City of Saints

Starred review from September 3, 2012
Set in 1930, Hunt’s triumphant mystery debut introduces Salt Lake County deputy Art Oveson, a loving family man and committed Mormon. Haunted by the unsolved murder of his father, who was primed to be Salt Lake City’s next police chief, Oveson is finding his way on the job when he gets involved in a complex and politically sensitive homicide. Helen Pfalzgraf, wife of a doctor who’s one of the community’s leading lights, was repeatedly run over by a car. The crime comes in the midst of a heated campaign for sheriff, with the incumbent, Oveson’s boss, eager to stay on the good side of the city’s power brokers by steering the investigation away from Dr. Pfalzgraf. Oveson must walk a fine line to hang onto his much needed job and his professional integrity as the murder inquiry threatens to uncover some very dark secrets. Winner of the 2011 Hillerman Prize, this hard-edged whodunit with echoes of James Ellroy warrants a sequel. Agent: Steve Ross, Abrams Artists.

October 1, 2012
Historian Hunt's first novel, winner of the 2011 Tony Hillerman Prize, revisits an unsolved real-life murder in 1930 Salt Lake City. Someone was angry enough at socialite Helen Kent Pfalzgraf to run her over with her own Cadillac no less than seven times. Was it her long-suffering husband, Hans, a noted Utah obstetrician? His daughter, Anna, who says she adored her stepmother? One of the lovers Helen kept in thrall--perhaps local mining executive C.W. Alexander; Prince Farzad, the Persian suitor she met in Paris; or movie star Roland Lane, with whom she'd made a Hollywood screen test? Salt Lake County deputy Art Oveson, 29 and still struggling to emerge from the long shadow of his late father and his three older brothers, all of them in law enforcement, is smart, persistent, and willing to lie when he has to despite the strong Mormon faith that sets him apart from his hard-bitten partner, Roscoe Lund. He wonders how Helen's murder might be linked to the hit-and-run accident that killed Dr. Pfalzgraf's first wife or the death two years earlier of Dr. Everett Alvin Wooley, an abortionist Dr. Pfalzgraf had campaigned against. But he'll have to contend with a paranoid, manipulative boss who's ready to fire him on a moment's notice if he's to close a challenging case whose title (spoiler alert) turns out to be broadly ironic. Hunt does a creditable job tying up all the loose ends the unknown killer left behind 80 years ago and an even better job evoking the time and place in which he lived.

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Starred review from November 1, 2012

Nice guy deputy and devout Mormon Art Oveson might be in over his head--he's just a rookie. But his first murder investigation would be a challenging case for even the most seasoned cop. When a gorgeous socialite (who's married to a prominent physician) is left dead and mutilated in a field, all signs point to a crime of passion. Then a tabloid journalist is killed and Oveson learns the first victim's husband is an abortionist. Guileless Oveson digs deep and asks too many questions, while his ineffectual, corrupt sheriff is beholden to the powerful. When his partner is wrongfully fired, Oveson lands square in the sights of the killer. VERDICT This engrossing historical debut is set in 1930 Salt Lake City and based on a true case. Narrated by Oveson in the first person, the procedural steadily builds up steam and explodes in all the right places. History professor Hunt's title won the 2011 Tony Hillerman Prize. Pair with Sheldon Russell and Lisa Black.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2012
In Hunt's first novel (winner of the 2011 Hillerman Prize), Salt Lake City, in 1930, seethes with wickedness under a veneer of upright Mormonism and congeniality. Political corruption, crooked cops, and sordid affairs conducted by the saints come to light when Helen Pfalzgraf, wife of a highly respected doctor, is killed, ripped apart by vehicular bashing. It's an election year and a high-profile murder case quickly solved will be a feather in the sheriff's cap. Unfortunately, Deputy Art Overman, a squeaky clean family man and devout Mormon, refuses to accept the cooked-up charges against an innocent man. Despite heavy departmental and social pressures, Art pursues the truth, sacrificing a few reputations and nearly getting himself and his partner killed in the process. Hunt, a history professor in Ontario, pens a decent period procedural, exposing gangster-era cronyism rampant in politics and law enforcement, even among people of faith. Unfortunately, moralistic Overman, while not lacking intellectual determination, is too spineless and naive to make a compelling cop: one hopes he'll toughen up to Chandler standards in future episodes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)