City of Saints: A Mystery
In Hunt’s first novel (winner of the 2011 Hillerman Prize), Salt Lake City, in 1930, seethes with wickedness under a veneer of upright Mormonism and congeniality. Political corruption, crooked cops, and sordid affairs conducted by the “saints” come to light when Helen Pfalzgraf, wife of a highly respected doctor, is killed, ripped apart by vehicular bashing. It’s an election year and a high-profile murder case quickly solved will be a feather in the sheriff’s cap. Unfortunately, Deputy Art Overman, a squeaky clean family man and devout Mormon, refuses to accept the cooked-up charges against an innocent man. Despite heavy departmental and social pressures, Art pursues the truth, sacrificing a few reputations and nearly getting himself and his partner killed in the process. Hunt, a history professor in Ontario, pens a decent period procedural, exposing gangster-era cronyism rampant in politics and law enforcement, even among people of faith. Unfortunately, moralistic Overman, while not lacking intellectual determination, is too spineless and naive to make a compelling cop: one hopes he’ll toughen up to Chandler standards in future episodes. --Jen Baker