Black Widows

This murder mystery by Cate Quinn is based on the story of a polygamous man who has been brutally and ritually murdered. The book jacket sums it up this way: "Against the wishes of his family and the laws of the elders of the Mormon church, Blake Nelson has adopted the old polygamous ways and lives alone with his three wives, miles from anywhere, in rural Utah. Blake and his wives kept to themselves-and kept most folks out. That is, until his dead body is discovered. Black Widows is told in the three voices of Blake's very different wives, who hate each other, and who sometimes hated their husband. Blake's dead. Did his wife kill him? And if so, which one?" The three narrators, "First Wife" Rachel, sister-wife Emily, and sister-wife Tina, could not be more different from one another. Rachel is a dyed-in-the-wool Mormon, who met Blake in college and who wants nothing more than to forget her horrifying past, where she was raised in and rescued from a brutal polygamous cult. Emily is just a lost soul, constantly rejected by a hyper-critical Catholic mother; she is a chronic dreamer, snoop, and liar. And Tina is an ex-hooker and recovering drug addict rescued during a stint of rehab by volunteer Blake. The police suspect Rachel, but Emily is the one who confesses. I was surprised to learn who the culprit was. The danger of becoming the next victim of the killer is real for all of them. What is really cleverly done is making Blake a central character in his own right even though he's dead from the outset. With Blake gone, of course the sister-wives all suspect each other, but they have also never really seen or known one another. Moreover, at least two of them haven't really known themselves or what they can become once freed from Blake's control. All that emerges as their pasts, their secrets and their dreams are gradually revealed. The setting is also vividly drawn and its influence on relationship dynamics is significant.

It was a good mystery, well told, with insights into some aspects of the regular Church of Latter Day Saints, but also some disturbing descriptions of sexual abuse of underage girls by cults, so consider before reading. Publishers Weekly provides a brief and positive review. The New York Journal of Books calls this a "rock solid suspense novel." The New York Times laments that the police investigators are unidimensional characters but then gushes "oh, my, can this author draw women!"