July 20th 1969 was a very special day in the history of America. It was the night that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon for the first time. This date was also memorable in the little town of Perry Hollow, Pennsylvania as that was the night that 10 year old Charlie Olmstead rode away on his bicycle to look at the moon and was never seen again. When Police Chief Jim Campbell found Charlie's battered bicycle in the water above Sunset Falls, he assumed that Charlie had gone over the falls to a certain death. Everyone believed this except Maggie Olmstead, Charlie's mother. She never stopped looking for him right up until the day she died.

Eric Olmstead, younger brother of Charlie, was only a baby when his older brother disappeared but he knew about him. Now a famous writer, Eric has returned temporarily to Perry Hollow to bury his mother and honor her death bed request. Maggie's last wish was for Eric to find Charlie. He hires Nick Donnelly of the Sarah Donnelly Foundation, an organization that helps find missing people. It happens that Nick is very good friends with the current Police Chief Kat Campbell, daughter of Jim. She's also Eric's former high school sweetheart.

Eric, Kat and Nick start a unified effort to finally put to rest what happened to Charlie on that night over 40 years ago. As they dig deeper, they discover that Maggie had done a lot of work during those 40 years with her own personal investigation that no one knew about until Eric uncovered her efforts. In her search for Charlie, she uncovered many clues that led to the very disturbing suggestion that Charlie wasn't the only boy that disappeared during those years.

This new information brings a lot of buried secrets to light; secrets that could have been life altering had they been exposed 40 years ago. Some of those secrets may still affect many lives. As the hunt brings Kat, Nick and Eric closer to the truth of what happened those many years ago, they unwittingly bring danger closer to them. They need to find the truth and fast... before it's too late.

I LOVED this book! The characters crafted by Todd Ritter are some of the most interesting I've encountered in any book. He makes them so three dimensional that they're practically having coffee with you in your living room. The plot of this book is also a stunner. I honestly never saw any of it coming, particularly the resolution. BAD MOON is Todd's second book featuring Kat Campbell. I'll definitely be reading the first book and highly anticipating the next one.