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Audiobook13 hours
Isabella Moon
Written by Laura Benedict
Narrated by Reneé Raudman
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
Two years ago, in idyllic Carystown, Kentucky, nine-year-old Isabella Moon disappeared on her way home from school. Is it just coincidence that Kate Russell, a young woman with no discernible past, arrived in town just months before Isabella's disappearance? When Kate walks into Sheriff Bill Delaney's office to tell him that Isabella's ghost has led her to the child's hidden grave, he immediately views her as a suspect. Mystery follows mystery as a local athlete drops dead, inexplicably, on the basketball court, and someone close to Kate is viciously murdered.
Quiet Carystown was to be Kate's salvation, and she's settled into a comfortable job, a charming cottage, and a blissful romance. But having lied to her boyfriend, Caleb, for so long about the terrors of her past life, she finds she can't trust him to understand the terror that Isabella Moon has now brought. And Kate's best friend, Francie, is too wrapped up in her own troubles - particularly a secret affair with a man she at once loves and despises - to give Kate the help she needs. Utterly alone, Kate is torn between finding justice for the dead child and keeping away old ghosts of her own.
The unsolved disappearance of Isabella Moon has been the biggest disappointment of Sheriff Delaney's career. But he senses that Kate is trouble. As he investigates her impossible claims, he also uncovers a series of unsettling truths about Carystown itself. Behind his hometown's genteel façade is a morass of lies and murder, drugs and destruction. And Carystown's residents are about to discover that even though the past is buried, it can rise again - with a vengeance.
Dark and suspenseful, tense and eerie, tinged with the supernatural, Isabella Moon is an engrossing, beautifully written debut novel, a breathtaking and artful story of the dark mysteries that can lurk in the most bucolic of places - and the ghost of a little girl who watches as evil rises unstoppably to the surface.
Quiet Carystown was to be Kate's salvation, and she's settled into a comfortable job, a charming cottage, and a blissful romance. But having lied to her boyfriend, Caleb, for so long about the terrors of her past life, she finds she can't trust him to understand the terror that Isabella Moon has now brought. And Kate's best friend, Francie, is too wrapped up in her own troubles - particularly a secret affair with a man she at once loves and despises - to give Kate the help she needs. Utterly alone, Kate is torn between finding justice for the dead child and keeping away old ghosts of her own.
The unsolved disappearance of Isabella Moon has been the biggest disappointment of Sheriff Delaney's career. But he senses that Kate is trouble. As he investigates her impossible claims, he also uncovers a series of unsettling truths about Carystown itself. Behind his hometown's genteel façade is a morass of lies and murder, drugs and destruction. And Carystown's residents are about to discover that even though the past is buried, it can rise again - with a vengeance.
Dark and suspenseful, tense and eerie, tinged with the supernatural, Isabella Moon is an engrossing, beautifully written debut novel, a breathtaking and artful story of the dark mysteries that can lurk in the most bucolic of places - and the ghost of a little girl who watches as evil rises unstoppably to the surface.
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Author
Laura Benedict
Laura Benedict is the author of several novels of dark suspense, including Isabella Moon and Devil's Oven. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine as well as numerous anthologies, and she originated and edited the Surreal South short fiction anthology series. She lives with her family in Carbondale, Illinois.
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Reviews for Isabella Moon
Rating: 3.3522727545454543 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
44 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5From Fantastic Fiction:
Sometimes the past comes looking for you. . . . Two years ago, in idyllic Carystown, Kentucky, nine-year-old Isabella Moon disappeared on her way home from school. Is it just coincidence that Kate Russell, a young woman with no discernible past, arrived in town just months before Isabella's disappearance? When Kate walks into Sheriff Bill Delaney's office to tell him that Isabella's ghost has led her to the child's hidden grave, he immediately views her as a suspect. Mystery follows mystery as a local athlete drops dead, inexplicably, on the basketball court, and someone close to Kate is viciously murdered.
