A fascinating book at times and at other times I had to force myself to read it. One story is set in the mid-late 19th century as historical fiction while another, a murder mystery, is a contemporary tale. The two stories have parallel themes of course and even slightly overlap.

My main grief was in the long-winded style of the 19th century characters, but I had other problems with this part of the book. Several "authors" were used to tell this antiquated story, a device I found distracting. I know they probably wrote like that, but I felt like I had to plow through their overly verbose descriptions and exhaustive ruminations just to get to the plot! Also, the history of the mormon church and it's eventual rejection of polygamy (and the resulting outcast societies who refused to let it go) is very interesting, but not in minutia.

The modern-day story was a lot more relevant and proceeded at an exciting enough pace to keep me interested. The characters seemed more real as well. Eventually this part of the book (the two stories were told in interchanging chapters) was the carrot that kept me plodding along.

If the novel had been only set in the 19th century it would've been a snooze-fest (even though I typically DO like historical fiction.) But perhaps I've read one too many books on polygamy and was bored because I've simply exhausted the subject?