Genre: Historical
Fiction
Description:
“It’s 1908, and itinerant spirit medium Madame Ilsa von Hoffmann is at
the end of her professional rope, facing down two unappealing options: join an
ill-conceived commune founded by some fellow trans ex-vaudevillians, or take on
a high-paying but mysterious job offered by a religious extremist in Salt Lake
City. Madame Ilsa opts for Utah and the employ of one Roger Marsh who, it turns
out, wants her to summon the ghost of Joseph Smith, Mormonism’s founder, to
give his blessing to Marsh’s fledgling offshoot of the mainstream church.
Unsure how she’ll pull off this near-impossible task, Ilsa finds an
ally in Francie Bream, an East Coast journalist in town to profile Mormon women
at the dawn of the twentieth century. Bream’s motives remain obscure to Ilsa,
though she begins to suspect the journalist has an agenda far more sinister
than she could have imagined. Complicating the situation further are an inept
and volatile henchman, a relentlessly orthodox Mormon apostle, a copper magnate
with a fetish for polygamists, Marsh's rogue third wife, and a vengeful private
investigator from Ilsa's past. As dead bodies accumulate around her, Madame
Ilsa worries less and less about saving her career, and more about making it
out of Salt Lake City alive.”
Author:
T.I.M. Wirkus (they/them) is an award-winning
author with several novels and novellas available as well as some short stories
that have appeared in various publications.
Appraisal:
This story takes an interesting blend of historical reality (the early
1900s in Salt Lake City, a growing town, and the Mormon culture that permeated
it) with some interesting twists and scams being perpetrated by Roger Marsh and
others, like our main protagonist, Madame Ilsa von Hoffmann. Those familiar
with Utah history and Mormonism will be amused in spotting the clever mashup of
reality (some of which many would assume wasn’t true) with things that really
are fictional. Sometimes the truth really is stranger than the fiction. I was
never sure where the story was going to go or how it would resolve in the end
which is what I’d expect from a story of this type. A fun and interesting read
that isn’t quite like anything I can remember having read before.
Buy now
from: Amazon US Amazon UK
FYI:
I’m sure some devout members of the Mormon aka LDS Church would be
triggered reading this if they’re bothered by mixing things not so true (aka
fictional) into a story about their church. They might also be triggered by
some things that are true. The author has some references to articles at the
end of the book that point to those.
Format/Typo
Issues:
Review is based on an advance reviewer copy, so I can’t gauge the
final product in this area.
Rating: *****
Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words
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