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John Ray Horn #1
Clea's Moon
Ex-movie idol and ex-convict John Ray Horn makes ends meet by collecting debts for a gambler when an old friend calls asking for help with his father's estate, where Horn finds an obscene photograph of his young stepdaughter.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
About the author
Edward Wright
100 books14 followers Ed Wright grew up in Arkansas, where his father sold hardware and his mother raised three children and taught arts and crafts. He has degrees from Vanderbilt University (honors, English literature) and Northwestern University (master’s, journalism). He was an officer in the U.S. Navy aboard destroyers for three years. His first major career was journalism, and he worked as an editor at the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times.
At the Times, he specialized for several years in Middle East affairs and later was one of the senior editors on the foreign desk, helping supervise the work of three dozen foreign correspondents around the world and plan coverage of events ranging from the fall of the Soviet Union to the first Persian Gulf War. He later wrote the Times’ Travel Advisory column.
Ed's second career, fiction writing, led to the John Ray Horn mysteries, set in Los Angeles during the 1940s. The series has won four awards, including the Shamus Award and Britain’s Ellis Peters Historical Crime Award. He departed from the series with his next book, “Damnation Falls,” a contemporary mystery set in small-town Tennessee, which won the Barry Award. His most recent, the thriller "From Blood," was named one of the best mysteries of 2010 by the Financial Times of London.
Ed and his wife, Cathy, a psychotherapist, live in the Los Angeles area with Magic, an irrepressible female Belgian shepherd mix. At least once a year the three of them head off to the lakes and trails of the eastern Sierra Nevada.
Photo by Jennifer Leshnick
At the Times, he specialized for several years in Middle East affairs and later was one of the senior editors on the foreign desk, helping supervise the work of three dozen foreign correspondents around the world and plan coverage of events ranging from the fall of the Soviet Union to the first Persian Gulf War. He later wrote the Times’ Travel Advisory column.
Ed's second career, fiction writing, led to the John Ray Horn mysteries, set in Los Angeles during the 1940s. The series has won four awards, including the Shamus Award and Britain’s Ellis Peters Historical Crime Award. He departed from the series with his next book, “Damnation Falls,” a contemporary mystery set in small-town Tennessee, which won the Barry Award. His most recent, the thriller "From Blood," was named one of the best mysteries of 2010 by the Financial Times of London.
Ed and his wife, Cathy, a psychotherapist, live in the Los Angeles area with Magic, an irrepressible female Belgian shepherd mix. At least once a year the three of them head off to the lakes and trails of the eastern Sierra Nevada.
Photo by Jennifer Leshnick
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
August 28, 2007
CLEA'S MOON (Amateur Sleuth-Los Angeles-1950s) – Ex
Wright, Edward – 1st in series
Berkeley Fiction, 2004-Paperback
John Ray Horn is a former soldier, western movie actor and prison inmate. He's now working for his former movie Indian sidekick, now casino owner, collecting gambling debts. A friend shows him sexually explicit pictures of young girls, one of whom is John's former step-daughter, Clea. The friend is murdered, Clea has run away and John is determined to find out who is responsible.
*** 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. I liked it so well that I've ordered the next.
Wright, Edward – 1st in series
Berkeley Fiction, 2004-Paperback
John Ray Horn is a former soldier, western movie actor and prison inmate. He's now working for his former movie Indian sidekick, now casino owner, collecting gambling debts. A friend shows him sexually explicit pictures of young girls, one of whom is John's former step-daughter, Clea. The friend is murdered, Clea has run away and John is determined to find out who is responsible.
*** 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. I liked it so well that I've ordered the next.
January 22, 2012
The most sold title at The Mystery Bookstore Los Angeles, with about 700 units sold. Author Tim Hallinan told me 'no one has put me in 1940's LA like this since Raymond Chandler.' That sums it up very well. Great story and great writing. To me, the best unknown writer out there. All of his books are great
September 5, 2009
Enjoyable read – set in late 40s LA, main character a washed-up star from B-movie westerns with some serious anger management problems. Suspenseful, good period feel, good resolution. I did find the “missing piece” rather well in advance of our hero, but not an unforgiveable lapse, and it did play out in an interesting way when he finally put it together.
June 9, 2018
Una novela que me gustó mucho.
