Baptism for the Dead [Paperback]

Robert Irvine (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in Salt Lake City, this is the first mystery in a new series featuring pri vate detective Moroni Traveler Jr. As a non-LDS (Latter Day Saint), Moroni finds it both a blessing and a curse to be named for the angel that graces the top of the temple looming over Brigham Young's city. During a spring blizzard, a distressed young woman named Penny Snow retains Moroni to find her mother, whom she fears is dead. Moroni can't believe his luck when his boyhood friend Willis Tanner also solicits his services on the same day. But there's a catch: Willis is acting for the church and wants Moro ni to keep an eye on Penny, whose fa ther John Varney is on the Mormon Council of Seventy. Moroni is soon on the trail of murderor "blood atone ment" as an LDS would put itand heresy that leads to a violently satisfy ing conclusion. Along the way, there's a wealth of local color and church arca na that will be exotic fare to most "gentiles." Irvine (Ratings Are Mur der, Footsteps, etc.) has a sure hand at interweaving plot and subplot, and a deft feel for characterization. His new protagonist is a likable addition to the long line of tough yet tender gumshoe.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Pocket (February 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671694952
• ISBN-13: 978-0671694951
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,460,204 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hard to find, but worth the effort, April 16, 2001

By 

Orrin C. Judd "brothersjudddotcom" (Hanover, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baptism for the Dead (Paperback)

I've long been of the opinion that the distinctive feature of the great hard-boiled private eye story is the hero's vulnerability. He's physically vulnerable because both the crooks and the cops distrust him. As a result of which, he frequently ends up being beaten and battered. He's emotionally vulnerable because he's alone and prey to falling in love with clients or other women he meets in the course of the case, or at least caring too much about the people whose lives he finds himself involved in. As a result of which, he frequently ends up heart broken. Such are the Quixote-like characteristics that have defined the genre.

Unfortunately, in recent years there's been a tendency on the part of authors to give their detectives permanent girlfriends and overeager allies in law enforcement, which serves to allay both vulnerabilities. Call it the Robert Parker effect. This trend has been so pervasive that only a very few really good writers have been able to buck it : Loren Estleman, Jonathan Valin, and a few others. Meanwhile, the most interesting new detective fiction has featured investigators in authoritarian countries, where their vulnerability is greatly magnified : Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko series and Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series spring to mind, the one set in the USSR, the other in Nazi Germany.

Which brings us to what I think is one of the best, and most unusual, private eye series of the modern era. Robert Irvine managed to create a fairly traditional private eye, an ex-football player, ex-soldier, with the unlikely name of Moroni Traveler, and only gussy him up with a few emotional ties : a father who may not be his biological dad, and a couple of street characters for friends. Then he borrowed a page from Smith and Kerr and set the stories in Salt Lake City, where Moroni's investigations often run afoul of the Mormon Church, which essentially controls the state. In addition to providing dramatic tension, this setting in the land of the Latter Day Saints offers Irvine, himself of Mormon descent, an opportunity to work Mormon history and beliefs into the narrative.

The resulting books are really fascinating, though I find them a tad too anti-Mormon, and Moroni and his cronies are immensely likable. They aren't all still in print and, though I couldn't find much information online, I believe I recall reading that Irvine died a few years ago, but if you can find the books, they are terrific.

GRADE : A

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good mystery in an excellent series, May 5, 2001

By 

Gray (midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baptism for the Dead (Paperback)

Robert Irvine has created a detective named Moroni Traveler who has a love/hate (perhaps mostly hate) relationship with the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City. The author, in creating the setting for his novels, takes us into the history of the Mormon Church and its relationship to Utah political power. The characters are interesting and likable and the background is interesting. In Baptism for the Dead, the detective is hired to find a missing person and winds up, somewhat unwillingly, assisting the Mormon Church in its battle against a local cult. Robert Irvine can be counted on to deliver a well-written and enjoyable mystery. Baptism for the Dead is worth reading.