Julie Weston Libri

In the early 1920s, photographer Nellie Burns leaves Chicago to find adventure and a career in the West. She lands in Ketchum, Idaho. Out one night photographing moonshadows on snow, she discovers and photographs a dead body. When the body disappears and her negatives are stolen, she joins the chase to solve the mystery and find her negatives. But the Basque sheriff does not welcome her help, and the Chinese residents in town suspect Nellie herself of murder. As Nellie unravels the mystery of the missing body, she encounters a tangled web of revenge, opium addiction, obsessive love and loss, and a haunting story of devotion.

A WILLA Award-Winning AuthorA Nellie Burns and Moonshine MysteryIn the Craters of the Moon in southwest Idaho, where three people are missing, Nellie Burns accompanies Sheriff Asteguigoiri to the lava fields as his photographer. Marked on maps as "unexplored" and "unknown," the miles of lava resist easy navigation and Nell's photography. Rosy Kipling, the one-eyed miner and Nell's friend, is recruited to assist in the search amidst concerns about a religious cult and money related to the missing. Physical obstacles, secrets and lies, and consuming greed endanger all. And alone, Nell faces an attempt on her sanity and her life in this remote and almost inaccessible natural phenomenon.

Nellie Burns, photographer, and her Labrador dog, Moonshine, travel with sheep rancher Gwynn Campbell and his Basque sheepherder to the Stanley Basin of central Idaho. Nellie plans to photograph scenes for a railroad's brochures to lure tourists to the West. When they arrive at the sheep camp, they discover the current herder is dead. Nellie's curiosity and photography lead her to a moonshine still and then a dash up a forested mountain. Nellie and Moonshine confront the greatest challenges yet to their courage and ingenuity when they face a range war and a ruthless killer. Basque Moon is an exciting and authentic story of western conflicts in the 1920s. Nellie must dig deep to restore her faith in herself and her chosen profession.