Man in the Blue Moon - Michael Morris

 Honestly, if I hadn't been reading this book as part of Tyndale's Summer Reading Program I don't know if I would have stuck with it.  Even 200 some odd pages into it, I wasn't sure where he was going with the storyline.  Set during the end of World War I Ella finds herself left to provide for her 3 sons and a Creek indian.  She's almost in foreclosure and is torn with what she should do.  Pay more on the mortgage that her husband took out on her property (illegally) or going to the county seat to pick up a box from the Blue Moon Clock Company.  Thinking that maybe the "clock" will sell for enough and pay off her mortgage, she heads off to pick it up.  So far, so good.  The "clock" isn't a clock after it.  It's a man.  Supposedly, a distant cousin of her wandering husband.  From there the story has multiple characters.  Each has their own motives, most are criminals, or controlled by one.  One bad thing after another happens to Ella as she works her land in an effort to keep it.  The man in the box has healing powers that I couldn't tell myself if they were mystical or Godly until the end.  The Christians in the story were weak, busybodies that made every situation worse.  Scene after scene I wanted someone to step up and be a man or woman of God.  It seemed He was absent from their lives, or uncaring at best. While the end has some redemptive qualities, I wasn't overly fond of the book.