The Great Reminder [Hardcover]

Robert Irvine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1993

Salt Lake City's Moroni Traveler and his father return in a case that finds them running up against an angry Mormon community as they search for a person who has been missing for fifty years so they can pay off an old man's debt.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A gentile in a world of Saints, Salt Lake City private eye Moroni Traveler doesn't follow the Mormon religion into which he was born, yet it determines the course of his every case. In this, his sixth appearance (after The Spoken Word ), Moroni is hired by an old-timer who wants to pay a debt before he dies to a man who may himself have died long ago. Utah housed camps for captured Germans during WW II; a number of prisoners working on local farms died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances. One such prisoner vanished with his wages outstanding, leaving Moroni's elderly client, a former accountant, troubled for nearly half a century. Powerful local Mormons, however, take a dim view of meddling with the dead, or even with those only likely to be so. To further complicate the search for the missing prisoner, Moroni and his father, who is also his partner, trail a missing child who may be the younger PI's son. Although his sketchy depiction of Mormon culture--and of a few secondary characters--may interfere with new readers' enjoyment, Irvine expertly unravels a skein of decades-old mysteries in a satisfying addition to his unusual, solid series.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

This time out, Salt Lake City detectives Martin Traveler and son Moroni (The Spoken Word, etc.) take on a somber mission for dying Major Lewis Stiles. He wants them to find Karl Falke, one of many German POWs who worked on Utah farms during WW II. Falke disappeared in the wake of some nasty incidents in which German prisoners died. Stiles, then paymaster, still holds the small check owed Falke for work done, and his Mormon conscience won't rest. The Moronis try to talk to anyone who might remember Falke--like Otto Klebe, now a prominent church member, once a POW himself, and Owen Broadbent, the farmer who employed Falke. When Broadbent's son Mahlon tries to run them down, the Moronis know they're on the way to easing the Major's path to the hereafter. Intriguing Mormon lore, but the author's flat, cryptic style does little to invigorate a dreary plot. The Moronis have been livelier and more interesting. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 214 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st edition (July 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312093020
• ISBN-13: 978-0312093020
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,595,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Hard to Follow, Dry, Rather Uninteresting, June 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Great Reminder (Hardcover)

I would not recommend this book to anyone (except maybe to the neighbor's dog, to chew on). While the story idea seems good on paper and I was looking forward to learning a little bit about Mormonism, this book falls spectacularly flat.

The main problem is that this book refers too often to events that happened in other books in the series. The author does not explain events and characters that must have happened in previous books and the reader is left confused as to what is going on.

As for the Mormonism, it is not explained well at all in the book. I didn't really learn a thing, except Mormons can't drink caffiene. The religion did come up in the story, but nothing was explained. The reader is expected to know it all already.

Also, the book is dry and uninteresting. I had to force myself to finish it as it did not get better with time. The characters kept finding new leads to their mysteries, but it was not explained how they found these people. It seems as if major details were left out (for example, why they decided to dig where they did) and other parts were not explained at all. I can think of many other things you could better waste your time on.