Customer Reviews

Stone Butterfly (Charlie Moon Mysteries)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Mr. Doss' Charlie Moon novels are among the few I buy in hardback. The reason is that the prose is just so danged terrific! Months, years after reading them, you can pick one up, let it fall open, and catch a passage that makes you really want to meet the guy whose brain puts words together in such an absolutely lyrically entertaining way. He can develop character while moving plot along simultaneously faster than anyone I've ever seen, a truly awe-inspiring talent.

In this book, I almost had the feeling that someone bet Mr. Doss that he couldn't write a book in which the mysteries remained a mystery right to the very end, while still adhering to the mystery novel code of making sure the necessary clues are available to the reader. I think Mr. Doss managed to win the bet, but, in the process, I think the story suffered. It doesn't make it a bad book if you figure out at least some of what's going on along the way! And there were a couple of downright cheats in here, too. It's a dandy book, but I wish I hadn't been so frustrated with the plot and with trying to figure out what was going on that I may have actually rushed through some of that glorious prose!

The reviewers' comparisons to Hillerman have got to stop. The both men are masters at what they do, and it's like arguing who paints the better picture, Monet or Renoir... They ought to be comparing Doss to some of these "but, Dahling, EVERYONE is reading it" authors and discover the difference between crafting a story and putting words on paper.

Can't wait for the next one!

At first dismissive when his Aunt Daisy describes her vivid dreams of a little girl with blood dripping from her hands, Ute tribal investigator Charlie Moon begins to take her visions more seriously after hearing of the murder of an elderly Nevada man, purportedly at the hands of Sarah Frank, a twelve year old Ute-Papago orphan whose father was Moon's childhood friend. Hoping to help the little girl, who has seemingly vanished into thin air, Charlie and his lover, FBI Special Agent Lila McTeague, travel from his ranch in Colorado to Nevada to investigate, little realizing that the fiercely independent Sarah has her own surprising agenda.

Stone Butterfly is thoroughly entertaining, thoroughly engrossing novel, brimming with vivid examples of the best and worst of humanity, and the best and worst in human nature. Doss is a sly, cunning, all knowing narrator, unafraid to let his characters look silly, or to let them come to harm. The result is an entirely unpredictable story, a book full of surprises, some which will shock, and others which bring some readers to tears. Stone Butterfly is potent stuff, a book with style, pathos, enthusiasm, and humor to spare.

Stone Butterfly tells a story of greed, murder and betrayal. Charlie Moon and his aunt become involved and things start to heat up. I kept wondering how it was going to end and I was in for a surprise when it did. I never caught the ever so subtle clues. I can't wait to read the next one!
I'm a fan of James Doss and love all the books he's written. Charlie Moon and his aunt Daisy are two of my all-time favorite characters. They are old friends I get to visit with every time Doss brings out a new novel in the Charlie Moon Series. The stories are full of humor as well as mystery and have yet to disappoint me.

On the Southern Ute Reservation in Colorado, tribal Ute shaman Daisy Perika is concerned with what this nightmare has shown her as she feels she has seen a vision of the future, but cannot tie her dream to a date and time and the place is vague. Still she is worried about the young female waif whose hands are dripping blood while a man lies dying nearby. She informs her nephew, tribal investigator and rancher Charlie Moon, on his weekly visit what she envisioned. Charlie knows how accurate his beloved Aunt Daisy is, but does not have enough information to do anything.

Raymond Oates introduces himself to Sarah Frank as a half brother of a friend before giving her a book as a present. Not long afterward Sheriff Popper sees Sarah holding a Louisville Slugger with blood on her hands as psychic Ben Silver lies nearby dying. Before Popper can act, someone else hits him with a bat. Charlie and FBI Special Agent Lila Mae McTeague investigate, but Sarah has vanished with someone else besides the cops trying to find her for the book she carries is a valuable heirloom.

