The Hosanna Shout: A Moroni Traveler Mystery

Salt Lake City PI Moroni Traveler, in his seventh outing (following The Great Reminder), is pitted anew against the rigid and wealthy theocracy of the Mormon church. This adventure centers on efforts of Moroni, named for the Mormon angel, and his partner and father, also named Moroni, to find a three-year-old Moroni, whose capricious mother, Claire, had had an affair with the younger Traveler long before the child was conceived. The hunt ends in the dying copper town of Bingham Canyon, pop. 300, which is holding a referendum on whether to sell its assets to the voracious Kennecott Copper Co. At a town picnic the day before the voting, former L.A. linebacker Traveler, playing incognito in a game of touch football, finds himself the target of flying elbows and vicious blindsiding. Afterwards, he reaches for the beer, thus foiling a poisoner who expects a man named for a Mormon angel to choose the doctored lemonade. Four people die, including a child, but there's one more twist in store. Finding the murderer is easy; what matters here is not the curlicues of plot but character, history and atmosphere, all neatly realized. (Oct.)