Title: God's Executioner
Author: Roger Terry
Cedar Fort, 2005, 372p, paperback
Intriguing premise, good writing, and a few queasy moments.
A well-respected, even beloved Utah Mormon father commits a brutal
murder, and then insists that God required him to do it. A trial follows,
and the truth of the man's claims are put to the test. This is the very
intriguing premise of Roger Terry's God's Executioner. The novel earned an
honorable mention for the 2005 AML novel prize, and sounded interesting, so
I dove in. I generally enjoyed the experience, but I do have reservations
about a couple things.
Terry has been an editor at the Church Magazines Ensign and Liahona.
He recently was named Senior Associate Editor of BYU Studies. God's
Executioner is his second novel, after "A Familiar Ring" (under the name R.
K. Terry) at Covenant in 2003.
The story is presented through the point of view of Scott Fernelius, a
public defender in a fictional small county in northern Utah. Scott is a
non-Mormon new to Utah, living with a rebellious 14-year old daughter who
ended up with Scott almost by default after his marriage dissolved. Scott
has long abandoned himself to cynicism, and is vaguely befuddled by the
Mormon environment he finds himself in. He is assigned to defend Tracy
Parker, a seemingly perfect father and husband, hard-working and humble.
Except he also killed a man with a baseball bat with no apparent
provocation. Parker turned himself in, and said that God told him to do it.
Soon afterward Parker leads authorities to remains of another recently
killed man, again claiming divine assistance, and although he denies
involvement, he is charged for a second murder. Ferenlius and his daughter
are gradually changed by their experience with the Parker family.
There are two main mysteries at work. One, was God really behind the
first murder, and if so, will he somehow get the guilty man off the hook?
Second, what was the nature of fraud the dead men were playing on the people
of the county, and who is involved in it? I have not read many crime
mysteries, so I am unsure how it stands up against others, but I found the
narrative for the most part interesting, well-paced, and capably written.
Terry telegraphs the answers to several questions by the middle of the book,
but there were plenty of questions left to the end to keep this reader
interested.
Terry is especially skilled at making interesting characters. Scott,
the public defender, is a great POV character, giving a nice balance of
desperation and hilarious black humor in his depiction of his failed
marriage and horrendous parenting skills. The portraits of the other
members of the law enforcement community, many of them non- or
lapsed-Mormons who fit uncomfortably in the community, give the book
additional spice. The least interesting character may be the killer
himself, Tracy Parker. He remains a blank through most of the book. In
part this serves to further the plot, because if we knew too much about him,
it would destroy the mystery. Terry makes a few half-hearted attempts to
make us doubt Tracy's essential goodness, but they never go to far. Flawed
characters are easier to make interesting than nearly perfect characters,
but ultimately, great Mormon novelists need make their good characters
interesting and recognizable if their fiction is going to mean anything to
us.
The central issue of the book, whether God could or would order a
Mormon disciple to commit a murder, is most problematic. I applaud the book
for taking on such an interesting religious question. Most published
authors in the Mormon field would not get anywhere near such an explosive
issue. So, I feel a bit churlish taking issue with Terry on some of the
points that he was brave enough to bring up in the first place. But I do
take issue. I cannot avoid spoiling some of the mysteries by discussing
some of these things, so I am issuing a spoiler alert. You may want to stop
here and go and read the book.
SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER
Okay, first of all, I find it unbelievable that Tracy Parker's friends and
family show absolutely no doubt in Tracy's story, and seem to feel no
difficulty in treating him the way they have always have. Imagine a
seemingly wonderful Mormon father you know, and then imagine that he killed
someone and claimed God had told him to do it. Even if you had reason to
believe him, wouldn't you feel uncomfortable around him? Wouldn't you
expect his family to be in turmoil? But the ward appears to support him
without reservation, having a jolly time with him a Church social and other
occasions. Although his wife's Prozac prescription is briefly mentioned, it
is tied to the general pressure of guiding her large family, not the murder.
The children seem to be completely at ease with the situation.
Second, the central question of the possibility of divine revelation to
an individual to kill outside of the law is an interesting issue, but
Terry's treatment ultimately leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Terry argues
that while the idea makes us uncomfortable, it is conceivable under
mainstream Mormon doctrine. Terry tries to separate Tracy from the Lafferty
and other Mormon-related murderers by giving him a righteous, agreeable
personality. But I do not see a valid precedent for a this kind of divine
command in latter-day times, and I find his argument repellent and
dangerous.
In the trial he creates dueling theological witnesses, a BYU religion
professor who emphasizes Mormon respect for the law, and a local institute
teacher who brings up Nephi and Laban as well as Latter-day instances of
Mormon civil disobedience. He has the BYU professor tpoint out that Nephi
acted under the Mosaic law, which arguably allows for the killing of a
law-breaker in extreme circumstances, and that under US law any extralegal
killing would be unrighteous. The institute director insists that we not
put boundaries on God, we can not know what God will ask of his disciples.
The problem is that there is no latter-day precedent for this kind of murder
I can think of, especially in a generally free and law-based society like
the United States. None of the latter-day events referred to in the book,
including civil disobedience against the polygamy laws in the 19th century,
and Helmuth Hubener's work against the Nazi government, included murder.
There have been several people with some kind of Mormon background who have
claimed divine sanction for murder or other violence, but most were
fundamentalists, outside of the Church, and all of them acted outside of
acceptable Mormon behavior. Here is the message I would have liked to see
Terry make. If you hear a voice telling you to kill someone, GO AND TALK TO
YOUR BISHOP. See if anyone else who's spirituality you trust can confirm
your thoughts at all. Some might regret the need for bureaucratic
confirmation and the loss of spiritual charisma that it implies, but at
least in this case, I am all for restraints on charisma.
A minor quibble: when the daughter is influenced by her new Mormon
friends to change her attitude and actions, does she also have to change
completely to a J. Crew fashion ensemble? I have seen plenty of young
people convert who do just fine keeping some of their harmless fashion or
personality quirks.
END SPOILER
Ultimately, although the resolution of the central question makes me a
bit queasy, I am impressed that Cedar Fort, a mainstream Mormon press,
published such a challenging book. Terry is a skilled author with something
to say, I hope to see more from him in the future.
Andrew Hall
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>From photos to predictions, The MSN Entertainment Guide to Golden Globes has
it all.
http://tv.msn.com/tv/globes2007/
