Baptism for the Dead

Moroni Traveler #1

by Robert Irvine

Salt Lake City's Mormon community offers furious resistance to Moroni Traveler, a private eye searching for the missing mother of Penny Varney

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

185 pages, hardback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Aka Val Davis, R.R. Irvine, Peter Heath, Peter H. Fine, Peter Heath Fine

Robert Ralstone Irvine studied anthropology and archaeology at the University of California at Berkeley and now lives in Northern California.

Reviews

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was between 3 and 4 stars for me. This book reminded me of those P.I. shows where the the P.I. is slovenly dressed in a rumpled suit eating cold pizza and then a beautiful women walks in with a tissue dabbing at her eyes, in need of help. I don't say that as a criticism because I actually like those shows. Another thing that added to that feel, was the narrator. He sounded like he belonged in one of those shows and I really liked that part.

This book felt very cliche and kind of cheesy, but it all worked. I liked the MC and the story line moved along at a nice pace. I was pulled in. Some of this seemed a little irreverent regarding what the author refers to as "the Church". Maybe some might be offended by that.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I gave this book two stars because I thought that the author wrote well. I could easily get into the story. It was easy to follow and description was done well for the most part. But the author just had to get every slight and jab at Mormon's that he could get in. For me it was distracting from the mystery story. I understand writing a story that takes place in Utah and Mormons are a focus of the story that you are going to talk a lot about Mormons. But it was almost like the author read a religious tract against Mormons and that he had to take clips from it and fit all of it into the story, somehow regardless if it fit in the flow of the story. Wow, some Mormon must have pissed in his Cheerios when he was a kid.

[Reader57 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moroni Traveler is a private detective in Salt Lake City, UT. While named for the angel who delivered messages for several years to Joseph Smith and the golden plates of prophecy, he is not a member of the LDS. However, he's a good detective and is not anti-Mormon and his closest friend from childhood is a member of the highest order, his investigations cross paths with The Church regularly. In this first book of the series Moroni is hired by a young woman to find her mother who left some years ago to go be part of a fundamentalist sect that broke off from The Church. She wrote her daughter letters for many years but then the letters stopped coming.
I enjoyed the mystery, though the book is not a long one, and assuming it is factually accurate, I learned a lot about the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

[Ben Boulden · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable private eye novel set in Salt Lake City, Utah in the late-1980s. There is murder, craziness, missing-persons, and pretty much everything else that makes a mystery novel fun.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose this audiobook on a whim because I like the narrator and I wanted a murder mystery. And I picked well. I was quite pleased with this story. Great mix of action and mystery. Moroni is an intriguing character too. He's got a past that I look forward to learning about in bits and pieces as I work my way through this series. He's a retired football player who went into the private eye business. There's some crazy ex-girlfriend (Claire) who might be in his life again soon... maybe. She sounds like trouble and yet I kinda want to watch the train wreck.

Set in Salt Lake City, there's plenty about the Mormon church and general Mormon history woven into this story. I'm not big on religious fiction but I really like how this aspect was handled. The Mormons in this book are treated like their own culture and society. It really added to the mystery and plot of the story.

My one tiny negative is that there are few ladies and they are weeping or romantic interests or in need of help. The tale would benefit from some competent ladies. 4.5/5 stars.

The Narration: Jeffrey Kafer is one of my favorite narrators and he doesn't disappoint here. He nails Moroni's voice. I also liked his voice for the weeping Penny - I jut wanted to sit her down with a hot herbal tea and a good talk. The pacing was perfect and there were no tech issues with the recording. 5/5 stars.

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't care for this book, it seemed like it was an interesting book, but there is so much Anti-Mormon and disparaging remarks about the LDS Church. I know this book is fiction, but there is a lot of ugliness written about Mormon's and it is very misleading and incorrect. It was set in Salt Lake City, Utah around the 1960's, I think, so there is a lot of old information about the Mormon's. I was surprised they didn't say Mormon's have horns on their heads and forked tails. We laugh about it now, but it is what some people have heard about us. Yes I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and happy to be a member. So it was an interesting story about a girl wanting her Mom found, but it has a lot of crude language and a lot of misinformation about the LDS Church and I don't recommend this book, but I'm sure that there people who like it.

[No, David! No! · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very curious about this book. Living in Utah for the last few years, I thought this could be a very interested series that I could really get into. Unfortunately, I found the whole thing very disappointing. I didn't feel any sympathy for any of the characters. I thought the plot was incredibly thin. And I found the overall style ignorant and heavy handed. Rather than feeling like the author had really lived in Utah and studied the culture, it felt more like the author didn't like Utah or Mormons, and read a blog post about Mormon stereotypes as his research.

There are much better books / series out there, whether you are looking for private detectives, mysteries, or Utah / Mormon settings.

[VickiLee · Rating 3 out of 5]

No lie! This novel begins with a private guy sitting at his desk and a blonde lovely young woman walks through the door needing help. I enjoyed this little play on the traditional beginning of the gritty American crime genre. The novel takes place in Salt Lake City,Utah and focuses heavily on the Mormon religion and some less than pious events that are being perpetrated by some higher ups.

The hero,Maronite Traveler, is one of those detectives that is a general combination of the very masculine with a touch of sentimentality.

[William · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very anti LDS. Takes place in Utah and the author knows a fair amount about the Morman Church but he takes every opportunity to denigrate it. Rather a weak story but fairly well written. I am not a member but my wife is and I felt the book to be a little insulting to both her and other church members. It is not at all like my very good experiences with this church and its members both in California and in Utah.

[Eugene Miya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bob is the husband of an old great boss of mine. What Bob and my family (not members of 'the' Church) share is that he and the older parts of my family (some who worked for 'the' Church) grew up in the valley of the Great Salt Lake where some of the family still reside. Baptism for the dead came up as a topic during the Republican primaries which I mentioned to Bob that Baptism all of a sudden became more relevant. This story and the cover completely changes my exterior view of LDS temples, and I can never pass another one without recognizing which direction Moroni's trumpet points. Every reader should.

It's curious to me that the entire series always takes place in summers (excepting the odd "winter" storms in the Uintahs. I know some of these towns and some of the secrets they keep.

I can't recall when I finished this book, so I just tag some rough estimate year. I did read the entire series, sat in one of Bob book author events, and I'm amazed to find how many friends have read Bob's mysteries; that's a mystery to me.

[Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

How odd not to find anyone who has read this book say anything about it. This book was chosen this month for our book club who wanted to
read something about Mormons. I am not one to read mysteries so it is not a genre with which I am very familiar. Two people from my book club had already told me that it was a page turner and they both finished it in one day. I have often read entire books in one day, and many longer than this one. However, I put it down several times and was wishing I had something else to read in between. After finishing it, I think it would be a great movie but I didn't care that much about
actually reading it. The detectives relationship with Clare was a real
turn off for me and unless they added a lot more to it in the movie it
would have to be removed as it served only as some weird kind of distraction. Also because the copyright is 1988, it was rather weird
when they were sometimes looking for a payphone.

[Warren]

DNF