Synopsis
Moroni Traveler, the Salt Lake City investigator heralded by the New York Times Book Review as "a true rebel hero in the classic private-eye tradition," finds himself working on a very personal case as he and his adoptive father, Martin, look for the three-year-old child who may or may not be Moroni's son.
Tracking down a lead, the two men end up in a virtual ghost town in the Oquirrh Mountains. All but deserted, the old mining town of Bingham Canyon is about to be evacuated and razed by the powerful Kennecott Copper Company, which is eager to get at the mineral wealth buried beneath the community. A few families are hanging on, though, including one that may be sheltering the newest Traveler.
The father-son duo's efforts are hampered by the slated demolition of their offices in the Chester Building, and even more so by the antics of their fellow tenants, Mad Bill and Charlie Redwine, whose latest shenanigans have evoked the wrath of the Church. With Martin trying to preserve the building and protect Bill and Charlie, Moroni continues the search, until murder rears its ugly head and the investigation moves into a whole new dimension.
Reviews
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.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Salt Lake City detective Moroni Traveler (The Great Reminder, 1993, etc.) has two pro bono problems: how to rescue his office building from the wrecker's ball, and where to find the rumored child who looks like his father Martin's last best hope for a grandson. There doesn't seem much of a prayer for the Chester Building. It's widely assumed that the muscle behind the holding company that's been buying up the block is the Mormon church, which has unlimited de facto powers of eminent domain in the state; not even the demented opposition of Mad Bill, the Sandwich Prophet, or the rumor that the ceiling mural of Brigham Young is by Thomas Hart Benton seems likely to save the building from being turned into a temple parking lot. The hunt for Moroni Jr., whom Traveler's former lover Claire Bennion had taunted him with shortly before she died, looks like a change of pace, but when the search leads to ghostly Bingham Canyon, a burned-out mining town Kennicott Copper is looking to legislate into official extinction, the Travelers find themselves up against the same old eminent demons. Homicide eventually comes into the story on a large scale, but almost as an afterthought; the sins of individuals clearly don't hold the same fascination for Irvine as the forces they represent. Irvine's patient, austere etching of contemporary Utah--he must have one of the least ingratiating styles in the business--is less intent, as usual, on developing a story than on evoking a world uniquely his own. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Salt Lake City investigator Moroni Traveler (Barking Dogs, LJ 3/1/94) and his father search for a three-year-old boy who may be Moroni's son. Seventh in the series.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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