Murders at Moon Dance

by A.B. Guthrie Jr., William Kittredge (Introduction)

At a difficult and sad time in his family life, A. B. Guthrie, Jr., turned for surcease to reading western and whodunit novels. In his autobiography, The Blue Hen's Chick (also a Bison Book), he touches on that moment when he realized he could write as well as or better than the published plot-spinners. "What about a mystery and cow-country myth in combination?" he mused, "So far as I could recall, the two had never been blended. All right. I'd blend them." The result was his first novel, Murders at Moon Dance , appearing in 1943. It was an audacious debut with bold characterizations and a sharply etched, atmospheric setting The dusty town of Moon Dance, smacked down between barren mountains and a badland named the Freezeout, would also be a back-drop for The Big It and Other Stories (1960). In Guthrie's hand, raw vitality replaces the woodenness of much writing in the genre, and unexpected grace notes in the verbal rhythms suggest the author of The Big Sky (1947) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Way West (1949).

Genres: Fiction

279 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1943

About the author

Alfred Bertram Guthrie, Jr. was an American novelist, screenwriter, historian, and literary historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction during 1950 for his novel The Way West.

After working 22 years as a news reporter and editor for the Lexington Leader, Guthrie wrote his first novel.

Ηe was able to quit his reporting job after the publication of the novels The Big Sky and The Way West (1950 Pulitzer Prize).

Guthrie died during 1991, at age 90, at his ranch near Choteau.

(Source - Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of A.B. Guthrie Jr's first published novels. I have never read his novels The Big Sky or The Way West and I have full intentions to do so in the future, however I wanted to read this Murders at Moon Dance first to get a feel of what I'll be getting into when I read the two later novels. Personally I felt this novel moved at a snails pace with not a whole lot of character development or action, thus my 3 star rating. It was reported that while going through a rough period of life that Guthrie read western and mystery novels extensively and said to himself that he could write just as good or better novels than those that he had been reading, this leading him to write this western/who done it mystery. While I find Murders at Moon Dance a so-so book published in 1943 I still look forward to reading the two later published novels.

[Jody · Rating 2 out of 5]

Murders at Mood Dance is an okay book, not great. My reading goals for the year include a Western category, so I can check that off. I'm not certain where I got the book--probably from a local thrift shop, and it does have a lovely cover. (I do think snakes are beautiful.) It is a cross between a traditional Western and a murder mystery. It was rather hard to follow, partly because of the old-fashioned language style and Western lingo, and partly because of the surfeit of characters necessary to provide multiple potential suspects for multiple murders. I'm not spoiling the plot for you (after all, the title includes "murders", plural) but I have a warning. The edition I read includes an "introduction" by another author. DO NOT READ THE INTRODUCTION before you read the book. It has lots of spoilers, including a reference to an event that takes place half way through the book. I started reading the intro, but caught on pretty quick that it might contain spoilers, so quit reading it until after finishing the book. I don't often read either Westerns or murder mysteries; if you are a fan of one of those genres, you may enjoy this novel more than I did.

[Raquel A.]

I liked this book a lot. I read a lot of ab guthrie books and I will continue to read every book he has written. I like his murder books the best.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of AB Guthrie's books written in the 1940s. Not a bad western mystery. I love this author but this isn't one of his best. Maybe being the first explains that.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I now know that I really don't care for westerns. This is not the first, but may well be the last of that genre I ever read. I do mean of course, mysteries set in the West.