Literarily Speaking May Virtual Book Club Selection: Moonlight Falls by Vincent Zandri – Day 3
Every month, we pick wonderful books we’ve read to spotlight at Literarily Speaking. Today we’re happy to be reading Vincent Zandri’s new thriller novel, Moonlight Falls.
This is his last day here with us and we will be announcing the winner of his book on Monday so make sure you read all the rules in order to become eligible. To recap:
Read Day One’s excerpt here.
Read Day Two’s excerpt here.
To become eligible to win, all you have to do is ask a question or leave a comment on all three days. One lucky reader who comments with their email address is put in a pot to win the book. However, they must sign up for our email updates prior to the author’s appearance.
To recap:
- ask a question or leave a comment on all three days
- leave your email address
- sign up for our email updates to the right ——->
That’s all there is to it!
Day Three: Literarily Speaking Book Club Selection: Moonlight Falls by Vincent Zandri
Moonlight Falls is the Albany, New York-based paranoid tale (in the Hitchcock tradition) of former APD Detective turned Private Investigator/Massage Therapist, Richard “Dick” Moonlight, who believes he might be responsible for the brutal slaying by knife of his illicit lover, the beautiful Scarlet Montana. The situation is made all the worse since Scarlet is the wife of Moonlight’s boss, Chief of Detectives Jake Montana.
Why does Moonlight believe he might be responsible?
He’s got a small fragment of a .22 hollow point round buried inside his brain, lodge directly up against his cerebral cortex. The result of a botched suicide attempt four years prior to the novel’s start, an operation to remove the bullt frag would be too dangerous.
But the bullet causes Moonlight lots of problems, the least of which are the occasional memory loss and his rational ability to tell right from wrong. The bullet frag also might shift at any moment, making coma and/or sudden death, a very real possibility.
Still, Moonlight has been trying to get his life together as of late.
But when Scarlet begs him to make the trip over to her house late one rainy Sunday night to issue one of his “massages,” he makes a big mistake by sleeping with her. Later, having passed out in her bed, he will be rudely awakened by a garage door opening and Jake’s unexpected and very drunken homecoming. Making his impromptu escape out a top floor window, Moonlight will seek the safety of his home.
Two hours later however, he will receive another unexpected visit from Jake Montana. This time the big Captain has sobering news to report. He’s discovered his wife’s mutilated body in her own bed. She’s been murdered and now he needs the P.I. to investigate it in association with Albany ’s “overtaxed” Special Independent Unit before I.A. pokes their nose into the affair. Moonlight takes a big step back. Is it possible he made a second trip to the Montana home-sweet-home and just has no recollection of it? Once there, did he perform a heinous crime on his part-time lover? Or is this some kind of set up by his former boss? Is it really Jake who is responsible for Scarlet’s death? Does he wish for Moonlight to cover up his involvement, seal the case before Internal Affairs starts poking their nose into the situation?
There’s another problem too.
Covering Moonlight’s palms and the pads of his fingers are numerous scratches and cuts. Are these defensive wounds? Wounds he received when Scarlet put up a struggle? Or are they offensive wounds? Wounds he couldn’t avoid when making his attack on Scarlet with a blade? The answer is not so simple since Moonlight has no idea where he acquired the wounds.
Having no choice but to take on the mission (if only to cover his own ass), Moonlight can only hope the answers to his many questions point to his former boss and not himself.
Read the excerpt from Chapter 72:
right where they wanted you–desperate and short of cash.” Stocky Agent
pontificated. “They pulled you back in as a part-timer, asked you politely
to rubberstamp a few of their open-and-shut cases. They told you the
force was understaffed and you believed them. You were a cop. Now
they needed you again. But you were different somehow. The bullet
fragment had changed you, made you more naive, let’s say. You had
difficulty telling the difference between right and wrong sometimes. You
already fucked up one major arrest, gotten yourself busted down to
forced medical leave. Which made you the perfect candidate for Cain’s
operation. But even after willingly completing false document after false
document, you make matters worse by getting in bed with the police
captain’s wife.”
