For Time and All Eternities

October 24, 2016
In Harrison’s thought-provoking third Linda Wallheim mystery (after 2015’s His Right Hand), Linda, a conflicted Mormon wife and mother in Draper, Utah, has doubts about church doctrine that put a strain on her marriage. When her agnostic son, Kenneth, becomes engaged to Naomi Carter, whose physician father, Stephen, is the patriarch of a polygamist sect, Naomi asks Linda to visit her family’s compound and help determine whether her nine-year-old sister, Talitha, is being abused. At the compound, in a part of the state “off the map,” Linda discovers that not all of Stephen’s five wives are happy with their situation. When a murder occurs and the wives refuse to call the police for fear of losing their children, Linda once again turns sleuth. Never mind the contrived solution or that no one affected by the murder seems that distressed. The plight of a woman who’s struggling with a crisis of faith makes this Harrison’s most powerful and personal novel yet. Agent: Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary.

November 1, 2016
Mormon housewife Linda Wallheim grapples with her faith as she delves into underground polygamy in her third investigation (His Right Hand, 2015, etc.).Linda and her husband, Kurt, are having marital troubles over the church's treatment of same-sex marriage and what that means for their gay son. Compounding their challenges, another son, Kenneth, announces that he's left the church and will be marrying a fellow ex-Mormon, Naomi Carter. Naomi, though, wasn't Mormon in the same way that Linda and Kurt are: she was raised in a polygamous family. When the Wallheims visit the Carter family compound to meet their prospective in-laws, they find Stephen Carter a charismatic manipulator and each of the five Carter wives unhappy in her own way. So it's none too surprising, nor any great loss, when the patriarch is found stabbed with a kitchen knife. To keep the many children from foster care, Linda and Kenneth cooperate with first wife Rebecca to fake a death certificate and bury Stephen in the backyard. Searching for the killer, Linda uncovers the stories of the Carter wives and learns how they came to fall under Stephen's sway. She's rescued in the final hour by her husband, who finds the evidence that solves the case and literally saves her life. The muddled motivation for the murder doesn't prevent Harrison from concluding with a happy family wedding. Linda might make a comforting companion for devout Mormon women struggling with their leadership and history. Other readers, though, are likely to find the prose ham-fisted and didactic, the mystery unsatisfying, and the solution downright offensive.

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September 1, 2016

In this third in a nationally best-selling series, Mormon bishop's wife Linda Wallheim is anxious about meeting family members of her son's fiancee, Naomi, as they are part of a Mormon sect that still practices polygamy. Naomi herself is an apostate, and she's concerned about the possible abuse of a half-sister.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2016

In her third series outing (after The Bishop's Wife; His Right Hand), Linda Wallheim, progressive Mormon and amateur detective, continues to try to reconcile her personal beliefs (especially as the mother of a son who is gay) with Mormon doctrine, particularly in regards to the exclusion of LGBTQ members. When another son, Kenneth, announces his engagement to Naomi, a young woman raised in a polygamous family, Linda is shocked, as the Mormon church has disavowed polygamy. On a visit to the family compound, under the guise of meeting her soon-to-be in-laws, Linda senses something is seriously wrong, especially since Naomi had asked her to discover who might be abusing her younger sister, Talitha. But things take a turn for the worse when the patriarch, Stephen, is murdered. As Linda spends more time with the family, she realizes how manipulative and controlling Stephen was to his five wives and multiple children--anyone at the compound could be the killer. VERDICT While examining family relationships and the secrets therein, Harrison's mystery also offers a fascinating insider's look at a faith that is strange and mysterious to outsiders. Linda's struggle to accept church doctrines is an issue to which many readers can relate. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 7/25/16.]--Brooke Bolton, Boonville-Warrick Cty. P.L., IN

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.