12/2000

     Need a good recipe for a romantic suspense novel? Start out with a single beautiful woman and surround her with an old Louisiana plantation. Sift, a little at a time, a greedy married couple who’ll do about anything to get what they want, a little bit of voodoo, and a ghost. Top it off with a married handsome co-worker and you’ll get the tasty creation of Blue Moon, C. D. Ledbetter’s new book.

     This delicious tale begins when Mary Corbett, a curator for an estate surveying company, accepts a job in Louisiana. Unknowingly, she’s teamed up with a curator from another company, Jack Windom, a man she’s met before. However, Mary isn’t prepared for what greets her when she arrives at the old plantation she’s to survey. She experiences a strange tingling sensation and notices things about the house that only a person who lived there could know. After completing her job and returning to Boston, she begins to have nightmares and has a visit from a ghost. Realizing that she must solve the mystery of the ghost and what she wants so that her nightmares will end, Mary schemes to make it back to the plantation. And once she finally gets there, trouble begins.

     C. D. Ledbetter takes an ordinary woman’s life and shakes in the extraordinary. In an excerpt from her web page, she has this to say: “I believe that women of today are survivors. If not by nature, then by necessity. All the characters I create have something in common: They are all normal, everyday women whose lives are thrown into chaos by a chance encounter or event. Sometimes their lives change for the better, sometimes for the worse.”

     I won’t reveal whether Mary Corbett’s life was changed for better or worse. However, I admire the woman Mary becomes, the challenges she faces – and there are many. All I can suggest is to read the book and find out for yourself. But I will tell you that there is a sequel in the works.

     Blue Moon can be found at Amazon.com in traditional book form as well as ebook. I found the ebook not difficult to read, as I printed some pages out whenever I was on the go and knew I’d have reading time in between classes. Reading it from the screen wasn’t difficult, either, as I could enlarge the print. It all depends on a person’s preference.

     Overall, I found Blue Moon a delightful book to review, enjoyed Ledbetter’s flair for suspense. I have a feeling that she will be an author we’ll hear about often.