Pillar of Fire

Named after a Mormon saint, Moroni Traveler may be Salt Lake City's only gentile private eye that still maintains uneasy contact with the Church of Latter-day Saints. This case finds the former pro football player reluctantly accepting a charge from one of the church leaders to investigate the enigmatic, self-effacing faith healer Jason Thurgood.

Traveler's commission takes him downwind of the old atomic testing sites to the desolate southwest corner of Utah, commonly known as cult country b...