by Linda Kay Hardie

This week we have a review of the A Long Time Gone By Joshua Moehling, along with a fun interview with Joshua. Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of the book and a link to purchase it.

A Long Time Gone by Joshua Moehling
Linda Kay Hardie

Deceptively Complex and Artfully Written, A Long Time Gone Unfolds like an Origami Flower.

Some thrillers are like those extravagant falling domino videos. Someone fastidiously sets up tiny details in an intricate pattern, then with a soft touch, collapses them artistically, releasing the tension in awe and wonderment. Others are dense and dark, baffling the reader throughout, until light dawns in the final chapter.

A Long Time Gone by Joshua Moehling is that rare bird in the mystery genre that’s a puzzle box: cleverly and lovingly designed, appearing simple yet actually composed of complex turns and hidden surprises. Like the puzzle box, Moehling’s story is harder to solve than it appears and is astonishingly satisfying. Speaking as a reader, writer, and English teacher (also someone who disdains hyperbole), this is one of the best books I’ve ever read.

Moehling’s title is appropriate in so many ways, and you keep changing your mind on what it means as you read. “Oh, it’s about Ben Packard’s brother disappearing decades ago,” might be your first thought. Then, “Okay, I see. It’s really about…” and a chapter later, you’re thinking, “Hmm. Now I know that…” Don’t worry, I won’t dampen your reading pleasure with spoilers. Yet these Easter eggs are never confusing or obtrusive.

After losing the election for sheriff to a nemesis, former Acting Sheriff Ben Packard was assigned to boring court security detail. He’s now on leave after killing an active shooter. Bored, he starts looking into his brother’s disappearance and stumbles on something much bigger.

The theme of things – people, love, memories, tragic deaths, even hope – that are “a long time gone” pops up frequently throughout the novel. As a former academic, I can see someone writing a stunning master’s thesis on this to unpack all the layers of meaning, as sweet and sticky and satisfying as the layers of a piece of baklava pastry.

Here are samples of skillful writing. When the protagonist returns from a trip, his three-legged corgi named Frank is clingy: “Every time Packard went out of town, Frank treated him like a sheep that had wandered and needed to be corralled.” And: Packard tracked down a pawn in the crime who had fled. As a detective, he has to push her to learn details, and she realizes just how much danger she’s really in: “[The suspect’s] face was red and wet and her mouth was open in a funny shape. She looked like a boiling teapot right before it starts shrieking.”

None of these are intrusive in the story. Another author might come up with a nice description but spoil the effect by billboarding it: “Hey, check out this great figure of speech I wrote!” Moehling’s prose is full of these sentences that show exactly what something looks or feels like while very carefully being woven naturally into the fabric of the narrative. I only notice them as an English teacher.

Joshua Moehling’s A Long Time Gone is the third in a new series, but it definitely stands alone. Details carried over from previous books are explained organically without bogging down the action, confusing the new reader, or boring the experienced one. I’m definitely going back to pick up the previous books.

Linda Kay Hardie writes crime, humor, horror, and SF/fantasy stories, as well as poetry, essays (often about cats but sometimes about baseball), and fiction for children. She also writes recipes and won a trophy in 2002 for best rib rub in the amateur division of the Best in the West Rib Cook-off in Sparks, Nevada. She is also the reigning Spam champion for Nevada (yes, the tasty treat canned mystery meat) and represented Nevada in the National Chicken Cooking Contest years ago. Linda’s writing has won awards dating back to a fifth grade essay on fire safety, and in 2024 her post-apocalyptic short story “Grenade Blows Up” won a certificate of excellence from the Cat Writers Association. In 2022, she was honored with the Sierra Arts Foundation’s Literary Arts Award for fiction in Reno, Nevada, where she works as staff for Abyssinian cats. See Linda’s work at sierraarts.org/user/linda.kay.hardie.

Interview with Joshua Moehling:

KRL: How long have you been writing?

Joshua: I’ve been writing stories since I was a child. I was an English major in college. I seriously started to try to write a novel in the early 2000s.

KRL: When did your first novel come out, what was it called, and would you tell us a little about it?

Joshua: Ben Packard, the main character in A Long Time Gone, was first introduced in And There He Kept Her, which came out in 2022. In that book, Packard is trying to find two missing teenagers who break into an old man’s house looking for prescription drugs and encounter a monster.

KRL: What brought you to choose the setting and characters in your latest book/series?

Joshua: I’ve been living in Minnesota for thirty years. It’s a place I love and know well and am still learning about. I’m always trying to create characters that feel real and multidimensional. If I can’t make you feel something for the characters, the plot won’t matter.

KRL: Do you outline? If not, do you have some other interesting way that you keep track of what’s going on, or what needs to happen in your book when you are writing it?

Joshua: Before I start a book, I spend a good amount of time thinking and writing about a crime and the players. I think about what’s going on in Packard’s life. I use a spreadsheet to sketch out what’s coming up in future chapters and I write in Scrivener.

KRL: Did you find it difficult to get published in the beginning?

Joshua: It took a long time. I wrote two novels that weren’t very good before writing the book that became And There He Kept Her.

KRL: What are your future writing goals?

Joshua: Keep writing the best books I know how. Try to get better with each book. Enjoy every moment.

KRL: What kind of research do you do?

Joshua: I attended a sheriff’s citizens academy to learn the ins and outs of a sheriff’s department. ALTG required a lot of research on real estate law and guns and fraud.

KRL: Have you any advice for aspiring or beginning writers?

Joshua: Find the time to write, prioritize it and protect it. Find a writing community. Learn from each other. Motivate each other. Cheer each other on.

KRL: Where can our readers find you online?

Joshua: joshuamoehling.com
@jmoehling on Instagram and Facebook

You can click here to purchase this book from Amazon.

To enter to win a copy of A Long Time Gone, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “long time gone” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen March 15, 2025. U.S. residents only, and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please include your mailing address in case you win. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

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