The Chesire Moon

by Robert Ferrigno

The Cheshire moon is out tonight, a thin, sharp smile lurking among the stars...and nobody in L.A. is going to get any sleep. Robert Ferrigno's brilliant first novel, The Horse Latitudes, was lauded as "the most memorable fiction debut of the season" by Time magazine, "riveting, breathtaking, extraordinary" by Playboy, and "a double-barreled shotgun of a novel" by The Boston Sunday Globe. Ferrigno's dazzlingly sure handling of noir fiction, his cleverly conceived characters, and explosive plotting created a best-seller worthy of the highest praise, and The Cheshire Moon takes Ferrigno's skill even further, on a dizzying roller coaster of greed, lust, and redemption. Quinn is a former investigative reporter who got burned by a source two years ago, with fatal consequences. These days he sticks to celebrity interviews and games of go fish! with his daughter, but when a friend from the bad old days is found dead, it's up to Quinn and his sultry partner, Jen Takamura, to find the killer. The search leads from high-profile politicos to Rubenesque talk-show queens, silken criminals to dessicated ex-movie stars. Caught in a tightening spiral, Quinn and Jen are drawn into ever deeper and more dangerous passions, a sizzling counterpoint to the frustrated rage of the killer who is now stalking them. Filled with a hypnotic sense of evil, charged with a comic energy and a violently dark eroticism, The Cheshire Moon is a noir Beauty and the Beast that perfectly captures the heat and smoke of southern California.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Robert Ferrigno is an American author of crime novels and of speculative fiction. I've written twelve novels in the last twenty years, most crime thrillers. Sins of the Assassin was a finalist for the Edgar, Best Novel, by the Mystery Writers of America in 2008, and my comic short story, "Can I Help You Out?" won the Silver Dagger, Best Short Story, by the Mystery Association of Great Britain.

Series:
* Jimmy Gage Mystery
* Assassin Trilogy

My most recent book is The Girl Who Cried Wolf (2013), a contemporary crime thriller.

Reviews

[Avid Series Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cheshire Moon by Robert Ferrigno is set in contemporary Southern California. Quinn is a magazine reporter, living in a small cottage behind his ex-wife's house, to be near his daughter. Jen is a photographer for the magazine, fiercely independent. Quinn's friend Andy (clever but a social misfit) installs a black-market satellite dish for Tod, a television producer. Andy discovers Tod's murdered body, sees the murderer, and flees. Sissy worked her way out of poverty into television stardom, then marriage to John, a movie star planning to run for governor.

Andy fears for his life, and asks Quinn to help him. Quinn tries to interest Lieutenant Morales in a search for the murderer. Morales prefers to believe Andy killed Tod, especially when Andy is found dead. Now Morales can just close the case.

Quinn knows Andy didn't kill Tod, and the murderer killed Andy as well. Now he is the next target. He assumes Tod blackmailed Sissy, but he doesn't know why. Morales has old crumbled X-Rays in evidence. Whose? As Quinn and Jen dig into the past, they uncover more suspicious deaths, but the underlying motive remains elusive. Meanwhile the murderer continues to hunt for Quinn, to "protect Sissy".

Fast-paced treachery, violence, and steamy sex lead to deadly confrontation, with a final plot twist. Getting to know these interesting characters leaves me wishing for a sequel.

Don't miss the author's spectacular debut novel, Horse Latitudes.

[Frank McAdam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slick piece of entertainment that's easy to read but in the end simply isn't convincing. One gets the feeling that Ferrigno's heart wasn't in it, that he was going through the motions because he felt he had to come up with something for a second novel and it might as well be this. He cuts corners on characterization by giving each of his characters, other than his protagonist, a freakish appearance intended to stick in the reader's mind. And it's hard to believe in the romantic subplot - Quinn and Jen are like oil and water with no real chemistry between them.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly pulpy book about a pulp magazine set in LA in the 90's and how fame and fortune always seems to lead to power madness and eventually criminality. Violence and sex power the story and it's not exactly classic literature, but it's a bit different than normal as the shades of grey when it comes to morality are all throughout. I did like that Ferrigno ended things not in a normal way for a story like this.

Decent summer type read

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 1994. Absorbing mystery.

[S BM · Rating 1 out of 5]

Un libro más bien malo, para ni siquiera pasar el rato. Me recuerda a los clásicos argumentos del típico guion hollywoodiense de sobremesa de cualquier cadena privada.

[Susan Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great mystery - good plot, good characters.

[LJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

CHESHIRE MOON - Good
Ferrigno, Robert - Standalone

When a friend is coerced into suicide, a former investigative reporter named Quinn and his partner, the sexy, hard-driving, photo-journalist Jen Takamura, start snooping on dangerous ground. Their investigations lead them into a deadly power struggle in L.A.

Author has a difficult style. It was good but I probably won't read more by him.

[bette · Rating 2 out of 5]

A so-so read.

[Jackie Simons]

Read 7/94

[Chai · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly, just one cliché after another......