Inquest in Zion

INQUEST IN ZION shows the aftermath of the Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857's southern Utah, in which 55 Mormon men of the Iron County Militia shoot down 120 Fancher wagon train emigrants, men, women and children, from Arkansas. Sarah Dunlap, a surviving victim, returns to Utah in 1876 to find the truth of the massacre and to testify against the Mormons who slaughtered her family. Sarah's orphaned life has left her unschooled in the ways of men and love. Despite her ignorance, she falls in love with Young Lee, a son of John D. Lee, the man she's come to see hang. As Sarah prepares to testify in Lee's trial, Mormon assailants try to put her "over the edge of the basin" because "she has a story to tell." She confronts each with sharp questions and her Colt pistol. The novel presents the later life, trial, "confession" and execution of John D. Lee, the only person ever tried or executed for the Massacre. His is the story of stubborn adherence to authority and its disastrous outcome. Soon after John D. Lee's execution by firing squad at the Mountain Meadows site of vast murder, Sarah and Young flee Utah. A Mormon, Danite assassin follows. "I guess it ain't over for me and Young. Never will be."