Blessed Be the Wicked by D. A. Bartley is the first book in the NEW “Abish Taylor” mystery series. Publisher: Crooked Lane Books, August 2018.
In D. A. Bartley’s compelling debut, Detective Abish Taylor returns home to Utah and uncovers dark secrets lurking within the quiet Mormon community.
Detective Abish Taylor left Utah for a reason. But with her husband’s passing, it’s time to come home. Reconnecting with her family means dealing with her past: the father she abandoned and the community she left behind. Her one escape is serving as the sole police detective in the small town of Pleasant View. But when the quiet Mormon suburb in the Wasatch Mountains is shaken by a macabre death—with the hallmarks of a sacred ritual dating back to the days of Brigham Young— Abbie is called into action.
As she uncovers the dark side of the picturesque neighborhood—infidelity, corruption, and the greed of a global religion—Abbie discovers just how far some powerful leaders of the Church will go to bury their secrets. Especially as the brutal murder unearths a sinister tradition lurking in the religion’s not-so-distant past: the ultimate sacrifice for unforgivable sins. With the chief pressuring her to close the case and the community that once sheltered her watching her every move, Abbie must find justice for the dead—before she’s silenced for good.
This is one of those books where slow and steady is the best way to go when telling a multi-plot drama where familial dysfunction and religion plays a part in this well-written police procedural. All Abbie wanted to do was solve this murder case but she is stymied by her boss, her father and church superiors. When it looks like Abbie is getting close, she is tactfully threatened to tow the line, but another murder makes her more determined.
We meet Abbie, recently widowed and trying to make peace with her family, working in a male-oriented department where she runs up again a hierarchy that is so prevalent, she struggles to solve her case. The author did a great job in setting up the premise where nefarious mischief was the downfall of the murder victim and it’s the step by step procedure that allowed this reader to follow all the tangents of this case, especially with the insider help of Officer Clarke.
The mystery was tightly woven keeping me riveted to the pages as I had to know what was happening. With plenty of potential suspects, the author led me this way and that way and when I thought I knew who the killer was, the author changed direction and I was blown away when the killer’s identity was reveal, because I did not see that one coming. Bravo! I like the relationship between Abbie and Clark as well as her brother – it added a little normalcy to the story. Still trying to figure out why her place was searched. I suspect we’ll find out in the next book. This is a great beginning to a series that I hope is here to stay.