Back Side of a Blue Moon (The Boom Town Saga Book 1)
by Caleb Pirtle III
Reviewed by S. S. Bazinet

Description:
2018 BEVERLY HILLS AWARD WINNER for Historical Fiction!
BEST OF TEXAS BOOK AWARDS for Historical Fiction!

Times are hard along the Sabine River, and the little East Texas town of Ashland is crumbling under the weight of the Great Depression. Families are broke and hungry. For many, their last meal may well have been their last meal. Families are giving up and leaving town. Everyone knows the fate that awaits the scattered farms. No one can save Ashland. It is as isolated as the back side of a blue moon.

Into town comes Doc Bannister wearing a straw boater and a white suit. He is the miracle man. He has a homemade doodlebug machine that, he says, can find oil and make them all rich. Oil, he swears, lies beneath the blistered farmstead of Eudora Durant. She thinks Doc is a flim flam man. The Sheriff believes he is a con artist. Both are convinced that Doc has come to town to swindle every dime he can get before hitting the road again. Ashland knows Doc may be crooked, but he has brought hope to a town that had no hope.

Eudora has everything Doc wants. She is a beautiful woman who owns cheap land. In Ashland, she is known as the scarlet woman. Whispers say she murdered her husband. No one has seen him since the night they heard a shotgun blast on her farm. The town wants oil. Doc wants Eudora. But Eudora is too independent and stubborn to fall for the charms of a silver-tongued charlatan.

She holds the fate of Ashland in her hands. Will she let Doc drill? Is there really oil lying deep beneath her sunbaked land? Can Doc find it? Or is he more interested in finding love than oil? What happens when a man with a checkered past comes face to face with a woman whose past is as mysterious as his?

My Review: Caleb Pirtle’s novel, “Back Side of a Blue Moon,” has it all, history, love and mystery!

If you’re looking for a historical novel comparable to “The Grapes of Wrath”, this is it. “Back Side of a Blue Moon” transports you to the 1930’s before you can utter the word, dustbowl. You’ll be a witness to the depression that took hold of East Texas and feel it stark realities. You’re thrown into a people’s exhaustion and their determined resolve to hold on to what little they have.

If you want a unique, but fulfilling love story, Doc Banister and Eudora Durant will draw you into a world where the chances of finding romance are about as likely as striking it big in a desolate, barren wasteland. Yet there it is, blossoming in the sweat and turmoil, and pulling the reader into its tender depths and the desires of the heart.

But there’s more. There are mysteries woven into the story. You’re kept wondering and fretting about the disappearance of Eudora’s cruel husband. Is he dead? Did Eudora become so desperate that she resorted to killing him? Will she be arrested for a murder that no one can prove? And what about the oil and finding the precious stuff? It’s another riveting element of the tale that will keep you on the edge. As the hole that Doc Banister is drilling gets deeper and machinery keeps failing, as the money runs out and tempers flare, you hope against hope that the venture will pay off.

Caleb Pirtle’s beautifully written novel brings to life all the key elements you want to experience in a great story. The setting? You’re right there, in the midst of the depression, tasting the dirt that’s blowing in the blistering winds and hearing the groans of a people who can’t escape a land that’s barren and wasted. The characters are unique and so well defined that you think you’ll recognize them if you saw them on the street. Mysteries crop up and demand resolution. As for the love story, it’s one that burns and festers, pleads and despairs until your heart can’t help but open to its message, that love does indeed find a way to conquer all, even in the worst of times and circumstance. Highly recommended!
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For more about the author, visit Caleb Pirtle’s website. You can also visit him on Facebook and on Twitter.