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Publisher:
Time Warner Audio |
Release
Date: July 1, 2004 |
ISBN:
1-58621-739-9 |
Awards:
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Format
Reviewed: Unabridged [6 hours/5 CDs] |
Buy
it at Amazon |
Hear
an Excerpt |
Genre:
Fiction |
Reviewed:
2004 |
Reviewer:
Carisa Weeaks |
Reviewer
Notes: |
Copyright
MyShelf.com |
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Shoot the Moon
By Billie Letts
Read by Lou Diamond Phillips
In
1972, DeClare, Oklahoma felt the shock of murder that would forever
change their lives. A young woman named Gaylene Harjo is murdered
in her trailer, and her baby, Nicky Jack, disappears. After the
deputies do everything in their power to close the case, no matter
what the cost, the town keeps the secret of the young woman’s
past and death in their skeleton closet along with all the rest.
They had no idea that 30 years later Nicky Jack himself would come
waltzing back into their lives in order to piece together exactly
what happened the night his mother was taken from him.
Mark
Albright is a wealthy vet to the stars in his lush Beverly Hills
practice. He’s always had an easy life and planned it to be
that way. The kind of man that fills his daily calendar out a year
in advance, Mark is blind-sided by the discovery of an attorney’s
letter of adoption and a birth certificate stating that his real
name is Nick Harjo. Shocked, Mark sets out to figure out why his
real mother would give him up to a wealthy couple for adoption in
exchange for twenty-thousand dollars. Only instead of finding her,
he finds that her memory and life is buried deep in a cavern of
deceit and lies darker than the Carlsbad Caverns. Struggling with
the tumultuous turn of his normal life into one that puts all soap
operas to shame, Mark/Nick struggles with the reality that nothing
is ever as it seems and that fate has her way of always bringing
everything that happens in the dark to light somehow, no matter
how hard the guilty fight to stop it.
Ever
since I watched “Where the Heart is,” I’ve become
a bigger and bigger fan of Letts and her candid view of real small
town life. I applaud her bold ability to bring out the truly dark
and slimy nature of small-town politics as well as the heartfelt,
closeness of those who care about others more than they do about
themselves. Mark/Nick and Ivy are the strongest characters I’ve
ever seen in a story about Oklahoma and they personify the realities
of living there in this day and age. I love Ivy’s free-spirited
wit and humor about the town she and her mother Teev call home,
and Mark/Nick’s struggle with whose life he’s really
meant to lead; Mark’s suburban vet life or Nick’s small-town
freedom fighter’s life is truly a clash of the Titans. It’s
an awesome read and I recommend this to anyone who enjoys the dramatics
that is small-town wonderment as well as a story of love, loss,
and rediscovery.
Lou Diamond
Phillips was the perfect pick for the voice of this story. His deep,
smooth voice and ability to change characters with the ease of wind-changing
direction creates a three-dimensional world for the listener and
helps pull them into a story of unparalleled proportions. His resumé
includes Courage Under Fire and Stand and Deliver. He’s also
directed and starred in episodes of “The Twilight Zone”
and has a guest starring spot opposite Kiefer Sutherland in the
TV show “24.”
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