The Prodigal Daughter by Mette Ivie Harrison

 

First Line: Kurt and I were in marriage therapy again.

 

It is a fraught time in the Wallheim household. Linda and her husband Kurt, who is a bishop in the Mormon church, are going through marriage therapy. Too many things have happened in her life, and Linda's outlook and thinking have changed. Kurt resents the changes and wants the woman he married back.

 

In this time of tension and stress, Linda's son Joseph asks for her help. Sabrina Jensen, the babysitter for their infant daughter, has vanished, and he wants his mother to help find the young girl. As she begins to ask questions in order to form a better picture of her, she realizes that Sabrina has been under a great deal of pressure from her parents to be the perfect Mormon daughter... and that she has been the victim of a horrible crime at the hands of her own classmates, good Mormon boys all and future church leaders.

 

Linda is sickened and determined to find Sabrina regardless of the cost to herself. Her search will lead her to the homeless on the dark, frigid streets of Salt Lake City, and what she discovers will make her question whether the Mormon community's most privileged and powerful will ever be called to task for past sins.

 

~

 

The Prodigal Daughter is often a very painful book to read, wrapped as it is in the #MeToo movement and the author's own life. Has the #MeToo movement made it easier to speak out about sexual assault in religious communities? Personally, I doubt it because it's much too easy to blame outsiders for the problem. It simply couldn't happen here, not with our good little boys raised in the teachings of the church! (Notice how I did not single out the Mormon church?)

Mette Ivie Harrison's life has become shredded due to her Linda Wallheim mysteries and her unflinchingly honest portrayal of crime in Mormon communities. I'd love to say that I'm shocked by the Mormon reaction to her writing, but after having lived in Provo, Utah, for three years, I am not. Her writing is honest. She talks about the good things the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints does. She talks about what she strongly believes in. But-- and here's the rub-- she also talks about where the Church often fails.

 

In The Prodigal Daughter, it's the plight of runaway and thrown-away children who either can't deal with their parents' insistence on being the perfect Mormon child or who have been thrown out because they don't live up to their parents' expectations. Harrison also paints a clear picture of Mormonism, #MeToo, and women as second-class citizens. It's not pretty, but as Linda Wallheim says, "If the truth destroys something, then it probably wasn't real to begin with."

 

As I said earlier, The Prodigal Daughter is often painful to read as Linda tries to find Sabrina and provide her with safety and acceptance. The truth can hurt. But it's as if all the things Harrison has been living through as she wrote this book squeezed some of the heart out of it. It feels rushed and doesn't quite measure up to previous books in this excellent series, but that does not make it a bad book. Not in the slightest. If you like mysteries that provide you with a strong, clear look into another world, mysteries steeped with a sense of place so palpable that you can touch it, I strongly urge you to read Mette Ivie Harrison's series in its entirety. Begin with The Bishop's Wife.

The Prodigal Daughter by Mette Ivie Harrison

eISBN: 9781641292467

Soho Press © 2021

eBook, 264 pages

 

Amateur Sleuth, #5 Linda Wallheim mystery

Rating: B

Source: Net Galley

His Right Hand by Mette Ivie Harrison

First Line: One Friday night in May, in lieu of our regular couple's date, my husband, Kurt, and I were going to the annual bishopric dinner.

It's difficult enough keeping an elaborately staged death on church property quiet, but what happens when people in Draper, Utah, learn that the dead man was not only Bishop Wallheim's right-hand man, he wasn't even a man but a biological female?

The bishop's wife, Linda Wallheim, is concerned about the ward, but she's even more concerned about Carl Ashby's grieving family. To complicate matters, her husband seems more affected by Carl's gender than his death. In the Mormon faith, gender is considered part of a person's soul, and as the days pass, Linda sees Church officials more concerned with hushing up the story of Carl's transgenderism than they are with solving his murder. She soon realizes that police are going to need an ally on the inside if they are going to have any sort of chance to find Carl's killer, and she's the only one who can help. She's got to work fast. Rumors are already beginning to spread, and they're threatening to tear her community apart.

