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Stuart Haydon #4
In the Lake of the Moon
Detective Stuart Haydon opens the anonymous envelopes to find two photographs of his father and three of an unknown woman. All five seem to date from around 50 years ago. Photo number six is of Haydon himself, taken a few days earlier, and shows his planned murder.
Paperback
First published May 12, 1988
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About the author
David L. Lindsey
29 books92 followersI’m a native Texan, and I spent my early years a few miles from the Mexican border in Starr County. Eventually my family moved to West Texas where I grew up in the oil fields and ranches of the Colorado River valley northwest of San Angelo. After graduating from North Texas State University and spending a year in graduate school (focusing on 19th century European literature), I moved to Austin in 1970 where my wife, Joyce, and I still live.
Although I wanted to try my hand at writing fiction after graduate school, Joyce and I had two small children, and the often-rocky road to publishing and establishing a writing career seemed a risky proposition that I couldn’t afford to take at that point. I took an editing job with a small regional press and spent the next decade knocking around in a variety of jobs, including running my own small publishing company for a few years, and editing books in the humanities for the University of Texas Press.
Finally, in 1980, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer to try my hand at fiction. Knowing I couldn’t afford to write for nothing, I decided to increase my odds of getting published by researching what kinds of fiction had the best chance of finding a publisher. Mystery novels rose to the top of my research results. I don’t think I’d ever read a “mystery novel” at that time, but I immediately bought a representative collection of twenty-five popular, famous, and classic mystery novels, including British and European writers. After reading these, and many more, I realized that the “genre” encompassed a startling variety of work, everything from Mickey Spillane to Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Two years later I began my writing career by publishing two mystery novels in the same year. Thirty-odd years later I’ve just finished my 15th novel. Though I began writing in the mystery genre, I eventually went on to write fiction in other areas, mostly dealing with the criminal, national, and private intelligence professions.
When I’m not writing, I spend most of my time in my library. My other pleasure is gardening and landscape work, though where I live in the hilly streets of west Austin, “gardening” most often looks like wrestling with nature, rather than gently nurturing it. Still, though it’s a lot of work, it’s a great pleasure to watch things grow. Joyce and I now sit in the shade of trees that are forty feet tall that we planted when we first moved to this place nearly thirty years ago. That’s a good thing.
Although I wanted to try my hand at writing fiction after graduate school, Joyce and I had two small children, and the often-rocky road to publishing and establishing a writing career seemed a risky proposition that I couldn’t afford to take at that point. I took an editing job with a small regional press and spent the next decade knocking around in a variety of jobs, including running my own small publishing company for a few years, and editing books in the humanities for the University of Texas Press.
Finally, in 1980, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer to try my hand at fiction. Knowing I couldn’t afford to write for nothing, I decided to increase my odds of getting published by researching what kinds of fiction had the best chance of finding a publisher. Mystery novels rose to the top of my research results. I don’t think I’d ever read a “mystery novel” at that time, but I immediately bought a representative collection of twenty-five popular, famous, and classic mystery novels, including British and European writers. After reading these, and many more, I realized that the “genre” encompassed a startling variety of work, everything from Mickey Spillane to Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Two years later I began my writing career by publishing two mystery novels in the same year. Thirty-odd years later I’ve just finished my 15th novel. Though I began writing in the mystery genre, I eventually went on to write fiction in other areas, mostly dealing with the criminal, national, and private intelligence professions.
When I’m not writing, I spend most of my time in my library. My other pleasure is gardening and landscape work, though where I live in the hilly streets of west Austin, “gardening” most often looks like wrestling with nature, rather than gently nurturing it. Still, though it’s a lot of work, it’s a great pleasure to watch things grow. Joyce and I now sit in the shade of trees that are forty feet tall that we planted when we first moved to this place nearly thirty years ago. That’s a good thing.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
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December 21, 2021Houston detective Stuart Haydon is at a crossroads of his career. Does he come off the street into the office like his wife desperately wants him to? Or does he stay out where the very core of his being dictates? While he ponders, he's getting some strange photographs delivered to his home and the last in the series is clearly a death threat. This Lindsey isn't as good as his others but it's still a wonderful, scary, fascinating story.
January 4, 2017
Wie wohl bei den Stuart Haydon-Krimis keine echte Gefahr besteht, denn es handelt sich ja nicht um Whodummits, sondern mit geradezu zuverlässiger Regelmäßigkeit um Duelle zwischen dem musterhaften Ermittler mit dem Heile-Welt-Heim und der idealen Ehefrau und einem perversen Miesling aus Lateinamrerika, setze ich den Rest in Klammern. Und füge auch noch eine deutliche Diskriminierungswarnung für diesen und andere Teile der Reihe hinzu.
