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The Moons of Summer
A sleepy Kansas burg awakens to the horror of a mortician operating on the wrong side of death. Guy Driscoll can't stand his teenage daughter, but he loves her literally to death when he drags her out of Chicago and plants her in the middle of tiny Colson, Kansas, where he hopes she'll adopt small town values and learn to hate him less. His plan fails, and the antipathy continues with beautiful Michael Bish, a female police officer Guy mistakenly lambastes for shooting local mortician Vernon Diest in the back. Michael claims it was self-defense, but few in town want to believe that Vernon Diest, descendant of Colson's founding fathers, is capable of such malice. Only Elma, the deaf-mute stepsister of Vernon, knows the truth. Elma, who lives somewhere on the third floor of the Diest mansion steals food from Vernon's refrigerator at night. She knows more about Vernon than she will ever be able to reveal, and it will take the light of a telling moon, a perfect summer moon, to awaken the people of Colson to the nightmare in their midst.
276 pages, Paperback
First published February 22, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 14, 2023
Epperson's niche seems to be strange dramas in small Kansas towns, sometimes veering into horror, but mostly thriller, and often with a romantic edge. The Moons of Summer fits into the thriller genre and tells the tale of several people in the town of Colson, involving deep secrets, homicide and intrigue.
Our main protagonist, Guy, was born in Colson, but after his parents died in an accident, he moved to Chicago to be raised by relatives. He eventually married (disaster) and after his ex-wife died, he received custody of this troubled 16 yo daughter. Deciding to make a clean break and take away some temptations from his daughter (she already had two abortions), he moved back to Colson and got a job at the local rag; quite a step down from his high powered career at a major paper. Epperson quickly fleshes out the cast-- Mike, a woman cop in town who lives just a few houses away from Guy, Guy's neighbor Alex, and the main antagonist, Verner, the town's local mortician.
Business has been slow for Verner, and being a bit of a wacko, he decided one day to make some customers when he got pulled over by Mike for speeding. Verner came out of his van with a gun and tried to shot Mike, but his gun jammed and he got shot instead. Mike was suspended (she shot him in the back and no gun was recovered from the scene), but was exonerated by the Kansas police investigators. Still, she is under suspicion. Before this event took place, her husband of only a few months, a fellow cop, was shot by his partner (accidentally?) and has been in a coma for almost a year. Well, Guy hears about all of this quickly (small towns and rumor mills) and writes a piece about it for the paper, editorializing that Mike should be indicted by a grand jury. Mike, furious, confronts him but they both see some sparks during that altercation as well. Love at first sight? Maybe.
What I like best about Epperson resides in her economical prose, twisty plots and fun characters. She fleshes out her leads without pretention and makes them believable. While her books will not change your life, they will keep you entertained, at least they did for me! 3.5 small town stars!!
Our main protagonist, Guy, was born in Colson, but after his parents died in an accident, he moved to Chicago to be raised by relatives. He eventually married (disaster) and after his ex-wife died, he received custody of this troubled 16 yo daughter. Deciding to make a clean break and take away some temptations from his daughter (she already had two abortions), he moved back to Colson and got a job at the local rag; quite a step down from his high powered career at a major paper. Epperson quickly fleshes out the cast-- Mike, a woman cop in town who lives just a few houses away from Guy, Guy's neighbor Alex, and the main antagonist, Verner, the town's local mortician.
Business has been slow for Verner, and being a bit of a wacko, he decided one day to make some customers when he got pulled over by Mike for speeding. Verner came out of his van with a gun and tried to shot Mike, but his gun jammed and he got shot instead. Mike was suspended (she shot him in the back and no gun was recovered from the scene), but was exonerated by the Kansas police investigators. Still, she is under suspicion. Before this event took place, her husband of only a few months, a fellow cop, was shot by his partner (accidentally?) and has been in a coma for almost a year. Well, Guy hears about all of this quickly (small towns and rumor mills) and writes a piece about it for the paper, editorializing that Mike should be indicted by a grand jury. Mike, furious, confronts him but they both see some sparks during that altercation as well. Love at first sight? Maybe.
What I like best about Epperson resides in her economical prose, twisty plots and fun characters. She fleshes out her leads without pretention and makes them believable. While her books will not change your life, they will keep you entertained, at least they did for me! 3.5 small town stars!!
November 15, 2012
great story... another S.K Epperson story i enjoyed. i will definitely have to see what her other books are about.
December 31, 2019
Totally ridiculous, but fun to read.
March 21, 2021
was desperate for reading material so I read it all but by the end was skimming
May 31, 2025
Romantic, intense, and full of plot twists! A page-turner.
March 7, 2026
poolside read, shloky horror ♡
July 20, 2015
Interesting. Some strange characters. Twists and turns but overall kept my attention. Good ending. I'd really give it a 3/half stars.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews