Desolation Flats

Starred review from September 19, 2016
Set in 1938, Hunt’s outstanding third mystery featuring Mormon policeman Art Oveson (after 2015’s A Killing in Zion) combines a moving portrayal of a man attempting to deal with his wife’s depression with a clever whodunit story line. Art, who’s been transferred to the Salt Lake City PD’s two-man Missing Persons Bureau, is on hand when British racing-car driver Clive Underhill almost perishes in a crash. Art risks his own life to rescue Clive, who has traveled to the U.S. to try to set the world’s land-speed record on the Salt Flats. Clive’s major competition is a German racer, whose triumph would be a propaganda victory for the Nazis. The detective gets further involved with Clive after a member of Clive’s party disappears and another is murdered. The identity of the prime murder suspect complicates Art’s inquiry, as do his struggles with his wife’s mental illness and its effect on their three children. The richness of the characters, including secondary ones, and the imaginative plot make this the best yet in the series. Agent: Steve Ross, Abrams Artists Agency.

September 15, 2016
A Mormon police officer's beliefs about good and evil are tested when the murder of a race car driver appears related to the rising Nazi party.While Arthur "Art" Oveson (A Killing In Zion, 2015, etc.) is keeping time for his cousin Hank's speed trials at Salt Lake City's Bonneville Speedway in 1938, his Mormon beliefs won't let him fudge the numbers, even a little, to make it seem like Hank's on top. Anyway, Hank's times may not matter now that the British have landed in the figure of Clive Underhill, with support from his brother, Nigel. Clive's come to Utah to break records, and he seems on track to do just that until an explosion in his car during a practice run threatens his life. Art's sprint to the car to rescue Clive earns him a dinner invitation along with the driver's everlasting gratitude. It's a shame the sentiment isn't shared by Nigel, a sourpuss determined to argue with everyone, even Art's former police partner Roscoe Lund, who serves as Clive's paid protection now that he's left the force. After a late night, Roscoe and Nigel argue loudly and publicly, throwing suspicion on Roscoe when Nigel is found dead the next day. Art is named to head the investigation because he's in charge of missing persons, and Clive has now disappeared. With Roscoe also gone AWOL and no other known suspects, Art can't figure out which connections to investigate until he starts to learn about the racing team's relationship to fascism and Nazism. As deep as he is in his investigation, Art can't ignore the trouble at home between Clara, his depressed wife, and their eldest daughter, Sarah Jane, who threatens to leave the LDS community and start her own revolution. Once the murder is connected to the Nazis, everyone becomes a potential suspect--except, of course, Hunt's improbably virtuous hero, whom readers are likely to either love or loathe.

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Starred review from September 15, 2016
This knockout of a novel finds Mormon police detective Art Oveson where we left him at the end of last year's fine A Killing in Zionin 1930s Salt Lake City. But this novel is so powerful it can be taken as a stand-alone. We meet Oveson on the kiln-baked deserts of Utah, monitoring an auto race with global import. Hitler controls Germany and apparently wants to dominate auto racing, too; the Brits want none of it, and send rich, dashing driver Nigel Underhill to win this race of 30-foot-long rocket-powered cars. When Nigel is murdered, and his brother, Clive, vanishes, Overson goes to work. So much for the plot, which is wild enough to satisfy action lovers. The real magic here, though, is the author's ability to make this ordinary man so fascinating. Oveson ends his day with a mug of warm milk; he banters with his children; he consoles his troubled wife; and, through it all, we want still more of him. Credit Hunt's writing. Like his hero, it's only plain on the surface.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)