"Under the Banner of Heaven," Jon Krakauer

The story of the horrific murder of a mother and child in a small Utah town in the 1980s, all set against the broad sweep of Mormon history."Into Thin Air" and "Into the Wild" use smaller, related stories to back up the main narrative, but in "Under the Banner" there are really two main stories vying for attention - one a history of the foundations of the Mormon Church, and one the story of the Lafferty murders. Krakauer tries to tie the two together, but it doesn't quite work. It's unclear how exactly the violent nature of the early Mormon years spurred the Lafferty brothers' murder of their sister-in-law and niece. Structured the murders, yes - people raised in a religious tradition that encourages revelation certainly might frame a deed like that as an instruction from God. However, it seems more like Dan Lafferty was upset that his wife had left him, and decided to wreak his revenge against the person he held responsible in the most violent fashion he knew - a scenario that's certainly not unique to Mormons. (Krakauer includes horrific tales of polygamy and incest among fundamentalist Mormons, but the Laffertys' lifestyle smacks more of drifters bouncing from "wife" to "wife" than the extremely close-knit communities with so many warped branches in their family trees. They might have wanted to be fundies, but they didn't have the social capital to join the club.)

Because of this split, "Under" is like reading a true crime story and a history book rolled into one, and it just doesn't quite come off. (Krakauer admits that he first intended the book to be a straight meditiation on the nature of Mormonism in the afterword. He doesn't reveal what spurred him to add the true crime angle.) I do feel like I know a little more about the Mormon Church now (although a thorough reading of "Lies My Teachers Told Me" had already given me the dirt on the Mountain Meadows Massacre).