With the Mormon Church's recent hardline decision on the LGBT community within its ranks, His Right Hand couldn't possibly be more timely. In this second book to feature Linda Wallheim, there are many secrets to be uncovered, and some of these secrets belong to Linda and her own family. The more about Carl Ashby that's uncovered, the clearer the killer's identity becomes, but proving it is tough because Church officials have closed ranks against the police. This is a maneuver that has been perfected over almost two centuries because of the intense persecution Mormons faced in the nineteenth century. 

Linda seems more sure of herself in this second book in the series. She still questions her place in life now that her last child is off to university and out of the house, but she's calmer, and it's got a lot to do with the friendship she's formed with a neighbor. It was fascinating for me to watch Linda investigate this extremely volatile case, especially with regard to her uneasy relationship with the homicide detective in charge.

One of the strengths of this book (and the series) is the portrait of Mormonism that Mette Ivie Harrison paints for us. It is a heartfelt portrait by an artist who has done much soul-searching. It is a balanced portrait that is as honest as the artist can make it, showing both the good and the bad in this religion that most people know nothing about. 

Many readers like me enjoy reading mysteries set in other countries in order to learn about different cultures. Often we forget to pay attention to the different cultures that are on our own doorstep. I find Harrison's Linda Wallheim books to be good mysteries with strong characters. That they are also meditative and enlightening is icing on the cake.  
 

His Right Hand by Mette Ivie Harrison

ISBN: 9781616956103

Soho Crime © 2015

Hardcover, 352 pages

Amateur Sleuth, #2 Linda Wallheim mystery

Rating: A-

Source: the publisher 


 

The Bishop's Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison

First Line: Mormon bishop's wife isn't an official calling.

Linda Wallheim is at a crossroads. For most of her life, she's been a caregiver: a wife, a mother to four boys, and a hardworking member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Now that her youngest son is about to leave the nest, she feels the need to become involved in something that's more for her own well-being than for anyone else's. 

As a bishop's wife and with her husband's blessing, Linda often plays a part in the lives of ward members who are experiencing problems of some sort, and now she finds herself in the role of amateur detective. A man has come to her husband to say that his wife has disappeared, taking nothing with her-- not even her very young daughter. Linda knows the missing woman and just can't believe that she'd leave her little girl behind. Certain that something's happened to her, Linda begins to investigate. Another woman whom Linda has admired from afar has a dying husband, and as Linda is drawn into this situation, she finds that she has questions about what happened to the dying man's first wife. A young couple is experiencing fertility problems, and as Linda learns more, she senses more to the problem than malfunctioning body parts. Soon she's so immersed in  the lives of these people that she draws the concern and disapproval of her husband, but she can't stop. Her conscience will not allow her to.

The Bishop's Wife is more a nuanced character study of Linda Wallheim than it is a mystery, although finding out what's happened to these characters is absorbing. As a detective, Linda is as amateur as they come. With each new piece of information she gleans, she changes her mind about what happened and who's responsible. This habit keeps readers on their toes (if not a bit exasperated). Having picked up the author's clues along the way, I was not surprised by the story's resolution, but I found Linda Watching to be a fascinating new hobby.

Perhaps the greatest strength of this book is the insight Harrison gives readers into the Mormon faith. To many, Mormonism will seem like entering into a foreign country. In this I had the inside track. I'm not a Mormon, but I lived in Utah and attended Brigham Young University. For me, The Bishop's Wife was familiar territory, and what I liked about Harrison's weaving of faith into this storyline is that she was fair and even-handed. She shares both the good and the bad about this religion, and she does it in the best way possible: by the words and actions of her characters. 

Do not avoid reading this book because you fear being bogged down by theological rambling. You won't be. Instead you'll be drawn into a story about a very interesting woman whose conscience will not let her stand idly by. Like so many other characters in crime fiction, Linda will not rest until she's found the truth.
 

The Bishop's Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison

eISBN: 9781616954789 

Soho Press © 2014

eBook, 352 pages

Amateur Sleuth, #1 Linda Wallheim msytery

Rating: B+

Source: NetGalley