One of the pleasures of paperbacks is the second-chance factor: the ability to read books we missed and/or forgot about the first time around...


Not only is Natalie Collins’s Wives and Sisters a natural for all those fans of HBO’s Big Love; it also brings to mind one of my favorite series from the out-of-print past – Robert Irvine’s Moroni Traveler books about a father-and-son team of detectives in Salt Lake City who specialize in cases involving Mormons.

Collins creates a memorable character, Allison Jensen, who returns to her small town Utah home after years away, finally ready to find out what really happened to her best friend when they became lost and separated in the woods and all her questions about the girl’s disappearance were deflected or ignored. It’s a truly gripping story, which rings with truth and terror.