Bad Moon Rising
A Bad Axe County Novel
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4.3 • 6 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
“As unique a place in the mystery universe as you will ever find...smooth, unexpected, and memorable. This book is a diamond in the rough.” —Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author
A record heat wave suffocates remote rural Wisconsin as the local sheriff tracks down a killer hidden in the depths of the community in this atmospheric, race-to-the-finish mystery by the acclaimed author of the Bad Axe County series.
Sheriff Heidi Kick has a dead body on her hands, a homeless young man last seen alive miles from the Bad Axe. Chillingly, the medical examiner confirms what Sheriff Kick has been experiencing in her own reoccurring nightmares of late: the victim was buried alive. As the relentless summer heat bears down and more bodies are discovered, Sheriff Kick also finds herself embroiled in a nasty reelection campaign. These days her detractors call her “Sheriff Mommy”—KICK HER OUT holler the opposition’s campaign signs—and as her family troubles become public, vicious rumors threaten to sway the electorate and derail her investigation.
Enter Vietnam veteran Leroy Fanta, editor-in-chief of the local paper who believes Heidi’s strange case might be tied to a reclusive man writing deranged letters to the opinions section for years. With his heart and liver on their last legs, Fanta drums up his old journalistic instincts in one last effort to help Heidi find a lead in her case, or at least a good story...
With simmering tension that sweats off the page, Bad Moon Rising infuses newsworthy relevance with a page-turning story of crime in America’s heartland, capturing global issues with startling immediacy while entertaining from start to finish.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Galligan's suspenseful third novel set in Wisconsin's Bad Axe County (after 2020's Dead Man Dancing), Sheriff Heidi Kick, who's running for reelection against Barry Rickreiner, receives an anonymous email from "Oppo" offering her opposition research on her rival. The death years before of Rickreiner's then girlfriend, Kim Maybee, who ingested buttermilk laced with pesticide, was ruled a suicide, but was in fact a homicide, according to Oppo. At the time, Rickreiner was an alcoholic and addict, and his recovery and redemption story is key to his unremittingly negative campaign. Meanwhile, Kick has to investigate the death of a homeless man who was buried alive. That murder may be linked to a string of disappearances of homeless men, which a priest unsuccessfully tried to get law enforcement interested in. Kick's efforts are aided by the local newspaper editor, a political supporter who's been threatened by an apparent crank. Readers will root for Kick as the action builds to a satisfyingly hard-edged denouement. Fans of gritty rural crime, such as Ace Atkins's Quinn Colson series, will be enthralled.
