KAYE TROUT'S BOOK REVIEWS 1

I specialize in reviewing Print-On-Demand (POD) published books for my website and Midwest Book Review. Please query for a review by email to hgunther234@hotmail.com.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

HALFMOON CONFIDENTIAL by Edward Fotheringill

Booklocker.com, Inc.
Genre: Metaphysical Fiction
Rating: Very Good
ISBN: 9781601454300, $14.95, 244 pp.


Quoting from the back cover:

"Alexander Lessing, an aging, disgruntled philosophy professor in search of some sense of self, retreats to his idyllic farm in the mountain village of Halfmoon, Vermont. What he find there is not what he expected. Incongruous presences, harboring the forces of good and evil, haunt Halfmoon and its environs, imposing on the simple folk that live there psychological and ethical impasses that call out for nothing less than spiritual resolution."

I can’t really say that I understood this story but I did enjoy Ed’s writing style, his characters, the metaphysical aspects and his gift for description. Allow to share the first two paragraphs of Chapter 1 with you:

"High on a wooded hillside in Halfmoon, Vermont, in a dense grove of tall white poplars, a bald eagle majestically sits atop the highest of the poplar crowns. It slowly rotates its regal, white head, surveying the earthly realm with prescient circumspection. The large, predatory bird would be considered an incongruous presence, for it is calculated to be endangered in these parts. But incongruous presences haunt Halfmoon and its environs. Shortly, they will make themselves known. And it will seem as if the forces of nature had converged on the innocent like a macabre maelstrom of unwarranted strife.

"The bright yellow irises of the bald eagle’s eyes shine in recognition of a human form moving about in a clearing below. The weathered aviator cocks its head, its curved, yellow bill pointing toward the red western sky like a cipher of doom. In a moment’s flash, the bird opens its solid brown-feathered chest and spreads its mighty wings to a full span of seven feet. In this ominous posture, summoning ancient presences of prehistoric wanderings, it witnesses the human form with some distant and mysterious recollection of pity."

Halfmoon Confidential is the third and final novel in Edward Fotheringill’s Wisdom Trilogy–the other two being Lanterns in the Mist (my most favorite) and Darkness Withdrawn OR The Eclipse of Nietzsche’s Shadow. If you enjoy metaphysical fiction, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Kaye Trout - March 14, 2008