University of Minnesota Press
Published May 19, 2026
Reviewed by Barbara Fister
Bridget Reardon, an Irish immigrant to America in the 1880s, has left her previous home in Cheyenne, Wyoming, seeking a place to live that is more civilized and less violent. When she arrives in Salt Lake City, she feels she has found it. While she has no interest in becoming a Mormon, she likes the calm and sophistication of the place, and when she’s offered a job at a bookshop, her ideal profession, she’s delighted. The owner, Mr. Cutter, invites her to move into a room at his large, elegant home, where he lives with his five wives. Bridget is quite sure she would never want to be in a polygamous marriage herself, but she finds the company of the five women and their children congenial and is curious about their religious beliefs. On the whole, the wives get along well, save for one problem: Mr. Cutter wants to make Amelia, his sixteen-year-old stepdaughter, his sixth wife. Neither Amelia nor her mother like that idea, and his chief wife thinks five is enough. When someone decides to do something about it, Bridget has a murder on her hands. What was Mr. Cutter doing in the sewing room where he normally never ventured, and how did he die?
With the local coroner as an ally, Bridget sorts through the suspects. Since no one from outside the household visited at the time of his death, it must be one of them, and several of the wives have motives. There is also young Amelia, who was adamantly opposed to marrying her stepfather, and his son by another wife, Brandon, who wants to attend art school in the East and would like to take Amelia with him as his wife. While she sorts out the possibilities, Bridget learns about the place where she has landed. She reads the Book of Mormon, which she finds unpersuasive, but comes to respect the religious beliefs of the wives and their solidarity, even as the federal government moves to outlaw and penalize polygamous marriages, staging a raid on the city. While all this is going on, she finds the murder weapon and puts the puzzle pieces together.
The third in the series, after The Streel (2020) and Big Sugar (2023), continues the story of a young woman (just eighteen in this entry) as she moves westward, seeking a place to call home. She isn’t sure she will ever fit into a community where Mormonism is so dominant – she is the proverbial wasp in the beehive of the Latter Day Saints – and wonders if she should return to wild Cheyenne, where her beloved brother and the man who wants to marry her have settled for good.
Logue is a prolific author of books, including the Claire Watkins mystery series. This compact story, only 200 pages long, is told in a voice that is as no-nonsense as its protagonist, who combines curiosity with common sense and personal courage. The entire series, which could appeal to young readers as well as adults, does a good job of balancing historical context with a mystery to solve. For armchair travelers who favor time machines, this historical series is a lot of fun.