Brigham's Day
From AwardAnnals
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| Author(s) | John Gates |
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| Subtitle | A Novel |
| Publisher | Walker & Company |
| Honors | |
| In 1857, 120 settlers bound for California were murdered by a group of Mormons who feared that the wagon train was sent out to destroy them. The story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre is part of the lore of the West and an event that many would like to see forgotten. But it hasn’t been: in this explosive first novel, John Gates introduces Brigham Bybee, an attorney assigned to assist in the defense of a young man accused of murder in Kanab, Utah. To save himself and his client, Bybee must ask questions, the answers to which were supposed to have been buried with… | |
In 1857, 120 settlers bound for California were murdered by a group of Mormons who feared that the wagon train was sent out to destroy them. The story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre is part of the lore of the West and an event that many would like to see forgotten. But it hasn’t been: in this explosive first novel, John Gates introduces Brigham Bybee, an attorney assigned to assist in the defense of a young man accused of murder in Kanab, Utah. To save himself and his client, Bybee must ask questions, the answers to which were supposed to have been buried with the victims of the Massacre. Discovering the truth may save his client, but the cost to the Mormon community will be catastrophic. Brigham’s day is a heart-stopping thriller based on historical truths.
Wonderfully crafted, carefully plotted, and rich in the color and history of the area, it is a novel that won’t be ignored…or forgotten.
Honors
Reviews
Amazon.com
Brig Bybee is a Utah lawyer with a history of challenging the powers- that-be in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That is not how a brilliant criminal attorney gets ahead in Kanab, where this well-written suspense novel is set. The background of the standard plot (personally troubled, professionally played-out lawyer boxed in by a judge who makes him take second chair to another lawyer in defending a young man charged with murder) gets a nifty historical context as it relates to a century-old massacre in a stronghold of Brigham Young and his devotees.
Bybee’s co-counsel is a hotheaded young lawyer who believes there’s a connection between trumped-up charges against their client and the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, for which the Mormon Church hierarchy may have framed another innocent man. Granted a second chance at happiness, Bybee, who lost his first wife and daughter in the unpopular pursuit of justice last time out, is falling in love with the granddaughter of the man his client supposedly murdered. He’s also trying to rein in his unpredictable colleague, who has reason to believe that the church has framed Owen Parks, just the way they framed John Lee over a century ago. This time it’s through a posse known as the Daughters of Zion, who would do anything to protect the reputation of the church’s founder and the powerful Mormon hierarchy that guards its secrets just as forcefully today as it did then. Brig is an interesting protagonist, and the history of Utah’s settlement is a fascinating story. Author John Gates, a Utah native, tells it well enough to make the reader hope for a second chance, and a second outing, for his hero. —Jane Adams
