Isabella Moon

Idyllic Carystown, Kentucky seems to be the perfect place for Kate Russell to hide from a vindictive, abusive husband. She has a good job, a new best friend, and a new man. For two years she’s cautiously happy, until the ghost of Isabella Moon, a nine-year-old girl who’s been missing since Kate came to town, begins to haunt her. No one wants justice for the missing child more than Sheriff Bill Delaney, who considers Isabella’s unsolved disappearance one of his greatest failures. Now, Kate comes to him to say she knows where Isabella’s body is buried, but he doesn’t trust her. He senses her secrets, and when he links her to the murder of one of the town’s most beloved women, he’s certain she’s real trouble. But Kate isn’t the only one with secrets. The good people of Carystown have plenty to hide, and in the middle of it all is Isabella Moon.

Original Book Trailer

“The melancholic appeal of Benedict’s first novel is deeply tied to her spot-on portrayal of small-town America and all its contradictions.  An amalgam of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and Peter Straub’s Ghost Story, this mystery/thriller will simultaneously tug at the heartstrings and scare the bejesus out of readers.  In a word: unforgettable.” —Chicago Tribune

“A volatile mixture of heavy romance, serious homicide, and the paranormal … Kate, with a sizzling and explosive story all her own, holds all the strands together.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Benedict fleshes out her characters quickly, imbuing them with a lived-in history in a few concise pages.  When she kills one of them off, early and brutally, it stings.  [She has] an ability to make us mourn.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer

“This debut thriller shines, boasting evocative writing and a well-integrated mix of ethereal supernatural phenomena and gritty violence.” —Romantic Times (4 ½ Stars)

“Rewarding … Benedict’s debut is a small-town thriller with a hint of the supernatural and compelling, well-drawn characters.” —Library Journal

“Like digging up an unmarked grave in the gloaming, ISABELLA MOON is a tense and creepy hunt for the truth about what lies beneath.  With a missing child, a reluctant medium hiding secrets of her own, and a picture perfect Southern town resting on a foundation of sex, drugs and lies, Laura Benedict’s debut will definitely have readers sleeping with the lights on—if they sleep at all.” —Lisa Unger, New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Beautiful Lies and Sliver of Truth

“ISABELLA MOON is a book of secrets and dark miracles.  Laura Benedict writes with such tender power and understanding, filling the pages with characters whose mysteries and longings will matter to every reader.  She has written an exquisite, closely observed novel that happens to be a great thriller. It captivated me instantly, and haunts me still.” —Luanne Rice, author of The Edge of Winter

“I dare you to read the opening lines of this first novel without being swept away.  Laura Benedict is a superb story-teller with a natural gift for writing in multiple viewpoints.  Like Alice Hoffman, Ms Benedict combines mystery with magic against a backdrop of homey, small-town lives. Spooky, sexy, and rich with complicated characters, ISABELLA MOON is a blast to read. —Elizabeth Hyde, author of The Abortionist’s Daughter

“Lordy, what a rich read ISABELLA MOON is—deliciously complex, suspenseful as a night in Guantanamo, chock full of the to and fro I delight in.  I love its characters, each, to quote Donnie and Marie, a little bit country and a little bit rock‘n’roll, by which turn of phrase I mean to highlight their crosswire natures.  And the pickles they’ve gotten themselves into are dark and dire, evil of every degree, a whole world of lies and terrible secrets and tawdry if too-human needs.  I am reminded of Greg Iles and the Kellerman duo, but ISABELLA MOON has a rising gusto that puts it far ahead of those in that pack. —Lee K. Abbott, author of Living After Midnight

“Told with intelligence, precision, and an essential artfulness, Laura Benedict’s haunting and sharp ISABELLA MOON is not unlike The Lovely Bones, but bigger, faster, and with a much broader scope.  You won’t forget these characters, or the story that fuels them.  A joy to read from first to last.” —Fred Leebron, author of Out West