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A review by k_lee_reads_it
The Bishop's Wife by Mette Ivie Harrison
1.0
A mystery I heard. I love mysteries. It is set in the LDS (Mormon) community of Draper, Utah. Great I am LDS. I once lived in Utah. This sounds fun.
I put the book on hold at the local library and waited. Today it came. Hooray I have dinner planned. PI Day - all kinds of good Mormon family fun and easy frozen dinner means extra time for me to read.
Book starts off with promise. This might just be a cozy. I quite enjoy a good cozy. And then everything derails.
I still love this idea. I think it has great potential, but the author has a couple of problems. First she has to figure out who her audience is going to be. Mormons, great, they don't need all the explanation and commentary. Non Mormons, probably better, but they might need more explanation because what is a Cultural Hall or a Stake President to them? Unfortunately all the explanations bring the plot development to a halt every time they occur.
But I am still enamored of this idea, so I press forward. I am willing to put up with Linda, the Bishop's wife, running off and sticking her nose in where it doesn't belong. That is an ever present feature of the cozy mystery. I am not, however all that excited by her need to enumerate and editorialize on every point of LDS church procedure that the author feels compelled to share.
I am wearing down. Obviously the author is a Mormon feminist who has decided that hot button LDS topics will improve her mystery novel. I am okay with that. I love a story that makes a statement about hard topics and makes me think. I am willing to listen to the feelings and struggles of another human even their dissenting opinion on doctrine I hold dear, but I am starting to get tired.
Paragraphs like, "Jared Helm wasn't a danger to anyone anymore, except perhaps his own daughter. The real danger to the women in the ward was the danger they had faced yesterday and the day before that,and ever since they were married: their own husbands." caused me to raise my eyebrows and say out loud, "Really?" I am not naive enough to think that statement is untrue for some women. But I am also not naive enough to believe that I am the only Mormon woman who can call her husband and father and most of the males in her life friends, not dangers.
By page 63, I have about decided the author doesn't actually have an understanding of Mormon doctrine or else she doesn't care to stay true to the setting. FYI - Deacons can go at the Bishop's direction and offer the sacrament to members who have a reason to keep them from church, but I have never seen them carry a blessed tray down the street. If they do go they go with a Priest who blesses the bread and water in the members house. And I am not even going to deal with the comments about Relief Society Presidents and their inspiration on page 79.
At this point I am seeing a pattern. The author appears to want to put every controversial Mormon topic into this book, whether it has anything to do with her plot which revolves around male/female equality and abuse. I am finding myself unwilling to soldier onward. So I skim to the end and I won't spoil it for you should you decide to give this one a try.
Just please, if you have questions about the Mormons, don't let this be the place you use for your answers.
I put the book on hold at the local library and waited. Today it came. Hooray I have dinner planned. PI Day - all kinds of good Mormon family fun and easy frozen dinner means extra time for me to read.
Book starts off with promise. This might just be a cozy. I quite enjoy a good cozy. And then everything derails.
I still love this idea. I think it has great potential, but the author has a couple of problems. First she has to figure out who her audience is going to be. Mormons, great, they don't need all the explanation and commentary. Non Mormons, probably better, but they might need more explanation because what is a Cultural Hall or a Stake President to them? Unfortunately all the explanations bring the plot development to a halt every time they occur.
But I am still enamored of this idea, so I press forward. I am willing to put up with Linda, the Bishop's wife, running off and sticking her nose in where it doesn't belong. That is an ever present feature of the cozy mystery. I am not, however all that excited by her need to enumerate and editorialize on every point of LDS church procedure that the author feels compelled to share.
I am wearing down. Obviously the author is a Mormon feminist who has decided that hot button LDS topics will improve her mystery novel. I am okay with that. I love a story that makes a statement about hard topics and makes me think. I am willing to listen to the feelings and struggles of another human even their dissenting opinion on doctrine I hold dear, but I am starting to get tired.
Paragraphs like, "Jared Helm wasn't a danger to anyone anymore, except perhaps his own daughter. The real danger to the women in the ward was the danger they had faced yesterday and the day before that,and ever since they were married: their own husbands." caused me to raise my eyebrows and say out loud, "Really?" I am not naive enough to think that statement is untrue for some women. But I am also not naive enough to believe that I am the only Mormon woman who can call her husband and father and most of the males in her life friends, not dangers.
By page 63, I have about decided the author doesn't actually have an understanding of Mormon doctrine or else she doesn't care to stay true to the setting. FYI - Deacons can go at the Bishop's direction and offer the sacrament to members who have a reason to keep them from church, but I have never seen them carry a blessed tray down the street. If they do go they go with a Priest who blesses the bread and water in the members house. And I am not even going to deal with the comments about Relief Society Presidents and their inspiration on page 79.
At this point I am seeing a pattern. The author appears to want to put every controversial Mormon topic into this book, whether it has anything to do with her plot which revolves around male/female equality and abuse. I am finding myself unwilling to soldier onward. So I skim to the end and I won't spoil it for you should you decide to give this one a try.
Just please, if you have questions about the Mormons, don't let this be the place you use for your answers.