“It all seemed like the right thing to do at the time,” I say.
“You realize what I can do now?” Stocky Agent asks, eyes
peering not at me but at his silent partner. “I can book you on multiple
counts of conspiracy to falsify police reports, plus multiple counts in the
complicity to commit the illegal harvesting and sale of organs and body
parts. Not to mention fraud and grand larceny. Then there’s all those
murders, all that carnage. People connected directly to you.”
I pull the pack of cigarettes from my shirt pocket, set them on
the table.
“You’re not believing all that bullshit Cain laid on me?”
“What’s not to believe?”
We stare at one another for a beat, until I say “Let me guess:
you’ll book me for multiple counts of murder unless I give you
something else.”
“You want your only child to know that his father is going to
spend eternity in hell? Or would you rather he knew that for once his dad
did the right thing?”
“My head…it can’t be trusted.”
Stocky Agent leans up, getting right in my face again. Nose tip to
nose tip.
He says, “You said that you and Dr. Miner fled the scene at Joy’s
condo. Albany was still looking at you as an escaped murderer. What’d
you do next?”
“I did exactly what I should have done when I collected the
bodies of evidence in the first place. I turned myself in.” I slide another
smoke from the pack.
“Before all that, Moonlight…before you turned yourself in,
Miner did more for you than just neutralize Cain. He helped you out with
your story. Because…”
He pauses. I look down at the cigarette burning between my
fingers. It’s trembling. Behind my eyeballs, I feel a great pressure. I feel
tears. I can’t help the tears.
“Because…my head…it’s not right.”
“And now you needed help.”
“There’s a bullet frag in my head. It makes me do all the wrong
things sometimes.”
“Tell me Moonlight: was Cain right? Did you in fact make the
decision to commit murder…right or wrong?”
Questions:
Q: Is it possible that towards the conclusion of the novel, Moonlight becomes convinced he’s a murderer?
Vincent Zandri: It’s hard to Moonlight to put two and two together due to his condition. Especially since, when under extreme stress, he passes out, loses his memory, and even walks the fine line between death and life. So when more and more characters in the book show up murdered, and all of them have had direct contact with Moonlight, he himself starts to feel that despite all good intentions, he may in fact he a killer.
Q: How does Moonlight overcome his inner conflict?
Vincent Zandri: He stays the course…He’s determined to find out who killed Scarlet, even if it killed him.
Q: So who did kill Scarlet Montana?
Vincent Zandri: The answer, as shocking as it is, isn’t revealed until the very end…So you’ll just have to pick up a copy and read it.
Now it’s your turn! Leave a comment below to become eligible to win a free copy of Moonlight Falls on Wednesday. The winner’s name will be posted by Friday, May 7.
Related posts:
- Literarily Speaking Virtual Book Club Selection: Moonlight Falls by Vincent Zandri – Day 2
- Literarily Speaking Virtual Book Club Selection: Moonlight Falls by Vincent Zandri – Day 1
- Book Excerpt: Moonlight Falls by Vincent Zandri
- Book Excerpt: Moonlight Falls by Vincent Zandri
- Literarily Speaking’s Virtual Book Club Selection: Hiking Through by Paul V. Stutzman – Day One
3 Comments(+Add)
Scarlett dies first, then possibly Jake in Chapter 37 and now they’re coming after Moonlight for one or both of the murders. Is there a way out for this guy? He might be an unrealiable character, but that doesn’t make him a murderer.
Rebecca´s last blog ..Tuesday Teaser – Seven Reasons To Read “The Elf of Luxembourg” By Author Tom Weston
The plot of Moonlight Falls sounds like a rather complex one. Was it difficult to write to get the outcome to your desire?
April
cafeofdreamsbookreviews@yahoo.com
April´s last blog ..Interview: Get to Know Ellen Christian!
Congratulations, April! You won! Your copy will be sent to you shortly. WTG!