“Blood Moon Over Betonville” by Bernard Doucette

Blood Moon Over Betonville

Bernard Doucette
Solstice Publishing (2026)
ISBN:  979-8247669944
Reviewed by Sarah Osman for Reader Views (08/2026)

FBI Agent Tom Milner knows the backwoods of Betonville, Pennsylvania well. As a child, he had a terrifying encounter with the beast. Under the light of a blood moon, he spotted the monster, howling atop a mountain. Shortly after this, Tom’s mother was murdered.

Years later, Tom is now a successful profiler for the FBI, and drowns his sorrows with alcohol. He’s tried to put Betonville behind him, but fate calls him back to the small town. A massive boneyard has been discovered near Betonville, composed of decaying bodies going back a century. Tom has a hunch that the deadly beast is somehow involved. As he works to solve the case, Tom learns that he may be more connected to the creature than he initially realized.

Blood Moon Over Betonville by Bernard Doucette reads like a fusion between Twin Peaks and The X-Files. Doucette’s prose has a noir touch; Tom reminded me of a grizzled 1940s detective. At the same time, Doucette defies traditional noir. There is no damsel in distress (Tom’s love interest is his tough yet poised partner), and Tom is far from being suave.

Blood Moon Over Betonville takes some hard left turns I did not see coming. I initially expected a werewolf was at play, but, without spoiling the twists, the dreadful creature is far worse. Doucette carefully paces out these surprises, keeping you hooked throughout the whole novel.

While Blood Moon Over Betonville is a supernatural criminal thriller, at its heart is an examination of trauma. In recent horror, trauma has been presented as the new big bad. This is a trope that’s either brilliantly done or a complete disaster. Thankfully, Blood Moon Over Betonville leans toward the former rather than the latter. Tom, along with other characters who have encountered the beast, is haunted by it. But under the surface, the beast serves as a metaphor for Tom’s other trauma: his mother’s murder and the grizzly cases he’s worked on. Tom deals with his trauma through alcohol, a fact he’s aware of but doesn’t take many steps to stop.

As the story goes on, Tom dives into his generational trauma. Without giving too much away, the trauma that Tom carries goes back decades. In this case, the generational trauma takes on a literal violent role. But the generational trauma affects Tom in other ways: he struggles with relationships, trust, and taking care of himself.

It was this aspect of the novel that made Blood Moon Over Betonville stay with me. I was drawn into the mysterious plot, wanting to know what exactly was wreaking havoc on the town. But it was Tom’s larger trauma that made me think: how much trauma do we all carry, and how do we handle it?