Murders at Moon Dance

Murders at Moon Dance

• Used Book in Good Condition

<DIV>At a difficult and sad time in his family life, A. B. Guthrie, Jr., turned for surcease to reading western and whodunit novels. In his autobiography, <I>The Blue Hen's Chick</I> (also a Bison Book), he touches on that moment when he realized he could write as well as or better than the published plot-spinners. "What about a mystery and cow-country myth in combination?" he mused, "So far as I could recall, the two had never been blended. All right. I'd blend them." <P>The result was his first novel, <I>Murders at Moon Dance</I>, appearing in 1943. It was an audacious debut with bold characterizations and a sharply etched, atmospheric setting The dusty town of Moon Dance, smacked down between barren mountains and a badland named the Freezeout, would also be a back-drop for <I>The Big It and Other Stories</I> (1960). In Guthrie's hand, raw vitality replaces the woodenness of much writing in the genre, and unexpected grace notes in the verbal rhythms suggest the author of <I>The Big Sky</I> (1947) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning <I>The Way West</I> (1949).</P></DIV>