The Leah Shadow

Book 2 in the Glendrake Family Trilogy

By Harold K. Moon

Book Description:

In the early days of the Mormon Church, the now-repudiated principle of polygamy, though misunderstood and occasionally abused, was sanctioned by divine decree, as it was during Old Testament epochs. Leah and Rachel, famous among polygamous women, claimed unequal shares of Jacob, later dubbed Israel. Leah, the less favored, casts a long shadow...Catherine and Sheila must make peace with their situation and find reconciliation in love for John Glendrake, their husband, and for each other. From Utah to Mexico, frontier challenges follow these stubborn, beleaguered, fascinating...and endearing characters. Adventure, occasional misadventure, devotion, tenderness, human dignity and understanding, with occasional misunderstanding, pulse through the narrative. A compelling read.

Review by Richard Cracroft in BYU Magazine, Winter, 2005.

“Unquestionably, this novel is among the best and most satisfying treatments of plural marriage—or monogamous marriage, for that matter—that we have.

“Happily, this is not an agenda-ridden novel. Instead, The Leah Shadow, set in the 1880s, is the tender, engrossing, human story of the shadow cast over the well-established and happy marriage of Catherine and John Glendrake by John’s mid-life plural marriage to young Sheila. Later, John and Sheila are forced by anti-cohabitation laws to flee their sheep ranch in Duchesne, Utah, for a fresh start in Colonia Diaz, Mexico. But Catherine, haunted by the tensions in her marriage and in her soul, and to the dismay of her husband and sister-wife, with whom she has lived in love and harmony, chooses to remain behind, to fend alone for her children, and to learn what she has to learn. This remarkably well-written and often-exciting tale of faithful Latter-day Saints, of the rugged Utah and Chihuahua lands, and of a Javert-like U.S. marshal, makes for excellent reading and for one of the best LDS novels I’ve enjoyed.”

My Opinion:

I didn’t initially think of including The Leah Shadow in this compilation because the characters only arrive in Mexico at the end of the story. Wherever it takes place, it’s well worth reading. If I were rating these books, I’d give it five stars.