Stewart follows a lively debut (The Tenth Virgin) with a solidly crafted, skillfully plotted, highly readable second venture...

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THE ZARAHMELA VISION

Stewart follows a lively debut (The Tenth Virgin) with a solidly crafted, skillfully plotted, highly readable second venture into Mormonland--Salt Lake City and environs. Semi-seedy sleuth Gabe Utley has decided to settle there a while, testing the remnants of his Mormon upbringing, and pursuing Mona, a sexy reporter with a limited but pungent vocabulary. Then comes a call from long-unthought-of Aunt Hattie in southern Utah, wanting help in finding son Parley, who claims to have kidnapped Mormon Church President Wilford Richards, long an invalid according to his doctor and frontman Marvin Hansen. Richards' death is announced soon after, his funeral held, and successor Prophet Witherspoon moves in with his big-business California cohorts. Gabe, meanwhile, is trying to find Parley--a move the new church officers find threatening--and he gets help from Richards' half-Indian granddaughter Marcy, whose father, Golden Raven, is on a rampage trying to avenge the murder of his brother Thomas Running Bear, an ardent church member. A near-poetic night hunt through the canyons and mesas of southern Utah brings Gabe's search to a dramatic climax in this rich, many-layered story, full of twists and turns, touching moments and memorable people.

Pub Date: Aug. 29, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1986

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