The Bishop's Wife felt like it wanted to be more than a crime novel set in a Mormon community, but the anticlimactic resolution to the mystery situates the book squarely within Criminal Mindsy territory. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a bit of psyco killer qu'est-ce que ce as much as the next thirtysomething American woman, but you know what you're getting into with one of those shows or books. 
 Mette Ivie Harrison crafts an interesting character with Linda - a stay-at-home mother of five boys and wife to a man "called" to be ward bishop in addition to his accounting job. I can only guess at the accuracy of this glimpse into Mormon leadership but can understand how such a job would put a spotlight on Linda in addition to adding the expectation of helping all those in their community. Many of Linda's struggles will be familiar to women who are removed from the workforce while their husband's career still moves forward. Harrison uses Linda's own ponderings to question the gendered roles within the Mormon church and within a small, gossipy community in general. I thought the story would serve to say something bigger...but the mystery devolves into evil man hate. (view spoiler)[I do love some man hate, it's true. But this story overflows with poor husbands and wicked fathers. Only sons in the story seem to be good examples of upstanding, sensitive men - though they are also portrayed often as rebels within the Mormon community. So! Are we meant to think older Mormon men are overly privileged and often evil, uncaring, sex-crazed woman haters? Cause that's what I nervously took away. There's just so many very bad men in this story! They all end up horrible! Or, at best, very disappointing. 
 Linda is flawed: overzealous to help others, judgmental, self-absorbed, impulsive, and frequently arriving at erroneous conclusions. I am totally okay with that. Everyone in the book speaks super stilted English. Am I meant to take the Mormon community as being overly formal? I'm not sure. The women seem in need of revolution within their church, and many characters seem to be awakening to this necessity. I'm totally on board with this. Then the mystery is all wham bam abuse knives hammer journal remarriage wee and I'm thinking wahhhh? Why? Sigh. (hide spoiler)] 
 Since the protagonist and setting provide a vivid glimpse of life within the leadership of the Mormon church, the book unfortunately carries the weight of representing that community to outsiders. Consequently, the murder mysteries at first seem a way to explore complex family relationships through the lens of Mormon beliefs. However, wampwamp, it's just a murder mystery with a Mormon theme. My expectations were too high, I guess. A lingering question: is being sealed to someone in the afterlife really that big of a deal?