Desert Wives (WWL Mystery)

Rating:
Summary: Excerpt from MyShelf.com Review
Review: Betty Webb has created a character who will keep you coming back for more. Lena's own tragic past is woven through every case she takes and every relationship she has. DESERT WIVES brings us a little closer to the truth - but there are still mysteries to unlock. Not only inside Lena, but also in the tightly written, suspenseful plots so masterfully delivered by this author. This is a compelling novel that I just couldn't put down. The subject matter is even more disturbing because of its awful reality.

Last year, DESERT NOIR, made my Top Ten list. This year, DESERT WIVES makes the list again. Keep `em coming, Betty!

HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION

Rating:
Summary: a dark and chilling novel
Review: In this second installment in the Lena Jones mystery series, Lena is hired by her client, desperate mother Esther Corbett, to rescue her daughter, Rebecca, from the polygamist compound of Purity at the Utah-Arizona border. The rescue goes perfectly, but on the way out of Purity, Lena and Rebecca stumble over the dead body (short-gunned) of Solomon Royal, the leader of the compound. And because a few witnesses saw (Esther's almost senile father included) Esther and Solomon arguing over Rebecca's future (sixty-something Solomon was scheduled to marry thirteen year old Rebecca) hours before Solomon was found dead, Esther is the number one suspect in that homicide. Now it's up to Lena to prove her client's innocence, clear her name and prevent Rebecca from becoming a child bride. But in order to do this, savvy and independent Lena will have to go undercover as one of the compound member's new "wife." Can a thoroughly modern and strong willed Lena curb her ways in order to fit in, in spite of all the horrors and injustice she will witness? Whether she likes it or not, Lena will have to bite her tongue and pretend to be a submissive wife in order to learn all the dirty little secrets that Purity has to hide so that she can find the real killer and so reunite Esther with Rebecca...

"Desert Wives" makes for compelling reading not so much for the mystery at hand, but because of Betty Webb's stark and incisive look at the dark reality of the lives of the women in the Purity polygamist compound. Where Webb describes how insular these women's lives are, and the extent to which they are controlled, exploited and manipulated, "Desert Wives" makes for absorbing and chilling reading. Unfortunately, where the mystery subplot is concerned, and Lena's undercover investigation into who murdered prophet Solomon Royal, there were definite shortcomings. I think that the authour spent too much time showing us how difficult it was for Lena to adjust to the confining life in the compound, and not enough time trying to find out what was actually going on in Purity. So that towards the end of the book, when a character (who knows that Lena has gone undercover), shortly lets Lena know that she's not "listening" and that the clues are there for her to discover, I was in total agreement. There are plenty of suspects, and even a plot twist or two, but Lena's final realisation as to who the murderer really was, truly came out of no where for me. Perhaps I missed a crucial bit somewhere, but I rather doubt it. So, all in all, if you're of a mind to read a dark and chilling account of what life for a woman would be like in a polygamist compound, and a book that has plenty of ambiance and atmosphere and that renders up the beauty of the Utah-Arizona desert, then you're bound to want to read "Desert Wives." However, if you're looking for a really compelling and intriguing mystery novel, be forewarned that mystery-wise "Desert Wives" falls a little short of expectations.

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Summary: Gutsy mystery with a timely theme
Review: In this timely second outing, gutsy PI Lena Jones, veteran of a hard-knocks childhood, can't bear to leave 13-year-old Rebecca to her fate - latest wife to the elderly Prophet of polygamous Purity, Utah, a hardscrabble compound in the middle of nowhere. Rescuing the girl (her father wants to trade her for two 16-year-olds), Lena all but stumbles over the body of the Prophet. Inevitably, Rebecca's mother is arrested for the murder.

All pretty straightforward so far, but Webb ("Desert Noir") takes a turn into the all-too-real surreal as Lena, determined to find the murderer, infiltrates the community by posing as a polygamist wife. In absorbing detail, Webb sets out the daily minutiae, the religious tenets (the more children, the better heaven), domestic routines, casual brutality, and the abject position of women, whose daily humiliation and powerlessness (including the offloading of widows onto other husbands) stacks up as nothing against the monstrous secret Lena finally uncovers.

Webb's writing is lively, well-paced and suspenseful. Dark humor accentuates the bleak setting. An afterward gives the background on Mormon polygamy and the state of law-enforcement disinterest. Powerful stuff.

Rating:
Summary: compelling story
Review: Outside of the region, it's not a well-known fact that along the Arizona-Utah border, there are various polygamous communities flourishing and the authorities turn a blind eye because their family trees also contain many polygamous members. Private detective Lena Jones, based in Scottsdale, is hired by thirteen year old Rebecca's mother to get her out of the polygamy compound of Purity. The girl's non-custodial parent kidnapped her with the intention of marrying her off to the Prophet Solomon Royal in exchange for receiving two sixteen-year old wives.

Lena is able to get Rebecca out safely but not before they both see that Solomon was murdered by a gunshot. A few days later Rebecca's mother is arrested for the crime because she can be placed near the scene just before the murder, yelling at the Prophet. Lena, with the help of an inside sympathizer, infiltrates the compound to discover who the real murderer is, a difficult job because many people had various reasons to want Solomon dead.

After reading DESERT WIVES, reader will come away horrified that women in the twenty-first century in America can be treated like cattle and have no recourse but to endure their suffering. Betty Webb tells a compelling story and raises a social issue that most people don't even realize exists. This is one book that the audience will be unable to forget due to its subject matter.

Harriet Klausner

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Summary: Convincing detail in polygamous cult
Review: Private Detective Lena Jones helps rescue a 13-year old girl from her non-custodial father and the man the father has promised his daughter in marriage to. But when the prospective groom, a 'prophet' in a polygamous Mormon sect, ends up killed, Jones's client is the only suspect. And Jones knows that that local sheriff won't go looking for any other suspects. He appears to sympathise with the polygamous rather than with the abused children. Jones knows what it is like to be a deserted child and goes underground in the cult compound, pretending to be one of the wives.

Author Betty Webb writes about the evils of polygamy and child abuse with authority while fully integrating these into an intriguing mystery. The prophet made plenty of enemies and had enough money to make even his best friend want to murder him. But who would he have trusted enough to lend his own shotgun to? Jones finds that the code of silence is in effect in the compound. The men barely talk to the women, and the women live in fear of more abuse, and in fear of one another as they scrabble for what little authority any woman can hold in a male dominated sect.

Serious mystery readers will quickly guess the killer, but will want to keep reading to see how Jones finally guesses the identity. Jones' terrible taste in men makes me glad she's not my detective, but it also makes for a more interesting read.