Isabella Moon: A Novel

by: Laura Benedict

Published by: Ballantine Books

Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart

Isabella Moon is every parent’s nightmare. Two years earlier, the nine-year-old disappeared without a trace from the sleepy Kentucky town of Carystown. Then Kate Russell moves to town. No one knows anything about her. She has few friends, a demanding boss, an unremarkable job in an insurance agency, and lumberjack boyfriend.

When Kate starts to see the spirit of Isabella Moon, she doesn’t know if she has lost her mind or is really seeing things. However, Isabella Moon wants something; she wants to be found. And quickly. Without an explanation, the little girl just up and appears to the Carystown newcomer. Before Sheriff Bill Delany can decide if Kate is telling the truth or not, Kate hauls her best friend’s mother on a midnight rendezvous with the ghost, who leads them to the exact burial site, virtually under the sheriff’s nose. It all happened so fast it was almost unbelievable. Unfortunately, the rise of Isabella Moon’s spirit also brings the sleepy town to life, and also results in Lillian Cayley’s death.

Drugs, adultery, and other scandals invade the horse-breeding community where the stereotypes of old money run deep. Seems like everything begins to unravel with Isabella Moon’s appearance. The young, wealthy playboy has an affair with a beautiful black woman, and any woman he can stick it to, and both are hooked on coke. Kate’s boss at the insurance agency, Janet, is keeping some dark secrets of her own. Then there’s the hippie commune just outside of town, where Isabella Moon lived with her mother Hanna. Things on the surface at the commune aren’t all that idyllic with a meth lab in the barn. Then there’s Kate’s past that she has to come to terms with one way or the other.

The novel is somewhat predictable in its structure. Readers can figure out who killed Lillian at the ah-ha moment of the book. There are a few foreshadowing paragraphs that are awkwardly placed. The alternating chapters of Kate’s current life with her past lead up to a foregone conclusion.

Yet there was something that kept me reading, kept me way up past my usual bedtime. I felt it was the mystic of the supernatural instead of a riveting plot. I wanted more of Isabella Moon’s spirit and less of Kate’s past.

Armchair Interviews says: Don’t be surprised if this book keeps you up way past your bedtime.

Author’s Web site: www.LauraBenedict.com