Reviews
are in ...
Our mission is to provide the reader with a true,
unabridged rendering of the Mormon polygamist
lifestyle, past and present.
Reviews
for Murder of a Prophet—Llewellyn first book.
Critics
From Rod Williams, Former U.S. Secret Service and Border Patrol Agent: Murder of a Prophet is a true-to-life scenario.
Llewellyn's investigative background well qualifies him to write this book. As a former U.S. Federal Agent, I found his book spellbinding, accurate, and entertaining.
From Carolyn Campbell, author of Together Again: True Stories of Birth Parents and Adopted Children Reunited: The characterizations shine with insight, authenticity and humor. The plot is engaging and intriguing.
From Janet Bennion, Ph.D., Anthropologist and Author of Women of Principle: Female Networking in Contemporary Mormon Polygyny:
Both sides of polygamy must be addressed. I have often presented the positive sides to plural marriage. Llewellyn, creatively using actual
incidents from polygamy’s history, presents many of the negative sides. His fiction novel reflects the complexities and vastly diverse experiences inherent in contemporary Mormon fundamentalism.
From David R. Bishop, Captain (Retired) Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office: Mr. Llewellyn's investigative background makes him uniquely qualified to catch the real flavor of the dark side of Mormon
polygamist cults. An excellent read for anyone wishing to explore this world.
Laura Chapman, who grew up in the Colorado City Polygamist Group as the 25th child of 31 children, has been featured on
CBS/48Hours, ABC 20/20, and in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and in London newspapers. Believing education critical to
understanding life and with double degrees in Sociology and Human Development, and a minor in Psychology, Mrs. Chapman is
deeply concerned with the Colorado City group forcing all their children to withdraw from public schools.
"Llewellyn accomplishes the incredible task of exposing the many diverse dynamics of Utah polygamist groups and their members in A
Teenager's Tears. The characters of the women, children, men and self-proclaimed apostles are both astounding and precise.
The display of male privilege, abuse of power in leadership, and struggles within families, is triumphantly accurate. The "feminists" within the groups,
however, are still captured in the basic belief that without a man there is no heavenly glory in the hereafter."
Rena Mackert, formerly of the Colorado City Polygamist Group, appeared on A & E’s "Inside Polygamy" documentary.
"Mr. Llewellyn has effectively presented the fears of a young girl entering a lifestyle she does not understand. An excellent
representation of what women face in sharing their husband with other women. Hats off to Mr.
Llewellyn for courageously presenting the issue of
pedophile behavior so rampant in these cults, and the lack of action taken against the perpetrators by polygamist leaders."
Rowena Erickson, a founding member of Tapestry Against Polygamy and a former polygamist
wife. "Murder of a Prophet, "I kept looking at the women and the girls he writes about and how real they
are. He knows the life."
Media
Salt Lake Tribune, Greg
Burton—March 23, 2000
John R Llewellyn looks every bit the part he plays in real life: father, retired cop and storyteller, a tweed-coated 66-year-old brimming
with the miscellany of crime and impropriety in Utah. He is a character in many of the tales he tells—stories drawn from his days as a
sheriff's detective. So it is a bit surprising that his first book is not "real," but a fictionalized drama of doomsday polygamists and that
Llewellyn is nowhere to be found on the 180 or so pages. Or is he?
Murder of a Prophet: The Dark Side of Utah Polygamy—published last month by Agreka Books of Sandy—has angered some of the region's
polygamists. Leaders in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hilldale, Utah—where the old-time Mormon tenet of "celestial" or plural marriage
prevails—have reportedly banned the book.
Elsewhere, the story, a chronicle of a violent plot to unite all polygamists and topple the Mormon Church, has drawn praise for its
true-to-life portrayal of the social fabric of Utah's religious subculture.
Llewellyn is everything he purports to be and more. . . ."
