Patricia Stoltey

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Shotgun Moon — a Mini-Review

August 16, 2015 By: Patricia

McRae_Shotgun-MoonI just finished reading K.C. McRae’s Shotgun Moon, a standalone mystery from Midnight Ink. It’s really more than a mystery. It’s on the dark side. It’s a thriller and it’s suspense. The main character killed the man who raped her and now returns to Montana to get her life back to normal.

‘Then the great metal gate clanged open, and Merry McCoy stepped through to the dusty asphalt outside for the first time in four years.”

It has family drama and well-developed dysfunctional characters.

“Aunt Shirlene’s cigarette-etched voice rasped down the line. ‘Hey, it’s me. I’m down at the police station with Lauri.'”

And it has romance with an old flame, a cop who’s now married to someone else.

“She wanted to slide inside his clothing like liquid, glide across his skin, surround him, dissolve and soak through his pores.”

Shotgun Moon is a standalone, but if someday K.C. wants to bring Merry McCoy back in a sequel, it would work just fine. Great pacing, good writing, and interesting characters make this one highly recommended.

This author with many names is way more than a cozy writer, although most of her novels are cozy series. A resident of Northern Colorado, I first met K.C. as Cricket McRae, author of the Sophie Mae Home Crafting series which features a recipe or instructions for making a range of items from soap to cheese.

Since then, using the pseudonym Bailey Cates, K.C. has launched the Katie Lightfoot Magical Bakery series. The Elliana Allbright Enchanted Garden series, written as Bailey Cattrell, launches in January 2016.

You can read more about K.C. and her works at the Bailey Cates Cattrell/Cricket McRae website.

More from my site

  • Introducing The Enchanted Garden Mysteries (Contains Mature Themes!) … by Bailey CattrellIntroducing The Enchanted Garden Mysteries (Contains Mature Themes!) … by Bailey Cattrell
  • One Writer’s Tools … by Bailey CatesOne Writer’s Tools … by Bailey Cates
  • Review:  Chasing Justice by Kathleen DonnellyReview: Chasing Justice by Kathleen Donnelly
  • Book Mini-ReviewsBook Mini-Reviews
  • Book(s) Review: The Judas FilesBook(s) Review: The Judas Files
  • Book Review: The Storm Crows by Jenny SundstedtBook Review: The Storm Crows by Jenny Sundstedt

Category: Books and Authors Tag: Bailey Cates, Bailey Cattrell, book review, K.C. McRae, mini book review, Shotgun Moon

Comments

  1. Margot Kinberg says

    August 18, 2015 at 6:08 am

    Thanks, Pat, for this review. It sounds like this one has some solid grit to it. I always respect an author who goes outside of her usual ‘comfort zone’ and writes another kind of story.

    • Patricia says

      August 18, 2015 at 8:18 am

      I like that too, Margot. Standalones give authors the opportunity to spread their wings a bit and not stay trapped in the endless series cycle.

  2. Susan Gourley says

    August 17, 2015 at 9:38 am

    That’s a great title for a book. Sounds like lots of things going on in the book along with a beautiful, haunting cover.

    Susan Says

    • Patricia says

      August 17, 2015 at 12:31 pm

      I liked the cover too, Susan. It hints at the rural. Western setting.

Meet Patricia

I read, I write, I blog, and sometimes I do the laundry and cook. My 2014 novel, Dead Wrong, was a finalist in the thriller category of the 2015 Colorado Book Awards. Wishing Caswell Dead (Five Star/Cengage, December 20, 2017) is a historical mystery set in 1830s Illinois in the fictitious Village of Sangamon. The novel was a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Book Awards for General Fiction. Read More…

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