cover image Brigham's Day

Brigham's Day

John Gates. Walker & Company, $23.95 (187pp) ISBN 978-0-8027-3344-3

The Mormon settlement of Kanab, Utah, provides a colorful setting for this somewhat formulaic thriller in which bloody secrets of Mormon history may prove to explain a present-day murder. Attorney Brigham Bybee, a divorced, recovering alcoholic whose high-profile career was nearly destroyed when he filed suit against a high Mormon church official, is now reduced to traveling to Kanab to sit second chair on the defense of a poor, illiterate man accused of murder. To make matters worse, the lead attorney, reckless boor Ronnie Watters, is building his case around wild rumors that the victim was actually killed by a secret Mormon police force to prevent him from publicizing an old document that might embarrass the church. And the victim's granddaughter, beautiful Zolene Swapp, knows more than she is telling--even as she and Bybee stumble into an inopportune love affair. Back in 1857 in this region, 120 settlers were slaughtered in what became known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Learning the truth about that event--a truth few want to confront--may be the key to Bybee's case. Though stock characters and creaky plotting undermine the narrative, Gates keeps his story moving briskly and garnishes his tale with well-chosen local details and enough Mormon history and lore to awaken the reader's interest in the alternate culture that thrives in Utah. Agent, Philip Spitzer. QPB alternate. (July) FYI: Gates was featured in PW's ""First Fiction"" feature (Jan. 10).