Angry Moon
by Terrill Lankford

This is a short book that combines noir, a love story and the supernatural in a melange that shouldn't really work. Surprisingly though it does. Imagine The Godfather meets Apocalypse Now with just a dash of Wuthering Heights, The Big Sleep and some Hammer horror films thrown in. Although this sort of thing has become old hat now, back in the late nineties when this book was written it wasn't cliched yet.

Anyway the story concerns a truly professional and deadly hitman known as Ry Caulder. Ry has a soft spot for women and children. He does not torture. He does not kill innocents. He does not mutilate or send messages. He just removes bad people from this world-quickly, painlessly and permanently. Caulder knows he's an evil man but in his environment he's (pun intended) a straight shooter. He has an unblemished reputation for reliability and honesty. You get what you pay for with Caulder. He's on time and thorough. Always. He is the best. He does not miss.

His primary client is the LA Mafia family-which has mostly gone legitimate and underground. It seems however that there are a few loose ends which the Family needs Caulder to tie up. One of these "loose ends" is a man Caulder trained in the line of wetwork. Caulder doesn't like it but business is business and he does the job. Deciding that he's had enough, Caulder talks about retiring but the Family insists Caulder do one last job-that of his mentor, a legendary hitman known as Fredrickson, who was about the closest thing to a father that Caulder had. Fredrickson, always more brutal and savage than Caulder, has killed some people-including innocents-that the Family didn't want killed. It looks like Fredrickson has hooked up with the Colombian cartels to make a move on Family interests. Now the Family wants Caulder to punch Fredrickson's ticket.

Caulder doesn't want to do this but the Family makes him an offer he can't refuse. He does the job but is shocked to find Frederickson still alive the next day. He repeats this but gets the same results. And now Frederickson is coming after Caulder, the Family, and Caulder's sexy but naive next door neighbor, Stephanie, a single mother and would be actress, on whom the cold, ascetic and lonely Caulder has a serious crush.

Although the supernatural elements are hinted at in the prologue they are very slowly revealed throughout the story in a most plausible manner. And if you've ever wondered what really happened to Jimmy Hoffa, this book's theory is as good as any. Caulder can't understand why Frederickson won't stay dead and when he puts it together he doesn't want to believe it. I liked this book. You might as well. It deftly balances the different aspects which I mentioned above.