For Time and All Eternities: A Linda Wallheim Mystery

In Harrison’s thought-provoking third Linda Wallheim mystery (after 2015’s His Right Hand), Linda, a conflicted Mormon wife and mother in Draper, Utah, has doubts about church doctrine that put a strain on her marriage. When her agnostic son, Kenneth, becomes engaged to Naomi Carter, whose physician father, Stephen, is the patriarch of a polygamist sect, Naomi asks Linda to visit her family’s compound and help determine whether her nine-year-old sister, Talitha, is being abused. At the compound, in a part of the state “off the map,” Linda discovers that not all of Stephen’s five wives are happy with their situation. When a murder occurs and the wives refuse to call the police for fear of losing their children, Linda once again turns sleuth. Never mind the contrived solution or that no one affected by the murder seems that distressed. The plight of a woman who’s struggling with a crisis of faith makes this Harrison’s most powerful and personal novel yet. Agent: Barry Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary. (Jan.)