December 9, 2014
Ambientada en el Hollywood de finales de los 40, la historia posee un argumento atractivo y un personaje protagonista muy interesante: un actor de películas de serie B venido a menos. Pero lamentablemente el desarrollo de la historia transcurre con un nivel de intriga y misterio muy pobre y bastante predecible. Lo más destacable es la ambientación y las descripciones de la época.
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September 1, 2021I loved CLEA's Moon. It is a well-written noir mystery with wonderful characters, beautiful descriptions of wooded California canyons and post-war Hollywood.
Horn is a ex-spaghetti western actor on hard times. He's just been released from jail and is scraping by, collecting debts for his ex-actor sidekick, Mad Crow, who is now running a casino in the LA desert.
The orange groves are being bulldozed for housing tracts, and Horn's having a hard time adjusting to the new world of bobbysocks, be bop, and tailfins. His wife divorced him when he was in the joint and he's flat broke and full of regrets. He is feeling vulnerable when an old friend approaches him and drags him into a dark world of child pornography and exploitation and murder.
Horn is a ex-spaghetti western actor on hard times. He's just been released from jail and is scraping by, collecting debts for his ex-actor sidekick, Mad Crow, who is now running a casino in the LA desert.
The orange groves are being bulldozed for housing tracts, and Horn's having a hard time adjusting to the new world of bobbysocks, be bop, and tailfins. His wife divorced him when he was in the joint and he's flat broke and full of regrets. He is feeling vulnerable when an old friend approaches him and drags him into a dark world of child pornography and exploitation and murder.
April 19, 2021
This was a solid 4/5 mystery thriller. The setting was 1949 Los Angeles, and there were many locations mentioned that are in my neighborhood (Gower’s Gulch), or favorites of mine (Cole’s, Langer’s).
Best of all, the lead character is John Ray Horn. He’s a former star of B movie westerns, now a former convict who ekes out a living doing repo for his former Indian sidekick now turned businessman.
Not a perfect score due to plotting issues common to first novels. Still, damned satisfying. Sad Wright only lived long enough to grace us with three John Ray Horn novels.
Best of all, the lead character is John Ray Horn. He’s a former star of B movie westerns, now a former convict who ekes out a living doing repo for his former Indian sidekick now turned businessman.
Not a perfect score due to plotting issues common to first novels. Still, damned satisfying. Sad Wright only lived long enough to grace us with three John Ray Horn novels.
May 30, 2018
Great characters. Wright really puts you in 1940s L.A. The crime is quite sordid but Wright does a good job of giving the reader plenty of info without being graphic. Sagged a little in the middle but the pace quickens to a fantastic shootout and great ending. I’d recommend it to any mystery fan.
October 14, 2019
One of my 10 best first mysteries read in 2003.
June 16, 2020
Fans of James Ellroy will love this poignant story about redemption. Really, really good!!
February 25, 2023
Supposed to be set in the 50s but has absolutely no sense of the time at all. Disappointing.
January 1, 2025
6/10
Pretty standard thriller. I like the setting and the characters but the story was just fine, not super compelling. The ending felt really abrupt with not much in the way of resolution.
Pretty standard thriller. I like the setting and the characters but the story was just fine, not super compelling. The ending felt really abrupt with not much in the way of resolution.
June 5, 2014
Mystery set in the late 40s.
John Ray Horn used to star in low-budget westerns until he was sent to prison for two years for beating up the bosses son. With his movie career over he now collects debts for his former indian sidekick now casino owner Joseph Mad Crow. One day he gets a call from his old friend Scotty whose father has recently died. Scotty has discovered his father was involved in something pretty slimy. He's found pictures his father had hidden of young girls possibly taken at the family lodge. He shows the pictures to John Ray. One looks just like his daughter Clea when she was very young. Before John Ray and Scotty get the chance to check it out Scotty is murdered. John Ray shows the picture to his ex-wife but she vehemently denies that its Clea. John Ray is sure she's lying. He then discovers that a now teenage Clea has runaway. With picture in hand he's on the hunt for her but he discovers that real life isn't like the movies and even though as the hero Sierra Lane he had all the answers and beat all the bad guys as John Ray Horn a simple man he doesn't always know what to do to find the answers to this puzzle.
Edward Wright wrote a very interesting mystery. I like the way he writes. I'd love to read more of his books. Specially more with John Ray Horn.
