6. Blood Moon by Linda Castillo

#13.5 Kate Burkholder

listened on Audible

2022

64 pgs.
Adult Short Story
Finished 1/22/24
Goodreads rating: 4.01
My rating: 3
Setting: Contemporary Painters Mill, OH

My comments: Sort of a stupid-ish short story, a mysterious animal that everybody know isn't a bear (why?) - even though it's the size of one - is terrorizing different places in the woods, late one night.

Goodreads synopsis:  Chief of Police Kate Burkholder confronts a mysterious beast terrorizing the residents of Painters Mill in this new original short mystery from bestselling author Linda Castillo.

On a foggy spring night, an Amish man crashes his buggy after a large, unidentified animal spooks his horse. Kate Burkholder arrives on scene to find the man shaken and bleeding, claiming he was attacked by a large beast. But his description of the creature sounds like something straight out of the Amish folklore from Kate’s childhood. Throughout the night, more incidents of an aggressive animal on the loose are reported, putting the citizens of Painters Mill on edge. There’s a monster menacing the countryside, and Kate must follow its tracks into the dark woods along Painters Creek before violence tips over into tragedy.