Turtle Moon

Turtle Moon transports the listener to Verity, Florida, a place where anything can happen during the month of May, when migrating sea turtles come to town, mistaking the glow of the streetlights for the moon.

A young single mother is murdered in her apartment and her baby is gone. Keith, a 12-year-old boy in the same apartment building-the self-styled "meanest boy" in town-also disappears. In pursuit of the baby, the boy and the killer, are Keith's divorced mother and a cop who himself was once considered the meanest boy in town. Their search leads them down the humid byways of a Florida populated almost exclusively by people from somewhere else; emotional refugees seeking sanctuary along the swampy coast.

1100376988
Turtle Moon

Turtle Moon transports the listener to Verity, Florida, a place where anything can happen during the month of May, when migrating sea turtles come to town, mistaking the glow of the streetlights for the moon.

A young single mother is murdered in her apartment and her baby is gone. Keith, a 12-year-old boy in the same apartment building-the self-styled "meanest boy" in town-also disappears. In pursuit of the baby, the boy and the killer, are Keith's divorced mother and a cop who himself was once considered the meanest boy in town. Their search leads them down the humid byways of a Florida populated almost exclusively by people from somewhere else; emotional refugees seeking sanctuary along the swampy coast.

35.99 In Stock
Turtle Moon

Turtle Moon

by Alice Hoffman

Narrated by Sandra Burr

Unabridged — 7 hours, 35 minutes

Turtle Moon

Turtle Moon

by Alice Hoffman

Narrated by Sandra Burr

Unabridged — 7 hours, 35 minutes

Audiobook (Digital)

$35.99
(Not eligible for purchase using B&N Audiobooks Subscription credits)

Listen on the free Barnes & Noble NOOK app


Related collections and offers


Overview

Turtle Moon transports the listener to Verity, Florida, a place where anything can happen during the month of May, when migrating sea turtles come to town, mistaking the glow of the streetlights for the moon.

A young single mother is murdered in her apartment and her baby is gone. Keith, a 12-year-old boy in the same apartment building-the self-styled "meanest boy" in town-also disappears. In pursuit of the baby, the boy and the killer, are Keith's divorced mother and a cop who himself was once considered the meanest boy in town. Their search leads them down the humid byways of a Florida populated almost exclusively by people from somewhere else; emotional refugees seeking sanctuary along the swampy coast.


Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Combining aspects of a suspense thriller and a romance, and including such surefire elements as an abandoned baby, a youngster on the verge of juvenile delinquency who is reformed, two dogs and a supernatural character who provides the requisite touch of fantasy, Hoffman's new novel has commercial success written all over it. But some readers will fail to find the enchantment provided in such previous works as Illumination Night and Seventh Heaven . The town of Verity, Fla., starts to steam up in May, when the humidity and temperature soar. (Among the things readers must accept is the dreadful, oppressive May heat; one is tempted to ask, if it's so unbearable in May, how do people live through the summer?) Verity is full of divorcees, and when one of them is murdered, Keith Rosen, ``Verity's meanest 12-year-old,'' finds her baby, who was in fact the object of an aborted kidnapping, and runs away, instinctively hiding the threatened child. This development brings together Keith's divorced mother, Lucy, and the town's surly policeman, Julian Cash, a loner with a tragedy in his past. Despite the murder and a stalking assassin, this is really a fairy tale: Keith bonds with the baby and tames a vicious dog (``No one has ever known him the way this dog does''); a ghost/angel falls in love and brings redemption to Julian, and several people begin new lives. Hoffman lards her slick plot with ponderously sentimental observations, the kind of bromides that could be embroidered on a pillow. But she knows how to manipulate suspense and tug the heartstrings; with its cinematic flow and larger-than-life characters, her novel will make a wonderful movie. BOMC main selection; QPB alternate; film rights to Universal. (May)

Kirkus Reviews

A mix of murder and magic in the Florida sunshine as only Hoffman (Seventh Heaven, 1990, etc.) could conjure it. Verity, Florida, once known for live alligators, is now better known for alligator salads (a mix of spinach, peppers, avocado and chopped eggs, tinted green), as well as for having more divorced women from New York than any other town in the state of Florida. Lucy Rosen is one of those women. She has recently moved to Verity, and what she doesn't know yet is that in May, when the turtles come out and crawl across the roads, anything can happen. People go crazy. Dogs bite. Ficus hedges burst into flame. This particular May, a woman in Lucy's condo complex is murdered, her baby is missing, and Lucy's own son, Keith, has vanished as well. With the assistance of Julian Cash, a reclusive Verity policeman, Lucy sets out to find out who committed the murder and what has become of the missing children. The fact that the ultimate resolution of these mysteries is only partly plausible doesn't really matter in the end. Because Hoffman's strength is that she deals in dreams. She knows all about the everyday things that defy simple explanations—lovers who suddenly turn cold, turtles who mistake streetlights for the moon. The Florida she paints here is not the one promoted by any chamber of commerce. With a climate that is both mesmerizing and malignant, it is a place where dragonflies' wings catch fire and strangler plums drop down from trees, leaving dents in parked cars. It is a place where rattlesnakes crawl into telephone booths and angels lurk outside the Burger King. It's a place where anything might happen. And, naturally, it does. Pure Hoffman: her take on the tropicsis haunting, hypnotic, and hot as a fever dream. (Book-of-the-Month Dual Selection for June)

From the Publisher

Praise for Turtle Moon

“Magnificent.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Hard to put down...full of characters who take hold of your heart.”—San Francisco Examiner

“Beautiful.”—Seattle Times

“Pure magic.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“A spectacular novel.”—Susan Isaacs, Washington Post Book World

“She is a born storyteller...and Turtle Moon is one of her best.”—Entertainment Weekly

JUN 93 - AudioFile

Set mainly in Florida and radiating with magical nuances, Hoffman’s story, basically a murder mystery with love subplots, requires a more evocative and careful reading. For a novel so crowded with characters and details, Sandra Burr’s accelerated reading is destructive to both the mood and the meaning of the work. Burr’s male voices sound strained. Also, almost all natural pauses have been eliminated. Better to read the novel oneself than to listen to this careless sprint through its pages. P.W. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID: 2940172609459
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Publication date: 08/28/2009
Edition description: Unabridged
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews