Product Description
by Barbara Townsend (Author)
Missouri Territory, 1846: Driven by angry mobs, thousands of Latter-day Saints flee their homes in the eastern United States. They gather west of the Missouri River to wait out the winter and hope they survive hunger and disease. A church leader unveils a shocking, divine revelation to teenage sisters Aveline and Frances Bowmore: they must marry married men. The specter of polygamy promises heaven. Aveline and Frances feel compelled to obey. They become plural wives. The loss of each other's support while faced with angry sister-wives and husbands they'd just met stretches their willpower to the breaking point. Aveline's world shatters when gentle Frances is brutally strangled. Grief-stricken, Aveline trusts the camp police chief to find the pious Mormon's killer, but the chief stalls his investigation. She presses him and Frances' husband for answers. Aveline's husband orders her to cease-how dare she question men? Time is running out to discover the truth about Frances's murder. Spring approaches and the Saints prepare for the overland journey west to Zion. Aveline quietly defies her husband. She discovers secrets of powerful men-secrets they don't want revealed.
Author Biography
Barbara Townsend's writing journey began at the University of Wyoming. Her first fiction writing class inspired her to write a mystery. The thought of twists, turns, red herrings, clues and making them fit into one story fascinated her. That first short story, Murder at Wainwright, she later wrote into Clear and Convincing Evidence. In another semester, an internship in the Toppan Rare Books Library led her into different direction. With books dating from the 1800s, she examined women in nineteenth-century Mormon polygyny. Her research paper won a student competition at the university's American Heritage Center. Her accumulated research led to the novel Blood Atonement, a historical mystery. She graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Art. Blood Atonement was Barbara's first trade-published novel followed by Clear and Convincing Evidence. She lives with her husband in Wyoming's Wind River Mountains.
