His Right Hand
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4.2 • 6 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Author of The Bishop’s Wife: A Utah housewife looks into the murder of a prominent Mormon—with a surprising secret—in this “fast-moving” novel (Anne Perry).
In Draper, Utah, a tight-knit Latter-day Saints community is thrown into upheaval when their ward’s second counselor—one of the bishop’s right-hand men—is found dead in an elaborately staged murder on church property. Carl Ashby was known as a devout Mormon, a pillar of the community, and a loving husband and father. Who would want him dead?
Linda Wallheim, the wife of the bishop, can’t rest as long as the ward is suffering. She is particularly worried about Carl’s grieving family. But the entire case is turned upside down by the autopsy report—which reveals that Carl was biologically female.
In the Mormon church, where gender is considered part of a person’s soul, some people regard transgenderism as one of the worst possible sins. Church officials seem to be more upset by Carl’s gender than his murder, and more concerned with hushing up the story than solving the crime. Linda realizes that if the police are to catch the killer, they’re going to need an ally on the inside. Carl was living a life of secrecy for twenty years. What else was he hiding—and can Linda ferret out the key to his death before the rumors tear her community apart?
From the author of The Bishop’s Wife, this is both a compelling crime novel and “a heartfelt story that opens outsiders to a fascinating world” (The Boston Globe).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harrison's outstanding sequel to 2014's The Bishop's Wife focuses on a timely social issue. At the annual bishopric dinner, Linda Wallheim and her husband, Kurt, the LDS bishop of their ward in Draper, Utah, are dismayed by the critical, controlling way that Carl Ashby, Kurt's second counselor, treats his wife, Emma. One night soon afterward, a distraught Emma phones Linda and Kurt to report that Carl is late coming home from a church meeting. Kurt and Linda drive over to the church, where they find Carl strangled with a woman's scarf. The subsequent autopsy reveals that Carl was transgender. This revelation comes as a surprise to nearly everyone in the couple's community, including Emma and their two high school age children, both adopted. Higher-ups in the Mormon Church want to play down Carl's secret past. Linda, as the ever-helpful bishop's wife, tries not only to comfort Emma and her children but also to assist the police in the hunt for Carl's killer. The suspect pool may be small, but Harrison once again dramatizes the agonizing plight of those who firmly believe church doctrine and yet by their nature have a fundamental conflict with it.
