On a summer’s day in Louisiana, 1913, Sonny Davenport wanders away from his family’s vacation home at Half Moon Lake and never returns
Inspired by a true story, Half Moon Lake is a captivating novel about the parent-child bond, identity and what it means to be part of a family.
John Henry and Mary Davenport search for their child across the state and throughout the South. After years of crushing disappointments following hope, Sonny is found with a peddler in Alabama. But the Davenports’ joy at finding their son is cut short when another woman, unwed domestic worker Grace Mill, claims the boy is hers.
As the two mothers fight to claim the child, people choose sides, testing loyalties, the notion of truth, and the meaning of the word family.
Half Moon Lake is a work of fiction. There is, however, a true story that inspired the novel – that of American boy Bobby Dunbar. Reporter Tal McThenia and Margaret Dunbar Cutright tell that fascinating tale in A Case for Solomon: Bobby Dunbar and the Kidnapping that Haunted a Nation (Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc, 2012).
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