John Ray Horn used to star in low-budget westerns until he was sent to prison for two years for beating up the bosses son. With his movie career over he now collects debts for his former indian sidekick now casino owner Joseph Mad Crow. One day he gets a call from his old friend Scotty whose father has recently died. Scotty has discovered his father was involved in something pretty slimy. He's found pictures his father had hidden of young girls possibly taken at the family lodge. He shows the pictures to John Ray. One looks just like his daughter Clea when she was very young. Before John Ray and Scotty get the chance to check it out Scotty is murdered. John Ray shows the picture to his ex-wife but she vehemently denies that its Clea. John Ray is sure she's lying. He then discovers that a now teenage Clea has runaway. With picture in hand he's on the hunt for her but he discovers that real life isn't like the movies and even though as the hero Sierra Lane he had all the answers and beat all the bad guys as John Ray Horn a simple man he doesn't always know what to do to find the answers to this puzzle.
Edward Wright wrote a very interesting mystery. I like the way he writes. I'd love to read more of his books. Specially more with John Ray Horn.
March 28, 2012
Historical Los Angeles.
Former western actor John Ray Horn has been released from prison for assaulting a studio bosses son. He is working for his former Indian sidekick Joseph Mad Cow collecting gambling debts.
His ex wife Iris and her new husband ask him to find Iris's daughter Clea. When Horn gets in touch with them over an old picture Horn finds at his friends office, Horn gets the idea that Clea has been involved in the kiddie porn trade but does not know who else is involved.
In the course of trying to find Clea, he gets beaten up cut and shot at.
This has a nice plot, is well written and has interesting details about the time and place.
Former western actor John Ray Horn has been released from prison for assaulting a studio bosses son. He is working for his former Indian sidekick Joseph Mad Cow collecting gambling debts.
His ex wife Iris and her new husband ask him to find Iris's daughter Clea. When Horn gets in touch with them over an old picture Horn finds at his friends office, Horn gets the idea that Clea has been involved in the kiddie porn trade but does not know who else is involved.
In the course of trying to find Clea, he gets beaten up cut and shot at.
This has a nice plot, is well written and has interesting details about the time and place.
October 10, 2011
Horn is a former actor in B westerns who is now, after serving prison time for assault, collecting debts for his erstwhile American Indian sidekick. A call from an old friend leads Horn to old secrets that involve his former stepdaughter, Clea, who has recently disappeared. When his friend dies under mysterious circumstances, Horn is desperate to uncover the truth and to find Clea and bring her home.
An outstanding debut. I will definitely read this author again.
An outstanding debut. I will definitely read this author again.
April 14, 2012
The most sold title at The Mystery Bookstore Los Angeles, with about 700 units sold. Author Tim Hallinan said 'no one has put me in 1940's LA like this since Raymond Chandler.' That sums it up very well. Great story and great writing. To me, the best unknown writer out there. All of his books are great
January 25, 2013
A writer friend of mine recommended this book and I'm not sure why. Ed Wright is an adequate writer but will never be mistaken for Daishell Hammett. There was something lacking about his hero and the conceit of comparing himself with his cowboy movie hero role didn't quite work for me. Having said that it was an easy and somewhat enjoyable read.
August 14, 2013
I found this book hard to read because of the subject, but I did like John Ray and his love for his step-daughter. He's a former movie cowboy hero who in this book becomes a real hero when he rescues his step-daughter and finds who murders his friend. This is a dark book and hard to read, but I want to read more in the series.
May 26, 2009
Much more the noir end of things than my usual but not gratuitously so and this guy is very very good. Read for the quality of writing and characterizations vs plot, although there's certainly enough plot, but others are what stand out
Want to Read
December 3, 2007debut dagger winner
September 7, 2010
Make this a strong three, had some nice noir late 40s Hollywood vibe. Wrapped it up a little too neatly, perhaps, but there was little that didn't jive too much. A good read.
Want to Read
September 3, 2011B bought me this last year from the Mystery Bookstore just before it got sucked into the twilight zone. They thought highly of it. Set in 1940's Hollywood, lets see what we have here.
August 5, 2015
Mr. Wright's first novel was entertaining, well paced and well written. I look forward to reading his next book.
October 7, 2018
Atmospheric.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews