Blood Moon Rising

by Richard C. Conrath

This is the second book in The Cooper Series. It’s been eight years since Cooper’s son, seven-year-old Maxie, disappeared from the front lawn of his home in rural Ohio. After leaving his teaching position at Concord College, Cooper joined Miami PD as a homicide detective. That took him into the dark underbelly of Miami where the brilliant colors of the night sky hide the violence in the streets below. Blood Moon Rising begins as Cooper, now a PI, receives an early morning call from a friend of his, a faculty member at a College in southern Ohio. And his friend tells Cooper that he has become a prime suspect in a case involving a young student in his class who has gone missing. And he’s been sleeping with her. He begs Cooper to help him, offers him exorbitant amounts of money—anything. Cooper agrees to help him. And this case leads him into the terrifying world of human a world where kids housed in orphanages are sold on the world market; where college students unwittingly sign up for dangerous pharmaceutical experiments; and where the Russian mob plays a shadow game of catch me if you can. And Cooper risks his life. But he has friends who Richie, a mob enforcer; Huxter Crow, a Seminole cowboy and alligator hunter; Louise Delgado, a Miami detective specializing in gang activity; and Leo Federovich, a Russian KGB agent and the grandfather of one of the missing students. And through it all, Cooper, a brooding, dark, intellectual, with a side not everyone can see, will stop at nothing, even murder, to find his son. And the Blood Moon keeps constant vigil as Cooper searches the streets of Miami, and the Everglades, and the Florida Straits, where kidnappers prey, to find the missing children and his son, Maxie.

414 pages, paperback

Published July 29, 2019

Reviews

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blue Moon Rising is a gritty, fast-paced thriller set along Florida’s Gulf Coast and deep into Key Largo and the Gulf of Mexico. An ex-cop, now a sharp private investigator, uncovers a chilling series of kidnappings of teenagers by the Russian mob, and the unthinkable: human trafficking. This mystery kept me hooked from page one, from its unique plot and richly drawn characters to its hauntingly vivid setting.

[Morris Binder · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine read.

Wonderful character development with lots of action and a writing style that keeps you that keeps you engrossed and engaged…a real page turner.