbow's End, returns in this uneven thriller/animal-rights polemic. After Mary befriends Andi, a teenage amnesiac who releases trapped animals in New Mexico's Sandia Mountains, the two girls head after a mysterious man who Andi thinks may have kidnapped her and knows her identity. Conveniently, the orphaned Mary has a bank account, a car, her dead sister's driver's license and gullible caregivers. The girls easily encounter garrulous informants along the way, finding a friend and protector in Reuel, a salt-of-the-earth dropout who knows everyone in Salmon, Idaho, where they've tracked their quarry. Once Andi identifies Harry Wine, a river expedition outfitter, as her abductor, the book shifts into a series of predictable episodes that show unthinking people gruesomely mistreating animals and that reveal the arrogant Wine's vile nature. Mary and Andi rescue an abused dog, go white-water rafting, spy on a "canned hunt" for endangered animals. In a violent scene near the book's end, Andi confronts Wine, then disappears. Although Grimes writes movingly of the plight of maltreated animals and gracefully evokes the beauty of the American West, many scenes are too long and aimless. Most of the characters are stereotypes, their individual motivations hard to discern. Andi's disappearance is especially puzzlingAlike the Lone Ranger, she stirs up the populace and vanishes, leaving the cleanup to others. This is not a Richard Jury book, and fans will miss him. Rights, Peter Lampack Agency.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 301 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; 1st edition (April 21, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805056211
• ISBN-13: 978-0805056211
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,146,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Martha Grimes is the bestselling author of twenty-one Richard Jury novels, as well as the novels Dakota and Foul Matter, among others. Her previous two Jury books, The Old Wine Shades and Dust, both appeared on the New York Times bestseller list.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book is marketed to the wrong readers., October 30, 1999

By 

Nat (Madison, WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Biting the Moon (Hardcover)

In my opinion, this book should be reissued or marketed to the young adult audience. When reading the book I immediately felt I was reading young adult material. As the book progressed this feeling did not change as I expected it to. I only kept reading because I was also curious as to Andi's history. I am a librarian so I have threrefore read many books geared to this audience.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Did Martha Grimes write this?, May 28, 2000

By 

Diane Neal (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Biting the Moon (Paperback)

If you love Martha Grimes, don't read this book. The subject matter (cruelty to animals and people)is certainly worthy of being written about even though I wish this book had never been published. It's very hard to get past some of the completely unbelievable plot points and editing mistakes (e.g. drinking a "pint" of beer in Montana, please). I love Martha Grimes, both the Richard Jury novels and her other fiction works, but she should have used a pseudonym on Biting the Moon. I was mad that I wasted two days reading this one.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Far-fetched, May 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Biting the Moon (Hardcover)

Grimes's writing style is as smooth as ever, but I couldn't get past the premise of two teenagers galavanting across the U.S. like Thelma and Louise. Andi had already been preyed upon once; Mary had seen the dark side of life with the death of her sister. Am I to believe these two intelligent young women would just hit the road, chasing a child molester, as if they were going on Spring Break? And if the think-tank doctor was such a genius, how could he let Andi and Mary wander off after hearing that horrible story. It just doesn't wash.

Also, although I am sympathetic to animal rights issues, this book covered too many-trapping, coyote population control, dogfights, crooked vets, and canned hunts. It would have been better to focus one or two issues, because in the end, the overwhelming amount of controversial topics detracted from all of them.

I didn't expect to see Richard Jury in this novel, so I wasn't disappointed in that respect. But I did feel this novel was rushed and not as finely crafted as some of her others.