Desolation Flats
A Mystery
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1938, Hunt's outstanding third mystery featuring Mormon policeman Art Oveson (after 2015's A Killing in Zion) combines a moving portrayal of a man attempting to deal with his wife's depression with a clever whodunit story line. Art, who's been transferred to the Salt Lake City PD's two-man Missing Persons Bureau, is on hand when British racing-car driver Clive Underhill almost perishes in a crash. Art risks his own life to rescue Clive, who has traveled to the U.S. to try to set the world's land-speed record on the Salt Flats. Clive's major competition is a German racer, whose triumph would be a propaganda victory for the Nazis. The detective gets further involved with Clive after a member of Clive's party disappears and another is murdered. The identity of the prime murder suspect complicates Art's inquiry, as do his struggles with his wife's mental illness and its effect on their three children. The richness of the characters, including secondary ones, and the imaginative plot make this the best yet in the series.
