Carolina Moonset
Both suspenseful and deeply moving, Carolina Moonset is an engrossing novel about family, memories both golden and terrible, and secrets too dangerous to stay hidden forever, from New York Times bestselling and Emmy Award-winning author, Matt Goldman.
Joey Green has returned to Beaufort, South Carolina, with its palmettos and shrimp boats, to look after his ailing father, who is succumbing to dementia, while his overstressed mother takes a break. Marshall Green’s short-term memory has all but evaporated, but, as if in compensation, his oldest memories are more vivid than ever. His mind keeps slipping backwards in time, retreating into long-ago yesterdays of growing up in Beaufort as a boy.
At first this seems like a blessing of sorts, with the past providing a refuge from a shrinking future, but Joey grows increasingly anxious as his father’s hallucinatory arguments with figures from his youth begin to hint at deadly secrets, scandals, and suspicions long buried and forgotten. Resurfacing from decades past are mysteries that still have the power to shatter lives—and change everything Joey thought he knew.
Especially when a new murder brings the police to his door...
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Community Reviews
While I typically avoid reading reviews of books before I decide to read them (I prefer to make my own opinions on books I read), I will read the reviews of people that I follow. I love the way some people write reviews; some are really good at it. After reading the review of this book by another member I follow, it was such a beautifully written review, I decided to read it, even though the book summary of it didn’t really sound like my type of book. Between the one review I read and the book summary, I’m leaning more towards the book summary than the review I read as a more accurate description of the book. JMHO😊
That’s not to say that I didn’t like the book or that it wasn’t well written; it is, and I did enjoy the story. Once again, the book summary pretty much lays out the first half of the story along with the primary storyline. My heart goes out to people who have to watch a loved one get lost to any kind of dementia; it’s absolutely heart-breaking. I speak from experience when I say that.
In this story, Joey’s father, Marshall, is suffering from Lewy Body Dementia. Joey, who lives in Chicago, comes down to Beaufort to help his mother out with taking care of his father and to give his mother a break for a few days to take off and spend some time with friends. There is a secondary storyline and that is that Joey’s mother fixes up Joey, who is divorced, with a neighbor’s daughter, Leela, who is also divorced and from Boston, and is visiting her parents in Beaufort. They spend the rest of the story falling in lust with each other while trying to figure out who killed a prominent citizen by digging around in the pasts of several of the long-time citizens of Beaufort.
It was during the first half of the story that I became fixated on a comment that Joey made in the very first chapter of the story after recounting a childhood story. This stuck with me throughout the whole story, and I began to suspect one particular person. However, it wasn’t until late in the story, the 70-75% mark that the story starts to zero in on it as well, but from a different perspective. This is when I completely changed my possible suspect, which I was right.
One of the things that I love about murder mysteries/thrillers is trying to figure out “whodunit”. I actually love it when a story can completely throw me off. This was a good story but a really sad one. One section of the story, between Joey and his dad and a recounting of a really old story, from Joey’s childhood, brought tears to my eyes. This book kind of reminded me of a pretty decent Lifetime movie, which I enjoy every now and then. This was quick read and a solid 3star rating. I will probably check out the author’s other work.
That’s not to say that I didn’t like the book or that it wasn’t well written; it is, and I did enjoy the story. Once again, the book summary pretty much lays out the first half of the story along with the primary storyline. My heart goes out to people who have to watch a loved one get lost to any kind of dementia; it’s absolutely heart-breaking. I speak from experience when I say that.
In this story, Joey’s father, Marshall, is suffering from Lewy Body Dementia. Joey, who lives in Chicago, comes down to Beaufort to help his mother out with taking care of his father and to give his mother a break for a few days to take off and spend some time with friends. There is a secondary storyline and that is that Joey’s mother fixes up Joey, who is divorced, with a neighbor’s daughter, Leela, who is also divorced and from Boston, and is visiting her parents in Beaufort. They spend the rest of the story falling in lust with each other while trying to figure out who killed a prominent citizen by digging around in the pasts of several of the long-time citizens of Beaufort.
It was during the first half of the story that I became fixated on a comment that Joey made in the very first chapter of the story after recounting a childhood story. This stuck with me throughout the whole story, and I began to suspect one particular person. However, it wasn’t until late in the story, the 70-75% mark that the story starts to zero in on it as well, but from a different perspective. This is when I completely changed my possible suspect, which I was right.
One of the things that I love about murder mysteries/thrillers is trying to figure out “whodunit”. I actually love it when a story can completely throw me off. This was a good story but a really sad one. One section of the story, between Joey and his dad and a recounting of a really old story, from Joey’s childhood, brought tears to my eyes. This book kind of reminded me of a pretty decent Lifetime movie, which I enjoy every now and then. This was quick read and a solid 3star rating. I will probably check out the author’s other work.
The story of Joey Green’s visit with his father, Matthew, who is suffering from dementia, is interesting, but not compelling. Matthew has no short term memory, but does remember the distant past and the deaths of two of his childhood friends. When a local businessman is shot, there is suspicion that maybe elderly Matt committed the crime, but how can this be proven? It ends up being a quite convoluted story and many secrets from the past are revealed. This is also a simultaneous love story that develops that is sweet and memorable.
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