The Measure of the Moon by Lisa Preston Review!

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (April 18, 2017)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1503937577
• ISBN-13: 978-1503937574

“If you ever say anything to anyone, they all die.”

When eight-year-old Greer Donner falls off his horse in the Washington wilderness, he braces himself to face the long hike home alone. But screams pierce the darkness, and he stumbles upon a dead-end road where a man is beating a woman—nearly to death. In a moment of courage, he stops the assault, but he’s left to face the man, who turns his wrath into an ominous threat: if the boy ever reveals what he has seen, his family will pay the ultimate price. The secret Greer now carries begins his emotional unraveling.

In Seattle, Gillian Trett is a photographer with a troubled marriage and a childhood she’s trying to forget. Domestic tension mounts when her husband’s stepsister arrives. Desperate for a distraction, and a way to advance her career, Gillian throws herself into uncovering the history behind an old man’s Holocaust photo of boys in a forest. The mysterious children and the truth behind the scene haunt her—she can’t let go of the image, or of her own shadowed past.

Then a horrifying revelation entangles Gillian’s path with young Greer’s. The boy and the woman, separated by a generation and a hundred miles, each confront the terrible power of harbored secrets—not only to eclipse the truth but also to illuminate the dark, unknown dimensions of their loved ones and themselves.

Lisa Preston (1964- ) turned to writing after careers as a fire department paramedic and a city police officer. Experience in her earlier professions enhance the medical and legal passages of her fiction and non-fiction.
Her debut novel, Orchids and Stone, is scheduled for release by Thomas & Mercer in April 2016, and has been described both as a thriller and as domestic noir. Advance reviews include praise from the best-selling novelists Jo-Ann Mapson, Laura Moriarty, Kate Moretti and Carol Cassella.
Her published work includes non-fiction books and articles on animals, particularly the care and training of dogs and horses.
Away from her desk, she spends hours on backcountry trails as a runner and rider, sometimes combining her two outdoor pursuits via the obscure sport of Ride and Tie.
She lives with her husband and Malinois on Washington State's vast Olympic Peninsula.
http://www.lisapreston.com/

"If you ever say anything to anyone, they all die".

And just like that, Lisa Preston pulls her audience through the opening scene of this page-turner.  Immediately immersing us in the tale of the darkest and scariest night of Greer Donner's life, Measure of the Moon launches right into the heart of the story.

And then, with an unforeseen (and somewhat abrupt) turn, readers are introduced to a completely separate set of characters.  And so goes the story - Preston pulls characters in and out, with expert description and captivating dialogue.  It does seem, however, to get a bit confusing.  The reader is introduced to the Donner family first and then Paul and Gillian, a married couple living a few hours away.  Through them, the reader meets yet another family - the Istoks.  And through all this beautiful, haunting detail, there is a subtle nagging in the back of the reader's mind: Huh? 

Though gripping and written with enough detail to almost be able to hear ferryboats on the Seattle waterways, smell the rain and see the Needle off in the distance, it gets a little annoying that none of these stories seem to intertwine.  At least for me - I couldn't figure it out...until I figured it out. And once the connections become clear, it's easy to say that this is one of the best books I've read in a long time. 

Reminiscent of Gillian Flynn or Heather Gudenkauf in style, this suspense is a must-read. And I kind of hope you don't figure it out sooner than I did - half the fun is in not knowing...

Guest Review by Katie Kelly

Review was done voluntarily