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Wil Hardesty, southern California private investigator takes on a multi-layered case of murder, conspiracy, criminal gangs, various law enforcement agencies, and a load of personal angst involving his ex-wife Lisa. There are really two major plots running through this long novel. In the foreground a Vietnamese immigrant seeks help in learning why his brother has apparently murdered his nephew, the man's only son, and why his only daughter, Mia, has abruptly left home to work for that same man, her uncle. The other thread is the continuing story of Hardesty and his relationship with his ex-wife. Inexplicable complexities face Hardesty as he goes deliberately, step by step, deeper and deeper into a morass of complex, tension-filled criminal enterprise, inter-agency maneuvering and racial tensions. Burning Moon is an intense, engaging novel. Barre is a fine writer who wields the language in careful, mannered ways to achieve the effects he wants. His prose is powerful, economic and, in this novel, highly stylized. Elliptical conversations that never say exactly what they mean require careful attention and sometimes re-reading. The atmosphere is moody and often unsettling. We encounter characters who seem phantom-like, who plot and dance just beyond our grasp, their meaning and substance frequently obscure and puzzling; other characters leap off the page in hard, brilliant colors. The effects are heightened by wild-fires in the mountains behind the coast, and by the slow dance of Hardesty and his ex-wife. This is a powerful story of a man who presses on even as he knows he is losing what little control he once had. It is a story enhanced by sharp, incisive observations and marvelous writing. There are few writers working today who have Barre's talent and his grasp of the crime fiction medium.
Reviewed by Carl Brookins, April 2003
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