Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
Scottsdale, AZ : Poisoned Pen Press, 2003.
Description
Fiction. Mystery. HTML: Now in its second edition, Betty Webb's Desert Wives is a startling, real look into the polygamous communities of Northern Arizona. When private detective Lena Jones helps thirteen-year-old Rebecca escape from Purity, a polygamy compound hidden in a desolate area straddling the Utah/Arizona border, she uncovers more than she bargained for. Rebecca's mother has now been arrested for the murder of Prophet Solomon Royal, Rebecca's intended husband. So Lena enters Purity masquerading as a polygamist wife to uncover the real murderer. What secrets are the Circle of Elders so desperate to protect? Lena thinks she's put her own past behind her, but the sins of Purity's mothers and fathers force her to reexamine the scant memories of her early childhood. At the age of four she was found lying unconscious by the side of an Arizona highway, a bullet in her head. Raised in a series of foster homes, Lena does not remember her real name or the names of her parents. Are Lena's past and this new case somehow connected?.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member beata
Very important book about polygamy among fundamentalist Mormons in Utah/Arizona strip; eye-opener.
LibraryThing member beccam2
I will admit something- I was prepared not to like this book for numerous reasons ( having nothing to do with the subject matter).
However, Ms. Webb has written a very well researched book on polygamy and the polygamous settlements on the Arizona/Utah border. The book , is, of course, fiction, being
If you have an interest in this subject, or would like to know something about the subject, I would recommend this book, it is well done..
However, Ms. Webb has written a very well researched book on polygamy and the polygamous settlements on the Arizona/Utah border. The book , is, of course, fiction, being
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written as a mystery, with the central mystery being who killed the Prophet. The plot is thin and predictable, but it does accomplish it's purpose- taking you inside an imaginary compound of polygamists. The book on this score, is well written and does an admirable job of describing/depicting life in the settlements and more particularly, the devastating effect of the polygamous lifestyle on the women and children of the settlements. If you have an interest in this subject, or would like to know something about the subject, I would recommend this book, it is well done..
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LibraryThing member maneekuhi
This is the 2nd book in a series of 7 about Lena Jones, Scottsdale PI. All modern PI's and police detectives carry an abundance of personal baggage - Lena's is that her mother shot Lena in the head when she was 4 and still has the scar to prove it. "Desert Wives" is probably the best known and most
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highly regarded of the series, dealing with a polygamist compound on the Arizona-Utah border. The Prophet has been killed and Lena's client is accused; the client's young teen-aged daughter, Rebecca, is pursued by the father so that he can effect a trade of his daughter for two young teen brides. The compound is huge, the law against polygamy is skirted via divorce, and it becomes clear that while this story is fiction, polygamy remains a shameful and significantly large practice in this section of the country. Large, like 30-50,000 current polygamist family members. The author, Betty Webb, does not pull her punches in describing these "families", nor the Mormon faithful and Utah officials that turn a blind eye to the practice - nor to the evils which result. As a piece of crime fiction, the whodunit aspects are so-so. There is a lot of set-up and description in the first 60% of the book with no real tension. But theplot is well developed, and the book does cast a less than scenic view of the Arizona-Utah region. It's well done on that basis and I recommend it. I'll likely read another book in the series. Show Less
LibraryThing member auntieknickers
Arizona private eye Lena Jones returns in a mystery thriller that finds her going undercover in a compound of polygamist renegade Mormons to solve the murder of its patriarch. Her client, a former resident whose 13-year-old daughter was kidnapped by her ex-husband and was scheduled to marry the
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80-ish murder victim, is the prime suspect. Betty Webb isn't afraid to say what she thinks about current affairs, nor is her protagonist. A very good book. Show Less
LibraryThing member bsquaredinoz
When DESERT WIVES opens Lena Jones, a female private detective, is in the final stages of rescuing 13 year-old Rebecca Corbett from the polygamist’s compound her father took her to so she could marry the compound’s spiritual leader. But as the pair are leaving the desert compound, which
I think like most regular readers of the gritty end of the crime fiction spectrum I’m hard to shock but I have to say this book managed to (figuratively) shock the pants off me. Although fictional it is clear – both from the content of the story and the author’s after word – that its depiction of the practice of polygamy in these types of compounds is heavily based on real life cases and events. We learn about the way that the women in these compounds are cut off entirely from any outside influences and are trapped there by ignorance of any other life, especially when they start having the many children they are expected to produce. But there is much worse for us all to uncover: large-scale welfare fraud, forced marriages, violence against and sexual abuse of women and young girls, a dire lack of basic medical care and knowledge leading to unnecessary deaths and appalling and unnecessary birth defects. And perhaps most shameful of all there is the fact that much of this is known by the authorities and is allowed to continue virtually unchecked.
As a social commentary this book does clearly have an agenda which is something I am normally wary of. However by using Lena to lead us through the revelations of the goings on in Purity (the name of the compound) Webb manages to avoid proselytising for the most part. And you’d be hard pressed to find a way to provide a balanced view of the disturbing, stomach-churning behaviour of the men in Purity. It seems to be my week for reading pleasant-looking books that hide an unexpectedly dark heart. Here, once again, there are injustices being committed against the most vulnerable people in our collective midsts and, yet again, those same people are let down by the very systems which are meant to protect them.
As a mystery novel I have to admit DESERT WIVES does not work as well. Lena, perhaps not unreasonably given the horrors she is uncovering, often seems to forget what he is meant to be investigating while she is in Purity and the crime-solving element of the book is perfunctory at best. It didn’t really bother me as I was so compelled by the rest of the drama unfolding but if you are looking for a top-notch whodunnit this is not the book for you.
In some ways the best ‘characters’ in the novel are the places. Both harsh and beautiful elements of the desert location are depicted in such a way as to make the reader feel transported there. And Purity as a place is also fabulously brought to life: the sheer numbers of people, the production-line quality of the many births that take place every week, the austerity of conditions for the many (while the chosen few live in luxury) (go figure) are all present as images in my mind an none of it looks much like Big Love.
While not a book for those focused on mystery for its own sake DESERT WIVES is a compelling read for those who are willing to let crime solving take a back seat to the depiction of wholesale injustice. This part of the storytelling is done well, with Webb building to a dramatic conclusion at a brisk pace and with just the right amount of character development along the way. If, by chance, the book doesn’t make you angry on behalf of its victims I really don’t want to know you.
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straddles the Arizona and Utah borders, they stumble across the body of the very man Rebecca was to marry. They make their escape anyway and Rebecca is soon reunited with her mother Esther but not for long. Police in both states quickly focus their attention on Esther as Prophet Solomon’s killer and when they take her into custody Lena and her partner in the detective agency have to hide Rebecca and Lena, believing that no one in authority is looking for Salomon’s real killer, takes it upon herself to infiltrate the compound to find out who else had the means and motive for killing the man.I think like most regular readers of the gritty end of the crime fiction spectrum I’m hard to shock but I have to say this book managed to (figuratively) shock the pants off me. Although fictional it is clear – both from the content of the story and the author’s after word – that its depiction of the practice of polygamy in these types of compounds is heavily based on real life cases and events. We learn about the way that the women in these compounds are cut off entirely from any outside influences and are trapped there by ignorance of any other life, especially when they start having the many children they are expected to produce. But there is much worse for us all to uncover: large-scale welfare fraud, forced marriages, violence against and sexual abuse of women and young girls, a dire lack of basic medical care and knowledge leading to unnecessary deaths and appalling and unnecessary birth defects. And perhaps most shameful of all there is the fact that much of this is known by the authorities and is allowed to continue virtually unchecked.
As a social commentary this book does clearly have an agenda which is something I am normally wary of. However by using Lena to lead us through the revelations of the goings on in Purity (the name of the compound) Webb manages to avoid proselytising for the most part. And you’d be hard pressed to find a way to provide a balanced view of the disturbing, stomach-churning behaviour of the men in Purity. It seems to be my week for reading pleasant-looking books that hide an unexpectedly dark heart. Here, once again, there are injustices being committed against the most vulnerable people in our collective midsts and, yet again, those same people are let down by the very systems which are meant to protect them.
As a mystery novel I have to admit DESERT WIVES does not work as well. Lena, perhaps not unreasonably given the horrors she is uncovering, often seems to forget what he is meant to be investigating while she is in Purity and the crime-solving element of the book is perfunctory at best. It didn’t really bother me as I was so compelled by the rest of the drama unfolding but if you are looking for a top-notch whodunnit this is not the book for you.
In some ways the best ‘characters’ in the novel are the places. Both harsh and beautiful elements of the desert location are depicted in such a way as to make the reader feel transported there. And Purity as a place is also fabulously brought to life: the sheer numbers of people, the production-line quality of the many births that take place every week, the austerity of conditions for the many (while the chosen few live in luxury) (go figure) are all present as images in my mind an none of it looks much like Big Love.
While not a book for those focused on mystery for its own sake DESERT WIVES is a compelling read for those who are willing to let crime solving take a back seat to the depiction of wholesale injustice. This part of the storytelling is done well, with Webb building to a dramatic conclusion at a brisk pace and with just the right amount of character development along the way. If, by chance, the book doesn’t make you angry on behalf of its victims I really don’t want to know you.
Show Less
LibraryThing member susan259
I enjoyed this very much, as it gave so many details of polygamy in the present day, and the mystery was quite interesting as well. I liked the complexity of the people, in that good guys weren't all good and bad guys weren't all bad, and many of them were pretty much brain washed or uneducated and
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who was to blame really? Especially interesting considering the sect that has been in the news in Texas... Show Less
LibraryThing member susan259
I enjoyed this very much, as it gave so many details of polygamy in the present day, and the mystery was quite interesting as well. I liked the complexity of the people, in that good guys weren't all good and bad guys weren't all bad, and many of them were pretty much brain washed or uneducated and
Show More
who was to blame really? Especially interesting considering the sect that has been in the news in Texas... Show Less
LibraryThing member susan259
I enjoyed this very much, as it gave so many details of polygamy in the present day, and the mystery was quite interesting as well. I liked the complexity of the people, in that good guys weren't all good and bad guys weren't all bad, and many of them were pretty much brain washed or uneducated and
Show More
who was to blame really? Especially interesting considering the sect that has been in the news in Texas... Show Less
Subjects
Awards
WILLA Literary Award (Finalist — Contemporary Fiction — 2004)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2003-01-02
Physical description
300 p.; 23 cm
ISBN
1590580303 / 9781590580301