From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

The Bishop’s Wife (Linda Wallheim Mystery, #1)

Mette Ivie Harrison

Why we're reading this: Soho Crime is the indie publisher of this cozy mystery.
[close] Soho Crime is the indie publisher of this cozy mystery.

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Mar 06, 2017 Melle rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2017, dakota-county-library-book, adult, fiction, copyright-2014, mystery, violence-against-women, mormonism

I was surprised at how much I liked this once I got into it. I was definitely a slow-burner for me, but I liked the protagonist and related to her trying to navigate between a traditionally-restrictive faith and feminism (Mormonism isn't all that dissimilar to the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (the religious tradition in which I was raised) in terms of its social conservatism and reluctance to embrace anything even resembling progress but there are still forces and agents of change at work in e ...more

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Feb 11, 2015 alana rated it it was ok

Shelves: females-and-feminists, crime

The Bishop’s Wife felt like it wanted to be more than a crime novel set in a Mormon community, but the anticlimactic resolution to the mystery situates the book squarely within Criminal Mindsy territory. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a bit of psyco killer qu’est-ce que ce as much as the next thirtysomething American woman, but you know what you’re getting into with one of those shows or books.

Mette Ivie Harrison crafts an interesting character with Linda – a stay-at-home mother of five boys and w The Bishop’s Wife felt like it wanted to be more than a crime novel set in a Mormon community, but the anticlimactic resolution to the mystery situates the book squarely within Criminal Mindsy territory. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a bit of psyco killer qu’est-ce que ce as much as the next thirtysomething American woman, but you know what you’re getting into with one of those shows or books.

Mette Ivie Harrison crafts an interesting character with Linda – a stay-at-home mother of five boys and wife to a man “called” to be ward bishop in addition to his accounting job. I can only guess at the accuracy of this glimpse into Mormon leadership but can understand how such a job would put a spotlight on Linda in addition to adding the expectation of helping all those in their community. Many of Linda’s struggles will be familiar to women who are removed from the workforce while their husband’s career still moves forward. Harrison uses Linda’s own ponderings to question the gendered roles within the Mormon church and within a small, gossipy community in general. I thought the story would serve to say something bigger…but the mystery devolves into evil man hate. (view spoiler)

Since the protagonist and setting provide a vivid glimpse of life within the leadership of the Mormon church, the book unfortunately carries the weight of representing that community to outsiders. Consequently, the murder mysteries at first seem a way to explore complex family relationships through the lens of Mormon beliefs. However, wampwamp, it’s just a murder mystery with a Mormon theme. My expectations were too high, I guess. A lingering question: is being sealed to someone in the afterlife really that big of a deal?
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