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The Diary of a Northern Moon by Gloria Waldron Hukle AuthorHouse Publishing
book review by J. Alpha
"The heavenly farm was a focal point of a yet much bigger mystery. She needed to know who was Ben Waldron?"
"The Diary of a Northern Moon, like all such narratives, holds a good dose of truth," writes, author Gloria Waldron Hukle in the forward to her second of three books in the Waldron series, which began with Manhattan—Seeds of the Big Apple. A good dose of truth is definitely a plus in historical narratives, and Gloria Waldron Hukle—an 11th generation Waldron and native resident of New York State—opens her historical 20th Century novel with a dedication to Carol Waldron Thomas and her devotion to Waldron genealogy and the Waldron Family Crest. There is also a clearly written preface, establishing the story's rich setting in the "hidden wooded slopes of northern New York's Adirondack Mountain Region."
Tena Waldron is a successful 26-year-old advertising executive at the crossroads of her life, who seeks to unravel truths about her father, Ben Waldron, a man she had barely known. Her dreamlike journey leads her through her ancestral past in the Adirondack town of North Creek. Along the way, with a well-plotted series of story events and a touch of romance, Hukle successfully lures readers into also trying to discover who exactly was Ben Waldron—the "very active ghost" who has "resurrected" inside of Tena, as she sets out to uncover the long held secret elements of her Dutch ancestors.
Establishing contemporary relevance in a story built around the lives of people who arrived in America 300 years ago is a narrative challenge that Hukle tackles with a theme of "new beginnings." It is a universal theme that not only defines the lives and aspirations of the people in the century leading up to America's Industrial Revolution, but also resonates with a contemporary sensibility of a new American era today.
Murder, mystery, and romance... what more could readers seeking a good dose of fictional truth want? Well, good writing of course, and Gloria Waldron Hukle delivers that too in The Diary of a Northern Moon.