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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Red Moon is Full, July 16, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Red Moon (Howard Moon Deer Mysteries) (Paperback)
Robert Westbrook is the kind of writer you wish you could take on your next road trip: an insightful and witty storyteller with both a compassionate heart and a sharp eye for pretense and absurdity. Certainly he is the perfect guide through the Taos-y town in northern New Mexico which is the setting for his Howard Moon Deer series, where rich and poor, old and new, liberal and conservative, clash with the sudden violence of the weather systems the area is so famous for. In this latest book the art world is the scene of the crime, and like the previous two in the series, Red Moon is successful as a novel with plenty of satire, interpersonal drama, and vivid characters to care about, that just happens to have a mystery driving its narrative engine. It's a sophisticated read, more jazz than the honky-tonk or blues expected from the genre, with a satisfyingly twisty plot, silky writing, and note-perfect dialogue; but in the end, it's the characters you will remember. Westbrook is refreshingly respectful of the women he creates; and does a nice job making even the secondary characters unique and memorable (my favorite character, Howie's great-uncle Two Arrows, appears in just a few paragraphs of each book, but will blind-side you with his sweet wisdom; and The Rainbow Man, the homeless visitor who becomes the first murder victim, is an intriguing mix: dangerous and deranged, yet part visionary angel as well.) Jack is realistic and sympathetic as an ex-detective struggling with the limitations of his blindness, but as usual it is Howie who steals the show. In fact, the most puzzling mystery in the series is how any sane woman would let a guy like Howie out of her sleeping bag for an instant, let alone the rest of her life, as poor Howie's love interests always seem to do. So while I'm looking forward to the fourth book, due out soon, because I'm sure it will be another great read, I'm really going to be buying it to see if Howie can finally find a woman who will stick around!
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fun and Interesting Read, August 20, 2001
This review is from: Red Moon (Howard Moon Deer Mysteries) (Paperback)
Recently, I was searching for something new to read when a friend handed me Red Moon. I had never read anything of Robert Westbrook's before, but anxious for something different, I opened the book, and found his style absolutely captivating. He is a marvelous writer, but what I really liked was his ability to create a small town and make it come alive for me. I've never been a big fan of 'small town' settings, but his was unique, a bit quirky, and delivered with sharp wit. The other aspect of the book that I liked was the plot. Lately, the mysteries I've been reading have been based on contrivance laid upon contrivance with the endings all too predictable. In Red Moon, the plot wasn't built on a framework of coincidences, but rather, was intelligently formulated with a very interesting ending. My wife typically doesn't enjoy mysteries by 'guy writers,' but one night she was desperate for something to read, started Westbrook's book and ended up staying awake all night finishing it. We'll now be looking for the other two books in this series!
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great characters, however story not used to full potential., August 16, 2000
This review is from: Red Moon (Howard Moon Deer Mysteries) (Paperback)
This third book in the Howard Moon Deer series deserves 3.5 stars. I find it very interesting that this novel is billed as a `Howard Moon Deer' novel, when in fact the character Moon Deer makes up one half of a the detective team of Wilder & Associate. Throughout the novel, while Howard does play an integral part of the unfolding mystery, it is his mentor and boss, retired CA. policeman, Jack Wilder who has just as much action. Even more so, it is Jack Wilder that the P.I. firm is named after, and it is Jack that pretty much is part of the climax and resolution of the overall mystery here. I purchased this book for its somewhat synonymous genre of modern Native American mysteries as Tony Hillerman would write about in his Jim Chee & Joe Leaphorn novels. Whereas Hillerman mixes in traditional Native American culture, history, religion, and tradition into his novels author Robert Westbrook barely touched on any of this in this novel. Actually our star, Howard Moon Deer, is very educated. He can speak French and English quite well and attended Ivy League schools. He often comments on how far removed he is from `traditional' Native American life as he has mastered the yuppie slang, has a taste for Café Aulaits and wine, and is involved with an equally educated white woman. So what part makes this a southwestern novel? Well, events take place in the fictional town of San Geronimo, New Mexico. The author compares San Geronimo to a smaller scale Santa Fe and Taos, as it is centered around an artist community/mentality and tourism. Sure there are some references to Native American culture, but not many. The story was nothing new. Current mystery revolves around a recent murder and a stolen Georgia O'Keefe painting from years past. As the mystery unfolds, we learn of another murder and mystery tied to it from the past as well, but conveniently all the players from back then are still present today. Overall, the story was entertaining, and you really get interested in the cast of characters. The characters are pretty well defined and all have apparent motivations and definitions that make them fun and quirky. However, the climax was a slight let down as everything happened too fast and wasn't overly exciting or action packed. It was a fairly easy read, as I finished the 297 pages in less than 4 days, and I would definitely read the next one just so I can see the resolution of a few interesting non-essential story threads that presented themselves throughout the tale. Some of these seem to dictate the actions of Howard, his girlfriend, and Jack and the way they perceive each other. In closing, Robert Westbrook has some very good characters in Howard Moon Deer and Jack Wilder, but I don't think this story utilized their full potential.
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