Satire (noun): the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or
ridicule to expose or criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in
the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Sometimes the truth can be strangest of all. In her book "False Prophet," author Donna Banta once again draws on her skills as
a satirist to expose the weird, sometimes odd, almost always heart-breaking
realities of being a Mormon. In “The Girls From Fourth Ward,” the story was about how far Mormon girls would go to
get into BYU. In “False Prophet,” the
story centers around Ryan and the very sweet but over-worked Carrie Zimmerman,
who finds herself repeating the refrain “I love being a Mormon,” in order to
cope with the exhausting and mind-numbing realities of being the bishop’s
wife.
author Donna Banta once again draws on her skills as
a satirist to expose the weird, sometimes odd, almost always heart-breaking
realities of being a Mormon. In “The Girls From Fourth Ward,” the story was about how far Mormon girls would go to
get into BYU. In “False Prophet,” the
story centers around Ryan and the very sweet but over-worked Carrie Zimmerman,
who finds herself repeating the refrain “I love being a Mormon,” in order to
cope with the exhausting and mind-numbing realities of being the bishop’s
wife.
“False
Prophet,” picks up again with Lieutenant Matt Ryan, who is burnt-out and
disillusioned from his last run-in with the Mormons, who had foiled his
investigation at every turn, ultimately leaving the murder unsolved. When he discovers another murdered man
clutching a blue and gold embossed Book of Mormon, his reaction is, quite
simply, to close his eyes and whisper “Jesus Christ. Not again.”
This time, the murder victim, Brother Sid Dooley, was a lonely widower who embraced Mormonism with zeal after the death
of his wife and only daughter. Brother Dooley is the eccentric character that is found in every Mormon congregation
(ward), a lonely man who walks around claiming to see angels and talk with
God. When he turns up murdered, having
ranted about a false prophet shortly before his death, the only suspect that
the police can come up with is Bishop Zimmerman, who had spoken to Dooley
shortly before his death and was the one to discover his body.
The story is a real who-dunit, an
adventure that keeps you guessing at every turn. There is the familiar cast of characters from
the first book, with an increased focus on the sweet but exhausted bishop’s
wife Carrie Zimmerman, who is nine months pregnant and stressed about balancing
her family’s meager finances with her ever-increasing frustration over her
narrowing life. “I love being a Mormon,”
she whispers at every turn, while the realities of having a husband falsely
arrested for murder pushes her to make choices that aren’t quite Mormon in
nature.
