Book Review – Mist and Moonbeams by Paul Michael Peters

With a pretentious description like “Each tale is a testament to the power of human emotion, the depth of the human heart, and the indomitable spirit of adventure that lies within us all.” I wasn’t expecting a whole lot but luring me in with tales from my home state Great Lakes I thought I’d give it a chance. I did not enjoy any of these stories and while I liked the mention of towns and areas around the lakes, the stories were just not something I enjoyed nor found the messages of value.

For example, the initial story starts out with a mild sex scene and one rooted in infidelity. I thought the story was going the route of a Hitchcockian comeuppance where her journey to find her lost wedding ring was going to be a symbolic journey that would lead to her getting away with it barely or failing to understand the cosmic justice had against her. Instead, we find out that her husband is just a good man and she has no reason to do what she’s doing. There was an instance where her son, through meeting a girl with a pet raven, finds his mother’s ring and realizes it has no response to the revelation other than a sentence or two of “wait, what?” And the husband knew all along and was fine with it because he promised when they got married to be with her through it all. What utter garbage. No repercussions, no real characterization, no real responses of any value. And worse of all, nothing to be redeemed.

The other stories are flat including a conspiracy detective story that takes place somewhat in Chicago and somewhat in Kalamazoo/WMU. Ya know, there are big cities on the Lake Michigan side of Michigan that you can set your story in. This was another story where nothing really realistic happens including the super secret senator showing up while his hitman is in the process of taking out a witness only to get away because the senator showed up and told the hitman to get the job done. The other three stories didn’t offer much more for discussion.

Really a disappointment with the stories and the utilization of the Great Lakes could have been better utilized.