She Treads Softly: A Fearsome Moonlight Black

Friday, October 14, 2022

A Fearsome Moonlight Black

A Fearsome Moonlight Black by David Putnam
10/18/22; 330 pages
Level Best Books
Dave Beckett #1

A Fearsome Moonlight Black by David Putnam is a very highly recommended police procedural set in two timelines, 1979 and 1988, and presented in two parts.

In 1979 Dave Beckett is a 21 year-old rookie on probation with a police department in West Valley, a small town in Southern California. Dave tries his best to do a good job and is proud to be a cop, but then he get several of the toughest cases in the department. He also reconnects with Beth, a woman that he had a crush on in high school. During the last case in the 1979 time period, he is attacked and the timeline jumps forward to part two of the book set in 1988. Now Dave is a homicide detective in the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s department. His marriage to Beth is in jeopardy and he has a five-year-old-daughter. He also understands now that everything isn't always cut and dried and that those thought to be the good guys aren't always good. Dave ends up going back in time when he was a rookie and taking a closer look at some of the cases he had.

Dave is a realistically portrayed character and there is definitely growth in his character simply due to time. The writing is very good as Putnam follows multiple complicated cases in an intricate plot that has an authenticity that will hold your attention throughout the novel. This is a gritty look behind the public image.

Book one is an even paced look at the life of a rookie cop while book two becomes a much more intense and complex investigation undertaken by a more seasoned investigator. Book one is interesting but book two is much more compelling due to Dave's experience and insight. Apparently book one is closer to the real life experiences of author David Putnam while book two is fiction. Putnam does a good job depicting the life of a law enforcement officer while presenting an investigation that enters thriller territory in the second part. There is a satisfying conclusion to the narrative.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Level Best Books via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.