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Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts
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Shoot the Moon (original 2004; edition 2008)

by Billie Letts

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1,4853712,246 (3.54)54
From one of America's best-loved storytellers - the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller WHERE THE HEART IS - comes a tale of a small Oklahoma town and the mystery that has haunted its residents for years. In 1972, windswept DeClare, Oklahoma, was consumed by the murder of a young mother, Gaylene Harjo, and the disappearance of her baby, Nicky Jack. When the child's pajama bottoms were discovered on the banks of Willow Creek, everyone feared that he, too, had been killed, although his body was never found. Nearly thirty years later, Nicky Jack mysteriously returns to DeClare, shocking the town and stirring up long-buried memories. But what he discovers about the night he vanished is more astonishing than he or anyone could have imagine. Piece by piece, what emerges is a story of dashed hopes, desperate love, and a secret that still cries out for justice...and redemption.… (more)
Member:redhairedfox
Title:Shoot the Moon
Authors:Billie Letts
Info:Grand Central Publishing (2008), Edition: Reprint, Mass Market Paperback, 368 pages
Collections:never again
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Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts (2004)

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» See also 54 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 37 (next | show all)
I read Where the Heart Is a lonnnnnng time ago and liked it; so when I found this while looking for some quick and mindless summer reads, I thought I'd give it a shot. It wasn't too bad for a quick, mindless read---but isn't my usual. I loved the setting of the story as I live just 90 minutes from this part of Oklahoma so it was easy to imagine it all taking place in familiar territory. I thought the solution to the mystery was sort of anticlimactic. The killer and the reason for doing so weren't all that shocking. I wondered if I was supposed to be sympathetic about the reasons...I wasn't.

I was put off by the amount of foul language in the story. Like I said---not my normal cup of tea. ( )
  classyhomemaker | Dec 11, 2023 |
I picked this book up at a flea market. I'd never heard of the author or the book, but the synopsis sounded interesting, so I grabbed it. I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed this. Its not super action packed, but instead moves at a steady pace. The writing and cast of interesting and likable characters are enough to keep you flipping the pages. I'm a sucker for small town settings and this one didn't disappoint. ( )
  Jfranklin592262 | Jun 26, 2022 |
This is the story of a grown man, living near Hollywood, California, he has a rather large and interesting vet practice. Ashe ages, he grows restless and wants to find his biological parents.

His adoptive parents gave him a lot of monetary items, but still he felt something was missing.

Learning his mother was killed when he was young, and the newspaper headlines read that the baby (him) was stolen) make it all the more challenging to dig up the truth of his early life.

Traveling back to small town Oklahoma, he finds his mother's relatives, including his grandmother. He receives his mother's diary and a few trinkets. He learns his mother had a full scholarship for college, until she became pregnant.

From her on the book plot twists and turns with good, and bad small town people.

The ending is a surprise. ( )
  Whisper1 | Dec 9, 2020 |
I would not recommend this book. The central mystery of this book is the identity of the murderer of the main character's mother. The details of this murder, and especially of the consequences for other important characters in the book, were told in cursory fashion and I felt that they were glossed over. The characters were not particularly compelling or complex. ( )
  Joe24 | Jul 10, 2019 |
Questions about the long-unsolved murder of a young woman in a small Oklahoma town are revived when a man appears, claiming to be the baby boy who disappeared from his mother's murder scene.

Letts does a good job when she's concentrating on Mark Albright's / Nicky Jack Harjo's search for his past and for the mother he never knew, and populates her story with a colorful cast of well-drawn characters. The resolution of the mystery is less well handled, with a whirlwind seven-page denouement to a 300-page setup, all (okay, most) plot noodles tucked neatly away and an unlikely romance rushed to what feels like an obligatory happy ending.

Not a bad read, but nothing outstanding, either. ( )
  LyndaInOregon | Jan 27, 2019 |
Showing 1-5 of 37 (next | show all)
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Letts, Billieprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Phillips, Lou DiamondNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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This one is for my sons, Shawn and Tracy, who bring me joy--even on the darkest days.
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Back when it happened, back in 1972, there wasn't an adult in the county who didn't know every detail of the crime.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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From one of America's best-loved storytellers - the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller WHERE THE HEART IS - comes a tale of a small Oklahoma town and the mystery that has haunted its residents for years. In 1972, windswept DeClare, Oklahoma, was consumed by the murder of a young mother, Gaylene Harjo, and the disappearance of her baby, Nicky Jack. When the child's pajama bottoms were discovered on the banks of Willow Creek, everyone feared that he, too, had been killed, although his body was never found. Nearly thirty years later, Nicky Jack mysteriously returns to DeClare, shocking the town and stirring up long-buried memories. But what he discovers about the night he vanished is more astonishing than he or anyone could have imagine. Piece by piece, what emerges is a story of dashed hopes, desperate love, and a secret that still cries out for justice...and redemption.

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