An Unarmed Woman

Rachel O’Brien Rockwood #1

by John Bennion

Rachel O’Brien Rockwood, like her stepfather J. D., longs to hunt criminals and other miscreants. So when, in 1887, during the height of US anti-­polygamy legislation, two federal deputies on the lookout for Mormon polygamists are murdered in the small village of Centre, west of Salt Lake City, she jumps at the chance to join the investigation. But detecting never runs smoothly—Rachel and J. D. butt heads regularly over method and approach. Rachel favors talking and uncovering motives. J. D. prefers tracking and searching for the murder weapon. Also there are too many suspects—nearly every villager wanted the deputies gone. As fast as J. D. and Rachel can uncover clues, the local Mormon bishop brushes them aside, insisting instead that the deputies committed thievery and fled westward. Whose theory is true—Rachel’s, J. D.’s, the bishop’s? Or will the story be shaped by the federal marshal, openly hostile to all things Mormon?

Genres: Mystery

314 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 28, 2019

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tensions run hot in the old West, rural polygamous Utah town of Centre after someone is murdered. Rachel and her stepfather JD make a compelling pair of amateur detectives, but in this era of mistrust as the federal government brings the full weight of the law down on polygamous men, no one is willing to tell the truth.

[Chanel Earl]

I'm so glad I read this! The history, the religion, the philosophy. It was all fascinating, and then the murder mystery really added suspense and intrigue.

By the end of this book, I was also captivated by Rachel, the main character, and I felt like I knew her. Wonderful read! Especially for people interested in the history of Polygamy in Utah.

[David Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my review of the sequel to this novel (which includes comments about this one) on the 15 Bytes website. Here's a direct link to the review:

http://artistsofutah.org/15Bytes/inde...

[Winter · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Unarmed Woman is a murder mystery novel that takes place in the late 1800s in Southern Utah. Male members of the Church of Jesus Christ who practice polygamy are being hunted by U.S. deputies in violation of federal law that banned polygamy. The town of Centre is full of contention and unease between those who believe in polygamy and those who don’t, heightened by the murder of two deputies after raiding the bishop’s house. Rachel O’Brian and her stepfather J.D. investigate the murder, struggling to find anyone in a close knit community who will speak the truth.
Rachel is the central character and first-person narrator caught in a town full of prejudices, traditions, and religious beliefs. She is expected to sit quietly, marry Ezekiel (becoming his third wife), and to do other tasks expected of women at the time. However, Rachel refuses to be conformed to these expectations, instead speaking her mind (often with swearing) and questioning the doctrine of plural marriage for herself. While she struggles to deal with the main theme of polygamy, the driving force of the plot, she also has to deal with the sexism and misogynistic ways of the male characters. She offended J.D. after speaking her mind, commenting “I had committed the unforgivable--contradicting a man to his face (181).” This duality of confrontation gives her character dimension and depth the reader is drawn to, rooting for her to overcome all these obstacles. The reader is brought along the journey with her, feeling her frustration and anger, but also her determination to prove herself to J.D.
John Bennion has managed to write a very relatable and real main female character overcoming the obstacles over her time, but also echoing the frustration of women today regarding sexism and controversial religious doctrines. Overall, a book I would highly recommend anyone to read, especially those who want to understand more about polygamy.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll be honest; this book was a little hard for me to read. For the plot and themes to work, the book necessarily has to ascribe some normalcy to the practice of polygamy, which I personally have a strong distaste for. Because of this, it took me a few starts to really get into reading it.

It was worth the effort. This book ended up being a very interesting and nuanced discussion on polygamy as it was practiced in the early Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (aka the Mormon Church). I hadn't previously considered all the complicated situations and thoughts and circumstances that surely arose in these early Utah families and communities, and they're fascinating. I think John Bennion does an excellent job of carefully exploring all of the numerous viewpoints and emotions that came with living this lifestyle in a religious community, and how these people negotiate their morals, their religion, and their feelings in a setting where nothing is clear-cut.

I also never realized how excellent a motivation the problem of polygamy could be for a murder mystery. The mystery itself was a little clumsy, in my opinion, and the whodunnit reveal was a little anticlimactic, but it was still entertaining. And some of the characters honestly felt a little flat (I never did learn how to tell most of the men in the book apart). However, Rachel is an excellent character, with her bold tongue, sharp intellect, and unique perspective on the Principle and what that means for her and her relationships with those around her.

[Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I start reading a book I gauge pretty quickly if I'm going to keep reading it or set it aside. An Unarmed Woman is well written, well researched and compelling. John Bennion does a masterful job of weaving the lives of those in a small town in early Utah history, polygamists and those fighting this practice. I have many ancestors from old countries and there is at least one polygamist in my family line so it was interesting to read about characters who emigrated, some still with accents of their countries, as well as the polygamy angle.

I appreciated the maps at the beginning of the book - I referenced those a few times and it helped with the story line. I also liked Rachel in a detective's role. Woman weren't held in high regard for jobs like this - they stayed home and cooked, cleaned, spun and made soap. Seeing her in this role in the 1800s was refreshing and an interesting twist. She learned from her father J.D. and had her own way of thinking things through, much to his chagrin.

I like murder mysteries where I can't figure out easily who the murderer is. There were just enough suspects to leave me wondering.

As soon as I finished An Unarmed Woman I read Ezekiel's Third Wife - another wonderful tale by John Bennion.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a highly plot-driven book; instead the slow unfolding of the mystery is paramount. Set in a western-Utah-desert Latter-day Saint community in the 1880s, where two federal deputies sent to find and imprison men engaged in plural marriage are murdered, the book gives us as a central character a young woman, Rachel, who is conflicted about polygamy (the Principle, as it was called) and chafes against the sexism of the times. She is by far the most developed of the characters--I would have liked to know more about Sister Griggs and why she seemed unburdened by the traditions that burden or aggravate other characters. If you can read thoughtfully instead of wanting the plot to be advanced in every paragraph, this may be a good read for you.

[Helynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Unarmed Woman is a gripping murder mystery as well as a philosophical treatise on the cognitive dissonance that permeates the principle or polygamy in 1880s Utah Territory. Rachel O’Brian, the title character and first-person narrator, struggles mightily with the expectations her community has placed on her and with her own tempestuous nature. “I’m like Alma’s daughters,” rough-and-tumble ranch girl Rachel tells her polygamist step-father J.D. Rockwell. “Someone has to speak up to you patriarchs” (118). Polygamy is constantly proclaimed in her milieu as divine. Her late mother was J.D.’s fifth wife, and Rachel, who is not yet 18, is being pressured to become the third wife of 40-year-old Ezekiel Wright. Nevertheless, Rachel has concluded that polygamy is “a seedbed of injustice, manipulation and coercion” (139). The story will show her as “unarmed” not only in the literal, law-enforcement sense, but also in her stance as a rebellious, independent woman who is struggling with feelings of confusion and vulnerability. John Bennion, longtime English professor at Brigham Young University, is probably best known for his 2000 novel Falling Toward Heaven, a contemporary story. With this historical piece, he now proves himself adept at a describing the complexities of a crime drama in a volatile setting in late 19th-century rural and polygamous Utah. The year is 1887, and four U.S. laws have already been passed against plural marriage. The latest one, The Edmunds-Tucker Act, threatens “to put teeth” into a statute that is already shattering lives of Mormon families all over Utah territory. In the community of Centre near the “gentile town” of Eureka, the winter is killing cold, federal deputies (dubbed “deps”), are prowling the region on horseback, and husbands with plural wives have been forced into hiding. Several unluckier ones already have been carted off to jail in Salt Lake City. Now, two of “deps” have been shot dead at their campsite, and their bloody bodies placed in the underground store of Welsh convert William Apollo, who, though (apparently) not a polygamist, is part of the local bishopric. The motive for the murders naturally points to the harassed husbands who are fed up with a government that will not allow them their First Amendment rights in their religious practice. But Rachel, who has followed J.D. on his bounty hunts and learned from his tracking and detective skills, is sharp enough to observe and sense that something does not quite add up. Bennion also fills his narrative with canny details of the period—weapons, horses, food preparation, etc., In Chapter 16, his descriptions of Rachel’s aching salivary glands during a long fast, especially as she helps prepare—but not yet taste— a family dinner of venison stew, buttery biscuits, jam, and apple brown betty, are particularly vivid. Even more than the crime drama, this is the story of contractions and confusion plaguing a community that has been sure enough of its own beliefs to defy the federal government—and pay the price. Bennion has tapped admirably into the spirit of this bewilderment from more than 130 years in the past.

[Helynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Unarmed Woman is a gripping murder mystery as well as a philosophical treatise on the cognitive dissonance that permeates the principle or polygamy in 1880s Utah Territory. Rachel O’Brian, the title character and first-person narrator, struggles mightily with the expectations her community has placed on her and with her own tempestuous nature. “I’m like Alma’s daughters,” rough-and-tumble ranch girl Rachel tells her polygamist step-father J.D. Rockwell. “Someone has to speak up to you patriarchs” (118). Polygamy is constantly proclaimed in her milieu as divine. Her late mother was J.D.’s fifth wife, and Rachel, who is not yet 18, is being pressured to become the third wife of 40-year-old Ezekiel Wright. Nevertheless, Rachel has concluded that polygamy is “a seedbed of injustice, manipulation and coercion” (139). The story will show her as “unarmed” not only in the literal, law-enforcement sense, but also in her stance as a rebellious, independent woman who is struggling with feelings of confusion and vulnerability. John Bennion, longtime English professor at Brigham Young University, is probably best known for his 2000 novel Falling Toward Heaven, a contemporary story. With this historical piece, he now proves himself adept at a describing the complexities of a crime drama in a volatile setting in late 19th-century rural and polygamous Utah. The year is 1887, and four U.S. laws have already been passed against plural marriage. The latest one, The Edmunds-Tucker Act, threatens “to put teeth” into a statute that is already shattering lives of Mormon families all over Utah territory. In the community of Centre near the “gentile town” of Eureka, the winter is killing cold, federal deputies (dubbed “deps”), are prowling the region on horseback, and husbands with plural wives have been forced into hiding. Several unluckier ones already have been carted off to jail in Salt Lake City. Now, two of “deps” have been shot dead at their campsite, and their bloody bodies placed in the underground store of Welsh convert William Apollo, who, though (apparently) not a polygamist, is part of the local bishopric. The motive for the murders naturally points to the harassed husbands who are fed up with a government that will not allow them their First Amendment rights in their religious practice. But Rachel, who has followed J.D. on his bounty hunts and learned from his tracking and detective skills, is sharp enough to observe and sense that something does not quite add up. Bennion also fills his narrative with canny details of the period—weapons, horses, food preparation, etc., In Chapter 16, his descriptions of Rachel’s aching salivary glands during a long fast, especially as she helps prepare—but not yet taste— a family dinner of venison stew, buttery biscuits, jam, and apple brown betty, are particularly vivid. Even more than the crime drama, this is the story of contradictions and confusion plaguing a community that has been sure enough of its own beliefs to defy the federal government—and pay the price. Bennion has tapped admirably into the spirit of this bewilderment from more than 130 years in the past. (less)