maureen gill

January Moon begins at a truck stop in Urbana, IL, when Del Carter's dad impulsively rescues a young runaway from the clutches of three creeps, an action that will have extraordinary consequences for Del and the woman he loves, as well as for Lt. Fred Wiley, an Illinois state police homicide investigator, and the Cook County State's Attorney he's loved for years, Elnora ("Eliot") Ness. These two remarkable but extremely different detectives, and the beautiful, strong women they love, are about to do a death dance with unimaginable and surprising evil. How they each survive will be an enduring testament to the power of their love and their personal courage.

Played out between the vibrant city life of Chicago and the winter beauty of Illinois and Wisconsin, with side trips to the UP Michigan, a hospital in Switzerland and a small village in Africa, January Moon is a fast-paced crime story about cops and feds, victims and perps, healthy families and dysfunctional families, and those who hate and those who don't.

January Moon is the first novel to situate FGM (female genital mutilation) within the center of an American crime story but it's also about racism, religious extremism, domestic terrorism, the brutality of child abuse, sexual perversion and mental illness... all of which crawl out from under their rocks to be illuminated by the light of a January Moon.

January Moon is about heroic men, women and a dog... all struggling to save the those they love from the many monsters who live in among us.