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The sudden death of Utah's Senator Orrin Hatch propels his successor, Lester Horner, first into Hatch's Senate seat and then on to become the first Mormon associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Carried along with Horner is Blythe Oaks, an ambitious and intelligent woman who is also Horner's favorite law clerk and fellow Mormon. But Blythe's reputation - and, by extension, Lester Horner's - is threatened when a female former employee accuses her of sexual harassment and career sabotage. In Higher Authority White shifts his focus from Dr. Alan Gregory, the hero of Privileged Information and the national bestseller Private Practices, to Alan's fiancee, Lauren Crowder. The pool-shooting deputy D.A.'s life is already complicated enough as she picks her way through her relationship with Alan at the same time she is fighting her quiet and dignified battle with multiple sclerosis. But since Blythe's accuser happens to be Lauren's kid sister, aspiring stand-up comic Teresa Crowder, Lauren plunges into the case. And she gets immediate help from an old law school buddy, Robin Torr, whose practice is in Salt Lake City. When, suddenly, Blythe Oaks is savagely murdered in Washington D.C., the lengths to which someone will go to protect secrets that might prove embarrassing to higher authorities in the church are starkly revealed. And as Crowder and Torr probe more and more deeply into these secrets, with timely help from Alan Gregory and his old friend Detective Sam Purdy of the Boulder, Colorado police, White's tough but determined women find the body count growing and themselves placed in jeopardy by a remorseless killer.… (more)
User reviews
Lauren's sister, Teresa, wants to pursue a sexual harassment suit against a woman who works for a Supreme Court Justice, and before long, it looks like murder might somehow be connected to the lawsuit. Teresa isn't as good at following through as her sister is, and she keeps disappearing when things get tough, leaving Lauren and an old acquaintance, now an attorney in Utah, to look into the case.
It was fascinating to me to read about some of the beliefs and practices of the Mormon Church, and I loved the setting – Utah, New Mexico, mountain biking in Moab and the gorgeous areas around Telluride and Ouray. Of course, there was blood and gore and gruesome nasties happening, but not bad enough to be off-putting for someone who likes to read mysteries. Both the storyline and the character development were good, and I will read more of Stephen White's novels.
The story is of murder in and around members of the Mormon church.My only problem with this book is the biased slant against the Mormon church. I am not Mormon, I have 2 Mormon friends and I was offended for them. The