Customer Reviews

A Gathering of Saints: A True Story of Money, Murder and Deceit

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I am a lover of suspense books but I don't read them because when I do, I feel guilty, like it's a waste of time. I also love to study religion. When you mix the 2 together, you have an excellent book.
Have you ever read a book that you speed read because it's so exciting yet at the same time, you try to read it as slow as possible because you don't want the book to end. This is that kind of book.
Have you ever read a book that immediatly after you read it, you know for a fact that you will read it a few more times...this is that kind of book.
Anyone interested in mormonism, or religion in general will love this book. (well maybe not mormons). Anyone who just loves a good page turner, will love this book.
If the author of this book is reading this review, please turn this book intoa movie. I have read probably close to a thousand books, I'm sure. A book has to be real good to get on my top ten list.
religion enthusiasts, this is the most exciting religious lesson you will get. take advantage of it. Oh by the way, another good book about mormonism is housewife to heretic by sonia johnson.

Read The Mormon Murders: A True Story of Greed, Forgery, Deceit, and Death, by Naifeh. A well told, thoroughly researched book covering both Mark Hoffman as well as a study of the foundations of Mormonism. When I read reviews of books covering this story that say the treatment of the history or Mormonism is innacurate and to read the Book of Mormon for the truth, I have to laugh. The strange history and early beliefs of the Mormon religion are well known to be at best odd, or at worst cultish. Mark Hoffman, although a horrible murderer, scared the heck out of the LDS church hierarchy by forging documents from their dubious past.

This book, detailing the history of the Mark Hoffman case is very solidly researched. It does present, I believe, the history of Mormonism and the Hoffman case in a relatively balanced fashion without the sensationalism of the Naifeh book.

To all those who wish to learn more of the "Tales of Hoffman", I can't reccommend this book enough.

This book should be read in conjunction with Under the Banner of Heaven : A Story of Violent Faith
by Jon Krakauer. This book is a spell-binding story of an accomplished forger, Mark Hoffman, who turned to murder to cover his crimes. Hoffman even tells exactly how he was technically able to accomplish his feats. Lindsey did excellent reporting on this incredible story. But the bigger story is how the official LDS Church was willing to buy material from Hoffman that they thought to be true for the precise purpose of hiding it from public scrutiny. This willingness of high church officials to buy and hide information perceived to be true that might present a negative image of the LDS Church from both church and non-church members is amazing to me.

This is a fascinating, gripping book about a man who set out to forge documents, especially documents purportedly crucial to the early history of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, in order to make himself a lot of money and with (it is suggested at the end) the ultimate motive of helping to destroy the LDS. As his schemes began to unravel, he resorted to murder, injuring himself in the process. By injuring himself with one of his bombs, he could share the title of "victim" of the anonymous killer, and so could(he thought) avoid suspicion.

If this were fiction, it might seem a bit over-the-top. One might ask the author, "why don't you try for some more true-life plausibility in your plots?" But this isn't fiction. Its journalism, which (through the great talent of the author) reads as grippingly as the best of today's novels.

A real page-turner. Not just for the story of murder and forgery in the modern day...but for the history of the Mormon church. Joseph Smith originally intended THE BOOK OF MORMON to be a novel, that he hoped would make him some money. When people mistook it for real scripture, he was shocked, then thought he could make even more money this way, starting a religion. After the religion got going, he had dissenters assassinated. I had no idea the Mormon Church was based on such a flimsy, corrupt, foundation. As flimsy and corrupt as Scientology. Give the Church of Scientolgy 150 more years, and it will be as respectable as Mormonism. It's as like if the readers of THE CELESTINE PROPHECY believed that was truth, and its author as a result started a religion. The truth of Joseph Smith is almost as riveting as the truth of Mike Hofmann, the forger and murderer in the modern day, who is the main focus of this book. Hofmann said he and Josepth Smith were very much alike. He may be more right than we'd like to think. Not just a page-turner, but an eye-opener.

This book is largely about how the Mormon church (Church of Latter Day Saints) bought a large number of fake documents concerning the church's history, then tried to cover it up.

The writer manages to be pretty objective about the church itself. I didn't know anything about the church prior to reading this book; it was quite informative as to its history. I understand the writer is being sued for slander by the church, so the book's hard to findIt reads more like a novel than non-fiction.

This book literally grabs your attention in the first few pages and holds it for the next 2-3 days when you finish it. Truly a book that is almost impossible to put down. The type of book that causes your spouse to find you reading it at 3:30 am while the rest of the world is sleeping. Buy it, read it, enjoy it....it's spell binding!