My Thoughts:
Laura Benedict's debut novel is a blend of romance, the paranormal, and crime. Unfortunately, for Kate and the sheriff Isabella is only the first to call on Kate for help and the discovery of the girl's body leads to even darker secrets long kept hidden in the hearts and psyches of Carystown's citizenry. As is often true things aren't as they seem nor are people. is a story for those who like their mysteries laced with romance and the supernatural. While for this reader the tale seemed to be rather loosely conceived so that it meandered to a conclusion rather than building to it, Isabella Moon is still a first novel worth noting. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I found it difficult to enjoy Isabella Moon because I felt that it was ovecrowded with characters and plotlines that were related only tenuously. Kate's story and her role as the lead character and the catalyst for Isabella, was overshadowed by the other intrigues happening around her. I felt the resolution of her story was weak and paticulary her final scene with Miles inexplicable. Quite a few of the casts motivations were irrational, plot conveniences, but each of the characters (and there was quite a crowd)were skillfully drawn and distinct -characterisation is definately a strength of Benidicts.However for me, most everything felt unfinished -there was no justice for Isabella or her mother, no repercussions for Janet, Miles is forgiven the unforgivable, Kate dissappears into the ether, and Bill remains clueless. I like some closure and this had barely any. Not enough to find it satisfying read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I wanted to like this more than I did. It's kind of a mystery/thriller, with a little bit of supernatural thrown in. Isabella Moon is the name of a young girl who disappeared from a small town in Kentucky. But that's not the only storyline going on in this novel, and not even necessarily the main one. There are several storylines which interweave within one another. I liked that about this book, but somehow they weren't pulled together quite right. The whole last quarter or so of the book really didn't flow well and I was really disappointed in the ending. The novel itself was a bit lengthy as well. I think Benedict had the components of a decent story, but faltered in carrying it out to its full potential.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5OK, so this book drew me in quickly. there were two stories going on in this book. The primary one is this little town had secrets that needed to be uncovered and the secondary story was the secret that Kate carried with her throughout the book. I have to admit the secret that Kate had to hide throughout the book was very disturbing, but made sense with how she handled situations with the intriguing storyline of the book. We had a ghost of a little girl that was never found coming to a person with a troubled life; it was as if both characters Kate and the ghost could not move on without the truth being uncovered. Isabella Moon was very heartfelt and suspenseful all at the same time. It is not a before bedtime read a little on the scary side; but I would definitely recommend this to anyone that loves a good suspense story.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Most days, Sheriff Bill Delaney of Carystown, Kentucky, liked his job. He'd been Sheriff for the last twelve years, and the job had largely proved pretty uneventful. That's unless you counted the disappearance of 9 year old Isabella Moon without trace nearly two years earlier. That had really put Carystown on the national map with lots of media attention for several months. Bill Delaney preferred the quiet life.Kate Russell had turned up in Carystown just over two years ago and she had never met Isabella Moon, in the flesh, that is. But now here she is in Bill's office telling him that she knows where Isabella Moon is buried, that she's been having visitations from Isabella's ghost.There's rather a lot going on in Laura Benedict's debut novel ISABELLA MOON, and there does seem to have been quite a lot that Bill Delaney, in his preference for the quiet life, simply hasn't seen or deliberately ignored. The death of a local teenager from a drug overdose, his mother and school both asserting he didn't "do drugs", is linked to a thriving drugs factory kept hidden through police corruption. I'm not particularly fond of my crime fiction being mixed in with the paranormal, and this element of the novel, with several "appearances" of Isabella Moon, does require suspension of disbelief in the reader.But that wasn't the only thing that bothered me. There is a scene early on where Bill Delaney and his wife Margaret are digging in a local cemetery by moonlight in the spot where Kate Russell says the body is buried. Most unlikely, I thought. As in most small towns, the main characters of ISABELLA MOON are linked in only a couple of degrees of separation, rather too much in the fashion of a spider's web. And then there's the way that Kate's past in the form of a domineering left-for-dead husband catches up with her. As I said, there's a lot going on. A more experienced writer may have been able to weave the story with a few less strands.Nevertheless, I found ISABELLA MOON compulsive reading, and those who do like their paranormal interwoven with crime fiction will love it. Laura Benedict expects to be publishing her second novel CALLING MR. LONELY HEARTS early in 2009. Her website contains a slick video promo for ISABELLA MOON, a synopsis, and an excerpt, among other things. Her blog First and Last Lines was created to show progress with her new novel. A search of Amazon shows that ISABELLA MOON is available for Kindle.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great story and characters but I was disappointed in how it ened. The author was not clear on whether Kate lived/was found after the car accident. I was truly hoping that Caleb wa not dead and would end up with Kate in the end. I am glad there was closure for Isbella's Mom . Praxton was truly an awful human being.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Small town mystery about being unsuccessful at leaving the past behind.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A little girl disappears without a trace. A newcomer to town begins to have visions (visitations?) which lead to the discovery of her body. Unlike LULLABY this book had characters that I wanted to know more about. Not necessarily because they were likable, but because they were interesting. Each new chapter brought on another aspect to the characters keeping my interest peaked. The ending was a surprise too. It did not really take me to where I expected ... in this case ... a good thing!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5OK, so this book drew me in quickly. there were two stories going on in this book. The primary one is this little town had secrets that needed to be uncovered and the secondary story was the secret that Kate carried with her throughout the book. I have to admit the secret that Kate had to hide throughout the book was very disturbing, but made sense with how she handled situations with the intriguing storyline of the book. We had a ghost of a little girl that was never found coming to a person with a troubled life; it was as if both characters Kate and the ghost could not move on without the truth being uncovered. Isabella Moon was very heartfelt and suspenseful all at the same time. It is not a before bedtime read a little on the scary side; but I would definitely recommend this to anyone that loves a good suspense story.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I really liked this book was much more than I expected. It didn't quite make a 5 star for me but it was a a very close call. Way more than just your typical ghost story and I found myself being carried away with the... who done it... aspect. Really the only thing that kept it from being a five star was that as I got more into the story, it became pretty predictable. Still, even if I had it figured out, it didn't bore me like sometimes books do. Will definitely read more from this author.