The Last of the Moon Girls

The Last of the Moon Girls by Barbara Davis was originally published in 2020. It is the sixth of Davis’s nine novels. The Last of the Moon Girls is a murder mystery and romance that participates in the tradition of books about generations of magical women. It is set in a small New England town called Salem Creek and focuses on the ninth generation of the Moon family: Lizzy Moon. She works to solve the mystery of the dead girls found on her family’s property. Davis explores the themes of The Tension Between Tradition and Personal Choice, The Ongoing Influence of the Past, and Forgiveness and Second Chances.

This guide refers to the Lake Union Publishing paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, illness, death, child death, death by suicide, physical abuse, emotional abuse, mental illness, and substance use.

Plot Summary

Elzibeth “Lizzy” Moon works at a perfume company in New York City but returns to her rural hometown of Salem Creek, New Hampshire, after the death of her grandmother, Althea. Lizzy has an inherent talent for making perfume and the psychic gift of being able to smell emotions. Initially, Lizzy plans to sell the Moon Girl Farm and take her family’s most precious heirlooms, a collection of magical journals, back to New York.

A friend of Althea’s, Evvie, is staying at the farm when Lizzy arrives. In her grandmother’s bedroom, Lizzy discovers that Althea left her a book called Book of Remembrances, in addition to her personal magical journal, The Book of Althea, and the books of her ancestors. The first entries in the Book of Remembrances are personal messages from Althea to Lizzy with pressed plants. When Lizzy visits the pond on the farm, she thinks about how the corpses of two girls, Heather and Darcy Gilman, were found in it and how her grandmother was blamed for the crime. Lizzy vows to find the real murderer and clear her family name.

She has time for an investigation because the farm needs a lot of repairs before the realtor will list it to be sold. Her next-door neighbor, Andrew Greyson, is the handyman. Andrew has been infatuated with Lizzy since they were kids. She is attracted to him but doesn’t want to pursue a relationship because of her family’s tradition: Moon women aren’t supposed to get married. Lizzy had a fling with her boss, Luc Chenier, at the perfume company but ended it. He pressures her to come back to New York over the phone.

Lizzy starts by questioning Randall Summers, the chief of police. He refuses to give her access to case files and is generally disrespectful. Andrew puts Lizzy in touch with the detective who worked on the case, Roger Coleman. Roger agrees to look through his old files; he is upset that the case remains unsolved. Next, Lizzy talks to Fred Gilman, the father of the murdered girls. He is unhelpful and vaguely threatening.

The next day, on the Moon Girl Farm, there is a witch doll strung up by a noose with a note saying that witches should die. Lizzy doesn’t think that Summers will be very helpful, so she doesn’t report it. A woman working at the coffee shop, Judith, puts Lizzy in touch with Fred’s wife, Susan, who divorced him and moved out of town. During Lizzy’s conversation with Susan, she learns that Fred was very lenient with his daughters, even though Heather was getting into trouble with brothers named Hollis and Dennis Hanley, whose father has an illegal cannabis crop.

Lizzy talks to one of Heather’s old friends, Jenny, and learns more about Heather partying because her father was being creepy. A woman working at the drugstore, Penny, asks Lizzy if there is any more of Althea’s migraine tea. Lizzy finds some stored in the apothecary and gives it to Penny, which is a satisfying experience. Next, Lizzy speaks to Louise, the cafeteria worker at the high school that Heather and Lizzy attended. Louise asks for some of Althea’s Sleepy Baby Soap. There isn’t any soap stored at the apothecary, but Lizzy agrees to make a new batch.

While she waits for soap supplies to be shipped, Lizzy is woken in the middle of the night by the smell of smoke. Someone set the Moon family apple orchard on fire. The next day, Lizzy’s mother, Rhanna, arrives at the farm. She had a vision of Althea dying and hitchhiked from California. Rhanna decides to stay and help make the soap, as well as other herbal remedies, and restock the apothecary.

After Rhanna learns that the fire in the orchard was arson and is being covered by the local newspaper, she confesses that her psychic gift is the ability to see people’s deaths. Rhanna draws them in her magical journal. Lizzy begins to understand that this is why her mother had many behavioral problems and left her to be raised by her grandmother. Rhanna left after seeing the corpses of Heather and Darcy.

When Andrew comes by to do some repairs, he and Lizzy kiss. She tells him that she can’t pursue a serious relationship. Another article about the fire casts the Moon family in a negative light, causing Lizzy’s realtor to refuse to work with her. After Lizzy visits the hardware store, Fred threatens her while holding an axe. Lizzy tells Andrew, and he visits Fred. Fred ends up crying the moment Andrew touches him, and Andrew doesn’t believe that he’s behind the fire. Rhanna and Evvie go to a new-age fair to sell Rhanna’s herbal remedies and Evvie’s honey.

At two o’clock the next morning, Lizzy hears someone in her house and runs to Andrew’s. Andrew calls the police and meets them at Lizzy’s house. They find a breaking knife and dust for prints. Lizzy spends the night with Andrew, and they have sex. In the morning, she reiterates that she can’t get married (hinting at the family tradition). He goes out of town for an architecture job, and she stays at his place.

When Lizzy is getting groceries, the clerk, Helen, runs into her and warns her to stop her investigation. In the parking lot, Dennis picks up Helen (Dennis has financially supported Helen and her child since Hollis died two years ago), and Lizzy notices the bruises left by Dennis hitting Helen. When Lizzy unwraps her cheese, she realizes that the butcher paper is the same kind of paper as the note on the doll. Dennis, in addition to working for Andrew, works as a butcher.

Lizzy decides to work on a gift for Rhanna, the perfume she used to make her, in the barn for a while. Dennis appears, holding a Molotov cocktail. He threatens and hits Lizzy. She throws a bottle of alcohol at his lighter before he lights the cocktail, and it sets Dennis on fire. Lizzy is able to escape before the whole barn burns, but Dennis dies there. Lizzy asks Rhanna to come to the hospital with her; Dennis gave her a concussion.

After Lizzy gets home, Helen comes by and confesses that Hollis, Dennis, and their father killed Heather and Darcy. Hollis died by suicide because of the guilt, and Dennis made Helen hide the suicide note. Roger gets Helen a deal with the district attorney that grants her immunity in exchange for her confession. When Lizzy heals, she starts packing up the house but feels the presence of the Moon women when she packs the magical journals.

Lizzy reads Althea’s last entry in the Book of Remembrances. Althea gave up love because of the family tradition and encourages Lizzy to follow her heart. Lizzy agrees to stay in town, fix up the farm, and marry Andrew. She gets pregnant and dedicates her magical journal to their unborn daughter.