My novel Father Figure was published in 2003 by Bookbooters, and was on their bestsellers list for over two years.

In late 2005, Bookbooters unfortunately went out of business.

New copies of the trade paperback of the novel are therefore no longer available. Used copies continue to show up from time to time at venues like e-Bay, Abe Books, and other resellers.

Once I learned Bookbooters was going out of business, I thought about shopping the novel to a new publisher, but then decided instead, in the spirit of the Internet, to offer the full text of Father Figure here, for free, as an Adobe Acrobat download.

The download is 450 pages, 175,000 words, 2.5 MB.

This is the exact same text as it appeared in the Bookbooters edition, completely unexpurgated.

In case you'd like to sample the book before downloading it, I've included links to nine lengthy excerpts, below.

Since the time Father Figure was initially published, the word most often used to describe it has been, "disturbing". So I do want to make you aware that Father Figure contains explicit sexuality and violence, as well as ideas some might find offensive and/or unwholesome. It's not for everyone.

Having said that, if you like my writings, you're going to love Father Figure.

South of Anchorage, accessible only from a mud-rutted road off Seward Highway, lies the town of Lodgepole. After midnight, among the blueberry bushes of White Birch Park, a man climbs on top of a woman and begins making love to her. As her orgasm rises he puts his hands around her throat, shutting off her air. She struggles, not to stop him, but to stop herself from trying instinctively to pull his hands off her throat. As the top joints of his thumb meet at the front of her throat she comes, her cry of orgasm ricocheting around inside her forever.

Daryl Putnam, handsome, bookish, wakes up from a nightmare and decides to do something he hasn't done in years. Take a walk outside at night. Down in the park, at the lime green shores of Little Muncho Lake, he comes across the body of the strangled woman.

The next morning, at the coffee shop of the hospital where he works, Daryl meets Sally, a pretty, dark-haired girl. He's intelligent, she's outgoing. What they have in common is both are living lonely lives. Until today.

Also in the hospital coffee shop, shaking half a can of black pepper onto his tomato soup, is Sam Rudolph, a fiftyish man with eyes like an angry dog's, who has spent over twenty years quietly manipulating events in Daryl and Sally's lives to have this seemingly chance encounter among the three of them occur.

And who is actually a lot older than fifty.

Here's an editorial review of the novel:

It is easy to see why Father Figure has become an underground classic over the years. It is a dark, extremely disturbing but completely gripping suspense thriller with a strongly erotic subtext. At over 450 pages, it is not light reading, and it is certainly not a book for the light hearted or for those with a weak stomach. Moore is an extremely talented writer with a gift for pushing the reader's emotional buttons. He injects his work with a bleak, almost Kafkaesque undertone, but doesn't fall into the trap of contextualizing his story in terms of morality. One of the most notable aspects of Father Figure is that there are no heroes; all the characters are fundamentally flawed, and that makes the story all the more engaging. It is doubtful that this story will appeal to a mainstream audience, but it is certainly liable to become a cult classic, and deservedly so.

It Is Wet Here Opening of the Novel
Going Through Sylvia Daryl autopsies the woman he found
The Coldness People Walk Over Introduction of Sam Rudolph
Coffee Shop Tension Introduction of Sally Dolumbo; Daryl, Sam and Sally interact
Eight Legs, Three Cunts Daryl is woken up after his first date with Sally
Back Yard Talk Daryl and Sally's second date
In Someone Else's Apartment Daryl and Sally snoop through Sylvia Gold's things
"I Don't Want To Squeeze The White Part" Daryl accepts a dinner invitation from Sam
Big Dark Hole Sheriff Bob Cable enlists Daryl for a body transport
Ralph Robert Moore reads the opening of Father Figure

Download the entire novel in PDF format, for free