In which trek reviews The Righteous

Michael Wallace spins a fast-paced tale, set primarily in rural Utah with minor excursions into Las Vegas and other "worldly" cities. The Righteousfocuses on Jacob and Eliza Christianson, half-siblings who are being pressured to marry by their father and their "church". Said "church" is a polygamist cult in which the women are viewed pretty much as brood mares: their job is to be serviced by the local stallion and to bear as many children as possible.

Eliza is nearly eighteen years old and she has been presented with three possible situations: thirteenth wife to an octogenarian church elder, first wife to an attempted rapist, or third wife to yet another potential groom.

Suitor #3 refuses to marry Eliza on the grounds that she really does not want to marry him. Suitor #1 has a stroke and dies. Only would-be rapist suitor #2 remains in the running.

Are you ill yet? I was.

Concurrent with Eliza's marital morass is her brother Jacob's investigation into the murder of one of suitor #2's father's wives. The body was desecrated in a very particular manner, which lead Jacob to the conclusion that the woman was murdered by a church member. The murder investigation brings Jacob and Eliza into life-threatening conflict with a subset of the cult which is operating several black market scams, income tax and welfare fraud, and murder, to name just a few of their many crimes.

Thoroughly unsavory, misogynistic, male characters and subservient, oppressed female characters populate the pages. Each time a woman in the story accepted the will of her father or husband as "the will of God", I cringed. At times, I found myself wanting to argue with the women.

That or slap them upside the head to get them to wake up, shake off the brain-washing and indoctrination, and run!

Despite the grim and sometimes gory action, I was sucked into finishing the book. It was technically well-written, seemed to be well-researched, the action moved along quite handily. I awarded The Righteous three stars on Amazon due to the highly disturbing nature of the book.