The Killing Moon

A Novel

By: Chuck Hogan

Narrated by: John Slattery

Donald Maddox has returned to his sleepy Massachusetts hometown after fifteen years away. Although he has no law enforcement background, he finds a job as an auxiliary patrolman -- on a local police force known to inspire more fear than trust. When the brutal murder of a local resident shatters the isolation of this forgotten place, triggering the arrival of state police homicide detectives and a townwide manhunt, both the local cops and Maddox appear to have something to hide. As the tightly wound mystery that is Maddox's past begins to unravel, he becomes ensnared in a deadly conspiracy that ultimately threatens his life, as well as the lives of those around him.

A brilliantly plotted page-turner told with soul-deep characterization, crisp pacing, and unflinching realism, The Killing Moon proves Chuck Hogan as the unrivaled master of gritty suspense.©2007 Multimedia Threat Inc. All rights reserved;(P)2007 Simon and Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.

I mostly read this for John Slattery

Any additional comments?

I decided to read this book for John Slattery (or listened to this book...there needs to be a word to resolve this confusion...I hate saying “listened” to a book because people don’t believe you’ve really read it, which is dumb, but people who don’t read thinks there needs to be a measure of labor and pain in the activity...maybe Audible should say “Audiblize” this book, etc...anyway...). I really liked John Slattery’s delivery on DUMA KEY and I’d been hoping he’d do more. Finally I decided to give this book a shot even though it is abridged and normally I would choose unabridged.

But even the abridged version seemed somewhat long and convoluted, so I’m sorta glad I didn’t commit to the longer one.

Having said that, Chuck Hogan’s ideas were pretty amazing. I don’t want to give away too much, but for anyone who has wondered if they could commit the perfect murder after watching a lot of true life crime shows and CSI, that’s kinda where this one goes. And it makes a convincing case for being the perfect murder. I also really liked the depiction of a small town police force that are sorta more like a pack of bullies and don’t even have a uniform. That was new, and kinda great.

Despite liking a lot of things from this novel, I’m getting bored with the mystery/detective stuff, and in the end, this was just another mystery/detective thing, though slightly better than standard. I wouldn’t read anything more with Chuck Hogan based on it.

It actually did feel kinda like a TV show itself. Criminal Minds mixed with The Departed. Criminal Minds seems kind of like junk TV but I wonder if as novels each episode would be read as a great mystery novel.

Anyway, I hope John Slattery gets to work reading more Audible books. So we can Audilize them!