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?