Moon Bones - (Nellie Burns and Moonshine Mystery) by Julie Weston (Paperback)

About the Book

Death leads photographer Nellie Burns and Sheriff Azgo to a ghost town in the Stanley Basin in 1920's Idaho. Murder and mayhem ensue. Nellie, her dog Moonshine, and others help solve complex riddles in a landscape where greed and evil lurk.

Book Synopsis

The death of a Chinese man leads photographer Nellie Burns and Sheriff Asteguitoiri to Vienna, a ghost town in the Stanley Basin in 1920's Idaho. Sammy Ah Kee, who taught Nellie to drive, found the man's body and is accused of killing him.

Nellie and the sheriff, with the help of Nellie's dog Moonshine, discover a conspiracy dedicated to enslaving Chinese immigrants. Days later, Sammy and Nellie explore the mine entrance and unearth a secret. Mayhem and murder follow all of their explorations. The conspirators capture and torture the sheriff, leaving him for dead. Moonie, Rosy Kipling, Sammy, and Alphonso, a sheepherder from Nellie's time in the Basin, help Nellie follow the complex trails and motives in this western landscape lurking with greed and evil.

Review Quotes

Acclaim for the Nellie Burns and Moonshine Mysteries:

"...gorgeously written, taut mystery. Secrets are the fuel of all fiction-prepare for Moonshadows to burn brightly."

-Ridley Pearson, bestselling author of The Red Room

"A pleasant period mystery likely to draw readers of mainstream historical fiction."

-Booklist on Moonshadows

"Weston's second is a rip-roaring yarn that enchants with beguiling descriptions of the beauty of the Idaho wilderness."

-Kirkus Reviews on Basque Moon

"Weston does a good job evoking the wild beauty of Idaho's Sawtooth Range, and Nellie is a likable protagonist..."

-Publishers Weekly on Basque Moon

"Basque Moon has pretty much everything I want in an historical mystery: gun fights and knife fights; cattlemen vs. sheepmen vs. moonshiners; a gallant dog; a handsome Basque sheriff; secrets, lies and murder; and Nellie Burns, a woman absolutely alive on the page, and a heroine of extraordinary curiosity and courage. All of this set down in the 1920s in the mountains of Idaho. Perfect."

-Molly Gloss, author of The Hearts of Horses, on Basque Moon

"Weston explores a more personal kind of borderland with her character Nellie Burns, a professional photographer who survives and thrives in a world of rough, violent men who cannot comprehend new technologies, new economies, and a happily emancipated woman."

-John Rember, author of Traplines: Coming Home to Sawtooth Valley, on Basque Moon

"Weston's third Nellie Burns & Moonshine Mystery (Moonshadows; Basque Moon ) is set in a still untamed 1920s Idaho, which is as much a character in this novel as any of its human protagonists.... This mystery should flourish... Fans of Western or historical mysteries may want to give this series a try."

-Library Journal on Moonscape

"Julie Weston weaves a story as mysterious and captivating as the Craters of the Moon landscapes she evokes with her words."

-Ann Parker, bestselling author of A Dying Note, on Moonscape