Clea's Moon

by Edward Wright

Book Overview

Once he was Sierra Lane, hero to countless youngsters in a series of B-movie westerns. Now, after two years in prison, John Ray Horn lives on the margins of post-World War II Los Angeles. His wife has left him, and, blacklisted by the studios, he makes ends meet by collecting debts for his old Indian co-star, Joseph Mad Crow. Then an old friend, Scotty, contacts Horn. He has come across some obscene photos, including one, several years old, of Horn's...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399150471
• ISBN13: 9780399150470
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Length: 308 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Why Isn't This Guy a Star?

I completely fail to understand why Edward Wright isn't one of the best-known and best-selling mystery writers in the world today. "Clea's Moon" introduces his protagonist, John Ray Horn, once the star of a series of low-budget westerns and now blacklisted from the film industry and very much down on his luck. The book's brilliantly structured plot draws Horn into a mystery involving a young girl who was once his step-daughter, a ring of deeply perverted men, one of LA's most powerful gangsters, and a psychotic stunt man who bounces back from the worst punch as though somewhere in his mind he thinks the cameras are rolling. Wright captures Los Angeles in the late 1940s/early 50s, when the San Fernando Valley was still full of orange groves, although the bulldozers were advancing, and the cops were frankly and sometimes openly corrupt. And he catches the fascinating world of film-making, even at the low-budget studios that ground out the cheapie westerns. Wright's plotting is superb, his characters are unforgettable, and he raises issues of individual courage and responsibility with a skill that most "serious novelists" would envy. Buy this book and, if you love it, get the others. Edward Wright deserves it.

Excellent!

John Horn is a very interesting, fully dimensional character set in post-War Los Angeles who respects women, children and horses. To the author's credit, he has provided his character a strong supporting cast as well. Add to that an interesting plot, very good dialogue, a wonderful sense of LA during the time and you have a well-paced, excellent story.

Excellent Debut

This is one of those novels that leaves you wondering why the guy hasn't been writing books since he was sixteen or something. It's a detective story, yes, a private eye novel with all of the atmosphere and intellegence that the genre requires to be well done. It's also a wonderful period piece and a decent picture of Hollywood's past.John Ray Horn is a former rodeo bronc-rider turned B-Western star who tanked his career when he decked the son of the head of his studio, putting the guy in the hospital with a broken jaw. He did two years in prison for that, and when he returned, he discovered that his old boss had blacklisted him and his acting career was over. His faithful Indian sidekick, though, had invested his earnings from the movies and bought a poker parlor/casino on the edge of L.A., and he offers Horn a job collecting bad debts from gamblers. Horn reluctantly takes it, though he hates the work.When a friend approaches him with some intriguing information about Horn's former step-daughter (the wife divorced him while he was in jail), he decides to look into things. Then the friend is apparently a suicide, and of course Horn doesn't believe it and looks into that too.The action is interesting, with not too much violence, but enough to keep things exciting, and the characters are wonderfully drawn and intelligently portrayed. Los Angeles has never been more authentically depicted (to my mind the author easily outdoes Ellroy) with the settings, from restaurants to studio lots to the developing San Fernando Valley all wonderfully toured.I loved this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in old movies, detective stories, or Los Angeles.

A superb debut novel

CLEA'S MOON comes to us with high expectations. In Great Britain it has won the CWA Debut Dagger for fiction which is not the award for best first novel (The Creasey Award) but judgment based on a 500 word synopsis of the book and the opening pages up to 3000 words . (I anticipate a nomination for the Creasey Award this year.) Though first published in Great Britain, the author is American and the characters and setting most assuredly are as well. It is a gem and another one of the year's best debuts. John Ray Horn is a former star of B-movie westerns. Along with his "Tonto" or sidekick Indian friend Joseph Mad Dog, they provided many hours of enjoyment for young moviegoers. Now, however, Horn is out of the movie business after a prison term that resulted in a divorce. He works for his old friend, Mad Dog, collecting debts for the Indian's casino business. One day, Horn is contacted by an old friend, Scotty, who wants to show him some his father's pictures which he discovered after his father's death. The photos reveal very young girls in provocative positions. One of the photos is of Clea, Horn's former stepdaughter. When Horn contacts his ex-wife inquiring about Clea, he is told she has disappeared. Horn then pursues her. The search takes him to the dark and forbidden underworld of Los Angeles in the late 1940s. CLEA'S MOON is an exceptional novel and what is even more remarkable is that it is a first novel. It runs on all cylinders right out of the starting gate. Characters, plot, pacing all combine to perfection in this wonderfully atmospheric novel. Horn, being a faded cowboy movie star, is an interesting main protagonist. What is especially intriguing throughout most of the book is the question as to why he was in prison. We learn the answer late in the book. Nothing is left to chance. The search for Clea propels the story along. However, once she is found, the question arises as to why she ran away. Pages fly by as we find out the stunning truth. Edward Wright is a journalist and, like so many journalists before him, has written a superb debut novel.

Read this book!

Hard to believe this is a first novel. Unique characters and excellent period detail set this book apart from most of today's crime fiction. Well deserving of the British Debut Dagger. Let's hope we get to see more of John Ray Horn and his mid-century southern California.