In the Lake of the Moon

David L. Lindsey

Haydon is a homicide detective on the Houston police. He is independently wealthy, married, and content with his life. He has passed up promotion a few times. There is another opening. If he doesn't take this one, he won't have another chance.

An envelope comes in the mail for him at home. There is a picture in it. The photo shows a portrait of a young man, probably in the 1930's or so. The next day a second envelope contains another picture of the young man. Haydon realizes the man is his father, who had died eight years earlier. The next day a photo comes of a young woman from the same time period. The background appeared to be Mexico City. On Thursday he receives two more pictures of the young woman. She is not Haydon's mother. He wonders what Friday will bring.

He is shocked when he opens it. There is a picture of himself taken earlier in the week. Hand-drawn on the picture is a bullet piercing Haydon's eye and the splattering of the back of his head as the bullet is shown going through. Haydon now has a death threat. He doesn't know why. He only knows he has to go to Mexico City and solve the puzzle before he is murdered.

Although the first half is slow, this suspense novel kept my interest. The reader knows who is threatening Haydon almost from the beginning. The reader needs Haydon to discover and explain the "why" of the threat. Haydon learns his father is not the man he thought he knew. I was disappointed at the end when some important threads from the first part of the book were left hanging.

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy