Art Oveson

In the scorching, drought-plagued summer of 1934, as wildfires burn across Utah, Detective Lieutenant Art Oveson faces a unique assignment. Salt Lake City's mayor has tapped him to revive the Anti-Polygamy Squad, a unit formed years earlier for the purpose of driving out the city's "plural marriage zealots." As a Mormon ashamed of his own ancestors' part in the church's polygamist past, Art is eager to do his part to flush out the extremists. Then a local polygamist "prophet" is brutally murdered and a shell-shocked young girl is found at the scene of the crime. Is she the victim's daughter, a child bride, or the murderer herself? Art attempts to investigate the death, as well as discover her identity, despite a "wall of silence" put up by polygamists who would rather mete out their own rough justice. Soon, however, Art discovers that the sect has much more to hide than he thought. Historian and Hillerman returns to 1930s Salt Lake City in this deeply researched mystery. A Killing in Zion portrays a city and a religion struggling to grow and shake off a notorious history that has not yet become a thing of the past.

In the summer of 1938, as war clouds loom overseas, auto racers from around the world gather at the Bonneville Salt Flats west of Salt Lake City, intent on breaking the land-speed record. But when Clive Underhill, a wealthy English motorist, mysteriously disappears and his younger brother, Nigel, is found dead, Art Oveson of the Salt Lake City Missing Persons Bureau is called to investigate. Suddenly, Art's best friend and former partner, Roscoe Lund, becomes the number-one suspect in Nigel's murder, prompting Art to follow a murky trail involving homegrown fascists, bigoted ex-cops, a string of homicides, and a German auto racer with a mysterious past. And, through it all, FBI Agent Frank Oveson tries to prevent his "kid brother" Art from discovering dark truths that may threaten his life. Tony Hillerman Prize—winning author and historian Andrew Hunt transports us to 1930s Salt Lake City in Desolation Flats, this engrossing, detailed mystery that shows what goes on behind the scenes in the supposedly clean-cut Mormon capital.