The Deseret Reckoning by Matthew L. Huffman

The Deseret Reckoning

Susan Kingsley is a historical acquisitions assistant at the Smithsonian Museum with career ambitions. She shares an apartment with her ex-husband, FBI special agent Andrew Harrison. Susan has discovered copies of a series of letters from 1870 describing a wagon train from Santa Fe, New Mexico, bound for the Deseret Territory, the Mormon lands prior to Utah statehood, and a hidden mine. The new owner of the letters, twenty-seven-year-old Tom Sullivan, a distant relative of the recipient, joins two older friends on a camping trip to discover the source of the letters. While Susan tracks Tom and his letters across Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, Andrew tails her every step. After a chance encounter with Kat, a friendly face at a challenging time, a bolder, fiercer Susan emerges. As Susan’s character arc grows, Andrew’s arc delves from petty disagreements to all-out fraud and deception, a cop with a grudge. What has been hidden in the mine since 1870? What secrets will be revealed? Will Susan succeed, or will Andrew commit the ultimate crime?

Reviews

Blending history, adventure, and a hunt for secrets involving a lost mine, Huffman’s time-crossed novel centers on Susan Kingsley, an ambitious assistant acquisitions specialist at the Smithsonian. In 1982, Susan lucks into a series of letters from 1870 detailing a wagon train’s journey down the Old Spanish Trail to the “Deseret Territory,” a stretch of the American southwest that the Mormons once sought to claim as a country of their own. As Susan begins to grasp the promise and significance of this find, and to hope it might lead to her long-deserved promotion, Huffman also dramatizes the experiences of the original letter writer himself, William Mitchell, a natural leader arranging a wagon train headed for “the fertile valleys of Vernal” to “carve out a homestead.”

Like readers will be, Susan is intrigued, eventually embarking on a journey to unravel the tantalizing mysteries in William’s letters, all while her ex-husband, Andrew Harrison, spirals into bitterness, closely monitoring her every move and making nasty cracks about “career women.” Huffman skillfully weaves narratives spanning across a century, between the post-Civil War West, prior to Utah statehood, and the chauvinistic 1980s, of Reagan’s war on drugs and rumors about J. Edgar Hoover’s sexual orientation. Huffman demonstrates throughout how each era’s ethos shape the choices of the characters, while their travels come with vibrant descriptions, enriching the dual quests. The temporal transitions are smooth and clear, and the different perspectives and vocabularies keep the novel feeling varied.

Huffman crafts a thoughtful but well-paced adventure, with Andrew’s inner turmoil and deceptions raising the stakes, right till the end. This novel is as much a journey of self discovery and newfound determination as it is a quest for retracing a historical trail. The welcome character of Kat, turning up deep into the story, represents female solidarity, guiding Susan’s growth, making it a tale of empowerment that will resonate with anyone interested in an exciting quest and convincing explorations of bygone socio-cultural moments.

Takeaway: Thoughtful, well-paced story of a Smithsonian acquisitionist on the Old Spanish Trail.

Comparable Titles: Serena Burdick’s The Stolen Book of Evelyn Aubrey, Lisa Wingate’s The Book of Lost Friends.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

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