Not of This Fold

Starred review from October 15, 2018
The plight of immigrants comes home to the Mormon community of Draper, Utah, in Harrison’s exceptional fourth Linda Wallheim mystery (after 2017’s For Time and All Eternities). Gwen Ferris, who has been active in the church’s Spanish ward, has befriended Gabriela Suarez, a young mother of three, whose husband has been deported to Mexico. One day, Gabriela leaves a phone message for Gwen that suggests she’s in some sort of trouble, and that night, her strangled body turns up at a gas station. Gwen prevails on her good friend Linda to help bring Gabriela’s killer to justice. Tension rises between Linda and her Mormon bishop husband, Kurt, who worries about her interfering in police matters. Meanwhile, Linda fears that their youngest son, Samuel, who’s on a mission in Boston, may be encountering prejudice from fellow Mormons because he’s openly gay. The culprit will surprise few, but Harrison maintains the suspense as the action builds to an altogether fitting resolution, in which an unexpected character plays a major role. Readers of all faiths will relate to kindhearted, thoughtful Linda, a devout Mormon who isn’t afraid to question the policies and leadership of the LDS church. Agent: Jennifer Udden, Barry Goldblatt Literary.

October 15, 2018
The fourth of Harrison's 11 planned books for her Linda Wallheim mystery series takes the outspoken Mormon-bishop's wife from her comfortable Draper, Utah, home into the Spanish community, a few miles in distance but a world away culturally, ethnically, and socioeconomically. Linda accompanies her younger friend Gwen, a minor character from The Bishop's Wife? (2014) and His Right Hand (2015), to find out what happened in the murder of a young Mexican mother with three preschool children. Gwen, who has been volunteering at the Spanish ward, where the inequity of how members are treated based on gender, race, and class is fueling her already faltering Mormonism, eschews police protocols, church hierarchies, even common sense to uncover the truth. Gwen's recklessness outstrips even Linda's usual overenthusiasm for answers. Through these two generations of strong-willed women, Harrison often scathingly confronts religious doctrine, immigration injustice, racism, homophobia, marriage inequity, and male power abuses, all while deftly choreographing a multitentacled criminal cover-up. While the good bishop again bemoans the dangers of his wife's sleuthing, Harrison's readers will continue to applaud Linda's (thankfully) defiant tenacity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)