Bruce Von Stiers

In the wake of John Grisham’s huge success, there have been a ton of lawyers writing mystery novels. Some are very good; others mediocre and some that are just horrible. I just finished a novel that falls under the first category. It was written by John Gates, an attorney from Utah now making his home in El Paso. The title of the book is Brigham’s Day. It was published by Walker & Company.

Brigham Bybee is an attorney whose time has come and gone. He unsuccessfully sued one of the top people in the Mormon Church for molesting one of his congregation. Brigham is pretty much washed up after that. To his family, the Latter Day Saints church and the community of litigants he belonged to he was a pariah.

Now Brigham has a chance to redeem himself. There is a murder suspect that he is to defend in the town of Kanub. It seems that Owen Parks has been charged with the murder of Douglas Farnsworth. Owen had some dealings with Farnsworth and one of them seemed to have caused the murder. Brigham is told that he has to take this case or face some unsavory repercussions from the upper levels of the judicial system.

What Brigham finds out is that he is second chair in the case. He will be working under Ronnie Watters, a hot shot attorney who might be more trouble than help in the case. Watters keeps spouting off about some secret society within the Mormon Church that is responsible for Farnsworth’s murder and subsequent frame up of Owen Parks.

Brigham finds out that Watters is kind of a sleazeball. He hits on waitresses and a potential witness for the defense. When Brigham gets involved with the witness, the niece of the murdered man, there is more than just jealousy that springs up.

At the crux of the story is a supposed massacre that occurred near Kanub during the late 1800’s. One man was held responsible. But was he really? There are several flashbacks during the book that refer to the massacre and the events surrounding it.

John Gates knows quite a bit about the Mormons and Kanub. The book jacket bio says that he was raised up in that area. From the way some of the scenery is described, you get a good feel of how beautiful and deadly the area around Kanub can be.

The book, while not an expose on the Latter Day Saints, tends to condemn them quite a bit. Is there really a secret society within the Mormon Church that cleans up messes and prevents others? In the wake of all of the abuse charges against church leaders in all faiths, certain aspects of this book really hit home.

Brigham’s Day is a pretty good mystery. Pretty early on, Gates makes you realize that Owen Parks really isn’t guilty. But he makes you think a little about who might be. Is it the niece or one of the townspeople? The book isn’t a nail biting, hurry-to-the-next-page suspense novel. But it has its moments. Overall, Brigham’s Day does fairly well as a murder mystery.

To check out more about Brigham’s Day or other Walker & Company titles, visit the publisher’s web site at www.walkerbooks.com.