If this is to be read, it should be read for the cookbook way it selectively presents some information -- and selectively omits other information -- to assemble a sensationalized view of a cultural group. In this case, the Mormons (of which I grateful am one). A couple examples of this are seen in how our author would lead the reader to suppose the Mormon society in Utah is mindlessly conformist and preoccupied with accumulating wealth.
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To support his mindlessly-conformist characterization, he quotes Bruce R. McConkie,
"Knowledge is gained by obedience. It comes by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel."
A more-complete citation would be,
"Please note that knowledge is gained by obedience. It comes by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. In the ultimate and full sense it comes only by revelation from the Holy Ghost. There are some things a sinful man does not and cannot know. The Lord's people are promised: "By the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things" (Moro 10:5). But if they do not seek the Spirit, if they do not accept the revelations God has given, if they cannot distinguish between the revealed word and the theories of men, they have no promise of gaining a fulness of truth by the power of the Holy Ghost." (The Seven Deadly Heresies, 1 June 1980; [...]).
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Elder McConkie was not talking about a mindless conformity to Church leaders' directions that our author purports but obeying God to receive knowledge by the personal, individual ministerings of the Holy Ghost -- *independent of Church leaders* -- which knowledge is not available to the sinful. In this, Elder McConkie is but following Jesus' lead in the Bible about the source of truth ("But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things," John 14:26 and "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth," John 16:13). Elder McConkie is but following St. Paul in describing how this spiritual source of truth is not available to sinful ("natural") people (But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned," 1 Cor 2:14).
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When our author would have us see these people as money grubbers, he writes
"In achieving great material success, he had fulfilled a goal that had been part and parcel of Mormonism since its beginnings: to make money. Indeed, the Book of Mormon promised earthly prosperity to those who lived by its truths: 'After ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them.'" (pp. 40-41)
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This would be damning evidence to someone who didn't know better. But if you know the rest of the passage from which this is quoted, you know how this not only is an inaccurate portrayal but must be intentionally misleading:
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"12 And now behold, my brethren, this is the word which I declare unto you, that many of you have begun to search for gold, and for silver, and for all manner of precious ores, in the which this land, which is a land of promise unto you and to your seed, doth abound most plentifully.
"13 And the hand of providence hath smiled upon you most pleasingly, that you have obtained many riches; and because some of you have obtained more abundantly than that of your brethren ye are lifted up in the pride of your hearts, and wear stiff necks and high heads because of the costliness of your apparel, and persecute your brethren because ye suppose that ye are better than they.
"14 And now, my brethren, do ye suppose that God justifieth you in this thing? Behold, I say unto you, Nay. But he condemneth you, and if ye persist in these things his judgments must speedily come unto you.
"15 O that he would show you that he can pierce you, and with one glance of his eye he can smite you to the dust!
"16 O that he would rid you from this iniquity and abomination. And, O that ye would listen unto the word of his commands, and let not this pride of your hearts destroy your souls!
"17 Think of your brethren like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you.
"18 But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God.
"19 And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good -- to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.
"20 And now, my brethren, I have spoken unto you concerning pride; and those of you which have afflicted your neighbor, and persecuted him because ye were proud in your hearts, of the things which God hath given you, what say ye of it?
"21 Do ye not suppose that such things are abominable unto him who created all flesh? And the one being is as precious in his sight as the other. And all flesh is of the dust; and for the selfsame end hath he created them, that they should keep his commandments and glorify him forever." (Jacob 2)
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This passage clearly is far from depicting wealth as a desirable end, even as reward for obedience. Rather, it only is to enable us to serve others while remaining humble ourselves.
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These two examples typify how other aspects of Mormon history and society are handled. It would be bad enough to mis-state our history and scriptures to mislead people away from truths and healing that we offer, as do some anti-Mormon writers. It goes far beyond that to use the murders of innocent people as a Trojan horse to do so.

This book is based on the murderous actions of Mark Hoffman, and in this regard is fairly accurate. However, when it comes to the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), the Church's founding prophet Joseph Smith, and current Church leaders and doctrine, this book is slanted, twisted and just plain wrong. Its inaccuracies cause the book to end up being more fiction than fact. If you are really interested in learning the truth about the Mormon religion you should read The Book of Mormon, visit with some missionaries, and pray to know the truth. Reading this book is not the answer unless you wish to be misinformed.