The intriguing investigation in the latest Charlie Moon mystery starts a bit later than usual as James D. Doss sets in motion the key players and the significant (to this tale) Ute mysticism before Ben is killed. At that venture, the story line switches into more of a rescue Sarah saga than a murder investigation though the two scenarios are linked and converge in a delightful climax. Though lacking the humor of SHADOW MAN, fans of the series will enjoy Charlie's' current caper as Aunt Daisy avoids I told you so, but makes it clear he is to rescue Sarah or face her wrath.

Harriet Klausner

Ok, let's get down to specifics.

On page 89, the sheriff blushes when 14-year-old Sarah Frank's aunt says, "Some of her clothes are gone." Since Sarah is not present, I haven't a clue what he's blushing about. But the aunt is offended, and makes a fist, demanding that the sheriff "tell me what happened to Sarah RIGHT NOW!" The sheriff, not one to mince words (since he doesn't know), shrugs. Forgetting she offered to "pop him" if he doesn't tell her right now, the aunt asks if he thinks Sarah has run away. When the sheriff agrees, he "waits for her to say it." And "it" turns out to be "You've gotta find her." Since that is what the sheriff, whom Sarah recently hit on the head with a baseball bat, is trying to do, he naturally thinks, "It's times like this when I hate this damn job!" I know just how he feels.

On page 106, otherwise sane and respectable FBI agent Lila Mae McTeague "pointed a pointy fingernail" which is apparently slathered in her lipstick, Crimson Passion. What has she been doing in that carseat? This is immediately before she and Charlie are interrupted by a police car that barrels into a parking lot so the policeman can careen into a saloon and Charlie and Lila can argue for a page about whether they should go inside and give the guy backup. And it's right after Doss indulges in one of his fits of florid description, explaining that Big Lizard Ridge is "a sinuous torso" its "knobby spine" "armored with jagged plates" while "its wrinkled grey hide bristled with thick, close-cropped hair," like "the fossilized corpse of a prehistoric lizard." With hair. And a buzz cut. As you can see, Lila's pointed pointy passionate crimson finger is like a slice of thin white bread stuck between two slabs of bologna. So I can see how someone would forget about it.

Sometimes you just gotta whack out those paragraphs. Here are six on page 195:
Blip.
Long pause.
Blip.
Shorter pause.
Blippity-blip.
Blippity-blip-blip.
Me again. Well, it ain't Poe's "The Bells," but it sure is perkin'.

One key to filling 220+ pages is to never say in one word what you can tart up in eleven, so when the sun comes up, it's not the "sun," it's the "distant, fiery nuclear furnace at the center of our solar system." Don't get me wrong, I like descriptive writing, but generally it's intended to tell you something you didn't know or give you a new perspective. If "distant, fiery nuclear furnace at the center of our solar system" does either, you should have paid more attention in fourth grade science class.

Pages 240-241 contain a 1.5-page gag that depends on believing someone could be so stupid that he didn't know the difference bet between a cataract and a Cadillac. And that an optimist doesn't necessarily do glasses. A page and a half. And no, it's doesn't get funnier and funnier. Quite the contrary. But these are the jokes, folks, and if you don't know, depend on someone in the story to tell you: "These are the jokes, folks. Get it? 'Jokes, folks'?"

On page 257, a lawyer calls his secretary into the room for urgent business, but when she walks in, he is struck -- as he always is -- by her uncanny resemblance to Johnnie Cash (I think this is another one of those jokes, folks) so he sets aside his emergency to strum an air guitar and hum "I Walk the Line" for an unspecified interval. We are left to wonder if the secretary ignores this because she hasn't a clue what he's doing or because she's gotten accustomed to being insulted like this "two or three times a week." You'll be happy to know this is a villian; not that being a "hero" would stop him. I have a distant recollection that one semi-hero-ee (as one of Doss' fans might say) person, seeing Sarah in rags, "leers" at a 14-year-old girl. Soooo? Men are like that, okaaaaay?