April 26, 2019
Very slow. Descriptions of everything very long!
July 9, 2019
Battle of the wanabe meteorologist and the psycho anthropologist that never takes place.
Want to read
October 5, 2019Synopsis: Detective Haydon opens an envelope to find old photos of his father and an unknown woman. And one showing his planned murder.
February 2, 2021
A complex and intriguing thriller, well researched and with slowly escalating tension.
May 31, 2008
Houston Detective Stuart Hayden wants to know why someone has mailed him a photograph of his deceased father, taken decades earlier. Soon, photos of a mysterious woman arrive, and finally a current picture of Stuart. On the picture is a detailed drawing showing his brains being blown out. Once Stuart identifies the sender as Saturnino Barcena from Mexico City, he begins a bewildering and unsettling journey to learn what Barcena’s connection is to his father and the woman, and why Barcena wants him dead.
IN THE LAKE OF THE MOON is more than a family study. It’s a long, painful dissection of events that happened fifty years earlier between two people. The more Stuart learns, the more his beliefs about his father are upended and exposed from differing viewpoints.
I wanted to like this book because author David L. Lindsey was highly recommended, but the more I read the less I enjoyed the novel. Revelations about the past are predictable. Perhaps the author intended predictability in order to build suspense to the final climatic confrontation, except once that scene finally came, I was so exasperated with the time it took to get there, I had no trouble putting the book down in the middle of it.
Although Lindsey’s narrative descriptions and inner monologues are beautifully written, they went on far too long, particularly during scenes in Mexcio City, where street after street, plaza after plaza, and building after building is named. I tried to keep up with directions and details, but it was completely confusing. If you enjoy slow-moving, detailed stories, then read the book. But if you prefer a fast pace and action, better skip this one.
IN THE LAKE OF THE MOON is more than a family study. It’s a long, painful dissection of events that happened fifty years earlier between two people. The more Stuart learns, the more his beliefs about his father are upended and exposed from differing viewpoints.
I wanted to like this book because author David L. Lindsey was highly recommended, but the more I read the less I enjoyed the novel. Revelations about the past are predictable. Perhaps the author intended predictability in order to build suspense to the final climatic confrontation, except once that scene finally came, I was so exasperated with the time it took to get there, I had no trouble putting the book down in the middle of it.
Although Lindsey’s narrative descriptions and inner monologues are beautifully written, they went on far too long, particularly during scenes in Mexcio City, where street after street, plaza after plaza, and building after building is named. I tried to keep up with directions and details, but it was completely confusing. If you enjoy slow-moving, detailed stories, then read the book. But if you prefer a fast pace and action, better skip this one.
August 11, 2013
I'm re-reading David L. Lindsey's books, which I have read once before, when each was published. So, for this one, that was around 1988, close to 25 years ago. I remembered some of the characters, but not much of the plot. I don't mean that as a criticism, only that I was able to enjoy the plot this second time.
This book is more about Stuart Haydon than about Houston, unlike some of the others. If you read it like a police procedural, I don't think you'll much enjoy it. If you read it just as a book, veering close to magic realism, I think you'll enjoy it more.
Some of questioned the reality of decisions that Stuart Haydon makes in this book. I have a couple of relatives who are so intensely private that I can imagine a real person (much less a fictional one) makes just those choices.
This book is more about Stuart Haydon than about Houston, unlike some of the others. If you read it like a police procedural, I don't think you'll much enjoy it. If you read it just as a book, veering close to magic realism, I think you'll enjoy it more.
Some of questioned the reality of decisions that Stuart Haydon makes in this book. I have a couple of relatives who are so intensely private that I can imagine a real person (much less a fictional one) makes just those choices.
February 16, 2011
Pretty interesting book with an exciting ending, but the basis for the book depends on the main character, a Houston police detective, being an idiot; not reporting a murder and not informing his family he is the target of death threats, all because he values his family privacy. This makes the rest of the book less than logical. One of the main early threads of the plot, whether or not he will take an open lt's job, is never answered. What could have been an excellent book becomes only average.
July 28, 2010
Another of Lindsey's serial killing investigator books. I liked it. Lots of atmosphere.
July 23, 2013
Slow to start. Did not grab my interest till the end. I enjoyed it, but I would not read it again.
April 12, 2016
Compelling.
June 12, 2016
I've read several of this author's books and have really liked them. This one started out slow and unfortunately stayed that way and was predictable-no surprises.
January 31, 2017
Not too bad, starts slow but gains momentum. Worth the read has some Mexican history which I found quite interesting.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews