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A Forgotten Cemetery
Blood Moon Over Betonville follows a gifted but troubled FBI profiler who investigates a boneyard of human remains in the town of his childhood, where an ancient curse, a mysterious beast, and buried family secrets threaten to destroy everything he thought he knew. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
When I was a boy, I took a bike ride on a trail through a forest behind my house and encountered an old, forgotten cemetery. Something about the place scared me beyond words and I pedaled home furiously without stopping. Though there wasn’t a strange creature there to greet me, I had a nightmare that night of a beast cresting the ridgeline behind the graveyard. The creature’s great form was black as the night sky before the setting sun; its howl rattled my soul, waking me from the dream.
I thought it would be interesting to couple those experiences together as a starting point for the story. Of course, in Blood Moon Over Betonville, we don’t know if the beast was real or imagined in the opening chapter but certainly it’s a metaphor for the protagonist’s tragic childhood and the torment he carries into adulthood.
How did you develop Tom Milner’s personality and his ability to understand the minds of killers, and how have the traumatic experiences of his childhood impacted his relationships and his approach to investigating crimes?
To a large degree, Tom’s personality is shaped by the events of his childhood. There’s a constant tension in his life. His drive to solve crimes and avenge his mother’s death takes an enormous toll. Losing his mother along with his father’s inability to rise to the challenge leave Tom with crippling feelings of abandonment, which makes it difficult for him to have close relationships. They can’t leave him if he leaves them first.
Though it’s been well-documented that many serial killers lack the capacity for empathy, often what turns them into monsters is experiencing an extremely traumatic childhood. Tom isn’t a sociopath, but his understanding of the mark left behind by tragedy and trauma at an impressionable age gives him a unique insight into their minds. He also has some other special gifts that defy rational explanation.
How did you develop Betonville’s history and its reputation for unusual occurrences?
Betonville was modeled after Coudersport, a small town in western Pennsylvania. For about a year, I lived there with my family when I was a child. The town was in a beautiful setting, surrounded by state and national forests. The people were very warm and welcoming. But it was also a place which had an undefinable, mysterious quality to it. It was where I had my cemetery scare and accompanying night terror. It was the same place that rained blood on walks to school (see Chapter One for more about that). And living in an antique home, where generations of lives had been lived, there was always a sense that you were never completely alone, especially in the house’s dark corners. So, I expanded on this feeling to create the town’s history and reputation.
What do you find most compelling about horror that combines physical danger with psychological and emotional conflict?
The threat of physical danger is a staple of modern-day horror, but for me, it’s the psychological and emotional conflict that makes stories compelling. We find him at the beginning nearly broken and in self-imposed isolation. A war rages for Tom’s psyche. Only when he completes his emotional journey, finding love and friendship and coming to terms with his true nature, can he be ready to face the demon. And whether he rises or falls, for the first time in his life, he won’t be alone.
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When a massive boneyard of human remains is discovered in the remote hills of western Pennsylvania, the town of Betonville, already known for unusual occurrences, is thrown into a panic. FBI Agent Tom Milner, assigned to the case, knows the town well.
He has many fond memories of his time there as a child. But that was before two life altering experiences changed everything—the night he saw the beast, howling from a clifftop under a blood-red moon, and, soon after, the murder of his mother during an attempted robbery. Over time, he questions whether the creature sighting was real, the conjuring of a child’s overactive imagination, or the product of a fractured psyche. Nevertheless, those two events, inextricably linked in his mind, plague his every waking moment and terrorize his dreams.
As Tom digs deeper into the boneyard investigation, each revelation more fantastic than the next, he comes to an unsettling realization: solving the case may unearth secrets about his own history that, perhaps, were better off left dead and buried.
Blood Moon Over Betonville
Bernard Doucette’s Blood Moon Over Betonville brings an FBI investigation into the territory of old curses, inherited grief, and a town with some very dangerous history. Its narrator, Tom Milner, is a gifted profiler whose ability to understand killers has made him professionally invaluable and personally isolated. When human remains turn up near the Pennsylvania town where he spent part of his childhood, the case pulls him back toward a terrifying encounter he’s spent decades trying to explain away. Doucette gives Betonville a convincing everyday life, with neighborhood diners, familiar storefronts, and mountains that invite exploration. Then he lets disturbing details seep into that comfort. Blood dripping from deer carcasses outside a hotel and an abandoned cemetery above a quarry make the place feel dangerous long before the investigation begins.
