Book Review Halo Moon

Spur Award-winning Jim Jones' latest book, "Halo Moon," in the Jared Delaney series, captures the spirit of the Old West. Author Jim Jones takes advantage of the historical context of the late 1880s by incorporating factual details into his books. Jones, who lives in the Albuquerque area, is familiar with the landscape of New Mexico, the towns of Springer and Cimarrón, as well as the aspects of cowboys and ranching, which lend credibility to his writing. Many popular elements of a western novel, characters who are cowboys, ranchers, homesteaders, gunfighters, sheriffs, rangers, and frontiersmen against the backdrop of a harsh but beautiful land, are incorporated into the storyline.  

As  Jared Delaney rides home to his ranch from a cattle drive to Colorado, he is haunted by a nightmare of past menace and an ominous sign of change signified by the moon encircled by a hazy band of light called a halo moon. When he arrives in Cimarrón, he is shocked to discover that his friend and mentor, Sheriff Nathan Averill, has been murdered. Jared seeks vigilante justice to avenge Nathan's death. Many obstacles impede his quest for justice, as well as putting his own life, his family, and his close friends' lives in danger. At times, he fails to heed the well-meaning advice of his wife Eleanor and friends. Jared's tenacious and persistent spirit makes him resolute to see justice served to Felipe Alvarado and his accomplices no matter the cost. The anticipation by readers eager to discover if Jared can outsmart the killers keeps the pace of the last part of the story moving along.  

The strength of Jones's novel lies in his character development. He creates characters who are resourceful, rugged, emotional, and resilient. While some lack morals, others demonstrate strong convictions to see justice played out. Most of the characters in this novel are men, though the women who play secondary roles are resilient with strong voices. Jones effectively uses dialogue to move the story's action along rather than employing lengthy descriptions of place.  Sometimes during the story, a character (the narrator) will digress from the storyline with an introspective comment or two on lessons learned. 

I thought Jones made an astute decision in his writing process by not wrapping up all the story's loose ends, thus leaving a door ajar for the fifth and final book of the Jared Delaney series.   

ALL ABOUT THE AUTHOR JIM JONES

Spur Award-winning author Jim Jones is a popular western writer whose five novels are set in Northern New Mexico in the late 1880s during the Colfax County Wars. These land disputes ranged from wars between the settlers to wars between the new owners of the Maxwell Land Grant. Several of the same characters appear throughout Jones's books, adding continuity to the storyline.

Jim Jones was the Western Music Association’s 2014 Male Performer of the Year. He’s a winner of the 2022 Western Heritage Wrangler Award for Outstanding Original Western Composition, the International Western Music Association 2019 Song of the Year, the Academy of Western Artists 2016 Western Song of the Year, and the Western Writers of America 2013, 2017, and 2021 Spur Awards for Best Western Song. His songs and books are about the West, cowboys, horses, cattle and cattle rustlers, the coming of the train … songs about people and land, rivers and mountains, the beauty of the Western sky. Western novels, published by Speaking Volumes Press, include the Jared Delaney series- Rustler’s Moon, Colorado Moon, Waning Moon, Halo Moon, and, coming soon in June 2025, Hunter’s Moon, the final book in the series. He also has a spin-off series from the Jared Delaney series that includes The Big Empty (2016) and The Lights of Cimarron (2019).

For more information, check out his website https://jimjoneswestern.com/