Half Moon Lake is an elegantly written, deeply unsettling and riveting read about two missing boys and the corruption of wealth. The story is apparently inspired by that of Bobby Dunbar, who was the subject of a podcast by This American Life.
Louisiana, 1913; Sonny, a four year old boy from a family of means, disappears while playing with his brothers in the forest near Half Moon Lake. Two years later a similar looking boy turns up in the company of a tramp, but is it Sonny? And why can’t he speak? Or is this boy Ned, a lad who had been mute since birth and whose mother is poor, friendless and unmarried?
Sonny’s mother claims the boy is theirs and the father goes along with it, although Sonny’s two older brothers are not fooled for a second. Sonny’s father and the local judge engage in some shockingly corrupt behaviour to discredit the claims of Ned’s mother. The tramp who was found with Sonny is put on trial for kidnapping and Ned’s mother testifies, but the outcome of the trial is all too easy to believe.
The last chapter is a real sucker punch. It may leave you feeling slightly queasy but again, it’s all too credible.
Half Moon Lake is quite a brilliant and confronting read. It’s the kind of book you press upon other people so you have someone to talk to about it, even though it is not, strictly speaking, a pleasant read. It will stay with you long after the last page and at the same time make you incredibly grateful for modern DNA testing.
Can’t wait for Kirsten Alexander’s next foray into fiction.
