The Spoken Word

"How many timeshave I told you? Never get involved with the church hierarchy."

Words of wisdom, surely, but Moroni Traveler can''t seem to take hisfather''s advice. Salt Lake City private investigators, Moroni and his father, Martin, maintain an uneasy truce with the Church of Latter-day Saints. ButMoroni owes a debt to his boyhood friend Willis Tanner, now one of thetop-ranking officials in the LDS, and Willis has come to collect. Lael Woolley,grandniece of the First Prophet, the head of the Mormon church on earth, hasbeen kidnapped, and the prophet believes only Traveler, a gentile, can rescueher. Moroni agrees, although reluctantly-in Salt Lake City you just don''t sayno to the LDS. He and his father set out to find Lael with carte blanche from the prophet and the assistance of three enterprising, offbeat drifters wholive in the lobby of the Travelers'' office building. Their search takes themaround the state and into the church''s extensive genealogical records, pointingto a subversive Mormon feminist group that may or may not be responsible forLael''s disappearance.