The entirety of page 278 is Daisy reciting, with ringing phone punctuation, the entirety of an old gospel hymn (Daisy is a Catholic; the hymn is "In the Garden," a camp revival tune), pointedly ignoring "him." We are never told who "him" was.

Early in the novel, somebody picks up a drunk by the neck and shakes him till his boots fall off. Improbable as that may seem (try it at home), it turns out to be A CLUE!!! Later in the novel, we are offered as proof of a wealthy bad guy's refined tastes, his preference for Arturo Fuente Curlyheads (a cigar). While it is true that Arturo Fuente's name is on some fine cigars, ranging in price from $7 to $25 apiece, the Curlyhead happens to be a $2 cheapo that no cigar fancier would bother with. Way to do your research.

Nearly everyone in the book turns out to be the bad guy (it's almost like dominoes), and the last one standing is finished off by a geriatric dog and a "man-killing horse." But not before the baddies have managed to murder a beloved continuing character, whose murder is dismissed by all concerned as "too bad."

A couple days after the murder, Sarah expresses remorse for the BCC's death -- which she caused with an indiscreet phone call. Charlie Moon's reaction is to shrug. No big deal. This is the same Charlie Moon who has hysterics whenever some woman he's been in love with for five minutes jilts him. Those BBCs: Easy come, easy go. The new record for ec,eg, BTW, is held by the bereft husband in Three Sisters, next on the hit list. He is madly in love with his wife, Sister III, who is either the oldest or the youngest, depending on which page you read, but when her sisters come up in a phone conversation with her, he thinks, "I'll spend the night with either of them!" Is he serious? Two days later he is hitting on both of his beloved (No, REALLY!) wife's sisters after listening to his beloved wife (I mean it, "beloved" -- it means something special in Dossland, I think) being eaten on the phone by a bear with lips. I didn't make up the lips, either.

Toward the end of the book, this week's eternal love apparently turns down Charlie's offer of marriage and he walks back to Daisy (who is watching from too far away to hear) and reports this to her by answering her questions with titles of Hank Williams Sr. songs, beginning with a mindless argument over the plot of "Kaw-liga." Couple of pages.

In other words, new day, same old Dossalalia.

I'll shut up when people stop suggesting that Doss is "the new Tony Hillerman." Come on, even Doss has the good sense to say No.

This is, as usual, a good James D. Doss read. Aunt Daisy is up to her usual antics and the young Sarah is a very strong character, struggling to stay ahead of the law and those who would do her harm.

Charlie Moon, the tall Native American land owner and detective, is the constant, of course. He's sexy, always hungry, sometimes childish and ever on the money. If his buddy, Chief of Police Scott Parrish, can't do it, Charlie will help him or do it himself! And he will definitely take care of this predicament just as we know he's going to. It's just the way he does it that makes it surprising and keeps you reading.

Doss makes the rugged Colorado terrain come alive and you can see pictures in your mind as you read.

A good book to relax with. full of adventure and James D. Doss' singular form of comic entertainment. I like the whole package.

This was my first Charlie Moon Mystery and although it started out just a tad bit slow; I thoroughly could NOT put it down until I finished!

Aunt Daisy could have been fashioned from my grandmother! I love these books!

As always, the Charlie Moon books are great reading. Doss does his expected outstanding job of bringing Charlie, Aunt Daisy, and a cast of character to life. His descriptions of the desert and canyons of Ute country are so real you can smell the sage.

I've read all of Doss's Charlie Moon mysteries but I thought this one was trying to be too clever for it's own good. At times the characters seemed to be babbling. The plot was devised in such a way that the reader could not figure out the story until the very last twist, and even that left quite a few questions unanswered...(which I can't list in order not to spoil the read for prospective readers.)The book left me frustrated and ready to write to the author to get him to fill in the holes. Not one of Doss's best by a long shot.

From beginning to end this held my interest. His previous book was good, but it does not hold a candle to the Stone Butterfly.