num_pages: 300
description: Polygamy can be murder! That's what private detective Lena Jones learns when she helps thirteen year old Rebecca escape from Purity, a polygamy compound hidden in a desolate area near straddling Utah/Arizona border. When Rebecca's mother is arrested for the murder of Prophet Solomon Royal, Rebecca's intended husband, Lena enters Purity masquerading as a polygamist wife to uncover the real murderer. In doing so, Lena finds out more than she bargained for--the shocking secret the cult's Circle of Elders will kill to keep. During her investigations, Lena also discovers more about her own past. At the age of four she was found lying unconscious by the side of an Arizona highway, a bullet robbing her of her memories. Raised in a series of foster homes, Lena does not remember her real name nor the names of her parents. She thinks she has put the past behind her, but the sins of Purity's polygamous mothers and fathers force her to reexamine the few memories she has of her own mother--the woman who shot her...
language: English
title: Desert Wives
titlecomplete: Desert Wives (A Lena Jones Mystery #2)
genres: Fiction, Mystery, Mystery Thriller
ratings_count: 546
places: Utah
series: Lena Jones Mystery
awards: awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: WILLA Literary Award
category: Contemporary Fiction (Finalist)1
publisher: Poisoned Pen Press