Tom’s voice gives the book much of its character. He’s observant, prickly, occasionally funny, and painfully aware of how often he gets in his own way. He can read another person’s motives with remarkable precision while struggling to accept kindness directed toward him. His drinking, his guilt over his mother’s murder, and his resentment toward his father shape both his work and his relationships. That makes his gradual willingness to trust people one of the book’s most satisfying developments. Ben Potter, his childhood friend and now the local sheriff, brings warmth through his loyalty and cheerfully mangled expressions. Fellow agent Hannah Renfroe earns her place through competence, humor, and the steady assurance that she’ll show up when things get difficult. Their company gives Tom something tangible to fight for.
The mystery develops through forensic reports, interviews, false leads, and patterns that become stranger as more victims are identified. There’s an unsettling cumulative effect to watching the usual investigative tools produce answers that make the larger picture harder to understand. Doucette uses that tension well: every discovery raises the stakes while tightening the connection between the town’s past and Tom’s own history. The folklore grows out of cruelty, concentrated power, and a desperate desire for justice, which gives the supernatural threat an emotional logic. Tom’s instinct to search for the person inside a killer becomes especially consequential here. Some explanations and reflections repeat points the reader has already absorbed, slowing the momentum in places, but the central questions remain compelling.
When the confrontation arrives, the book puts its earlier attention to firearms, martial arts, and physical vulnerability to work. The action is rough and urgent, and the characters’ loyalty matters as much as their preparation. What gives those scenes their force is the emotional groundwork beneath them: Tom has spent years treating his life as payment for a loss he couldn’t prevent, and facing the threat means confronting that belief too. The closing movement gives the story room to consider recovery, companionship, and the possibility of enjoying ordinary days again. That attention to life after terror makes Blood Moon Over Betonville a satisfying read for anyone who likes supernatural horror with an investigative backbone and a troubled, engaging narrator. Doucette makes the monster terrifying and the life beyond it worth fighting for.
Pages: 249 | ASIN : B0GMLCPFKK
Jigsaw: Temporal Apocalypse
Jigsaw: Temporal Apocalypse is a sprawling time-travel adventure that combines historical fiction, supernatural fantasy, science fiction, political intrigue, and a generous amount of pulpy action. It’s the tenth Jigsaw novel and the fifteenth book in the larger Jigsaw Universe, and the author recommends reading the earlier installments first. The story follows the Guardians as they try to stop Lilith, Ahriman, Pilo, and their allies from reshaping history and triggering a Temporal Apocalypse. The plot moves across centuries, from Roman-occupied Judea and medieval trade routes to postwar Europe, 1910s Arizona, the Russo-Polish War, and the strange political experiment in Fiume. That scale gives the book the energy of a season finale in which nearly every character, artifact, rivalry, and historical thread has returned for one enormous confrontation.
David Alyn Gordon’s greatest strength here is his enthusiasm for overlooked history. The novel doesn’t treat the past as scenery. Labor struggles, racial violence, extremist movements, wartime upheaval, political opportunism, and religious traditions all become active parts of the story. The shifting missions in Arizona, Poland, and Fiume gradually connect through the fragments of a powerful amulet, while the Nazi Bell and other temporal devices add a science-fiction framework to the supernatural conflict. There’s a lot happening, but the structure creates the feeling that separate pieces of history are clicking into place. Gordon also has a knack for choosing settings that are dramatic on their own, then finding ways to raise the stakes with demons, immortals, vampires, zombies, and time travelers.
For all its apocalyptic danger, the book is often funny and affectionate. Noah, Francesca, Tori, Mueller, Mariah, and the rest of the Guardians speak to one another like people who’ve survived far too many bizarre missions together. Their teasing, arguments, romantic bonds, and family connections give the story warmth between battles. The dialogue can be blunt and deliberately theatrical, especially when the villains explain their plans or heroes trade jokes during a crisis, but that style fits the book’s larger-than-life personality. The emotional farewell scenes near the end are particularly effective because they draw on relationships built across the series. Even after the central conflict is settled, the final chapters leave room for births, reunions, new beginnings, and the amusing realization that retirement may be harder for these characters than saving history.
I’d recommend Temporal Apocalypse most strongly to established Jigsaw Universe readers, especially those who enjoy seeing long-running character arcs and earlier plot elements brought together. It’ll also appeal to readers who like alternate-history adventures packed with real historical figures, supernatural mythology, political commentary, and fast-moving ensemble action. Someone fascinated by lesser-known episodes from the aftermath of World War I or early Arizona history will find plenty to explore. Because the story assumes familiarity with a large cast and extensive backstory, its biggest rewards will go to readers who’ve already traveled through the earlier books and are ready for a crowded, energetic culmination.
Pages: 258 | ASIN : B0H28LCRTT
