Prophet of Blood by Ben Bradlee Jr and Dale Van Atta

Two months ago I read a memoir called Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner. It detailed her childhood growing up in abject poverty in Mexico as a member of a polygamist cult. She was the 39th of 42 children born to her father before he was murdered by his brother's followers.

Her memoir was devastating, and in that particularly horrible human way, fascinating.

So I needed to know more.

Turns out several members of the book club that chose the memoir are huge fans of cults and other awful human proclivities (this may have something to do with the fact that both of them are prosecutors) and they recommended Prophet of Blood. It's from 1981 which means if you want to read it you will need to have a library that never gets rid of things or find it moderately overpriced on Amazon, but if you love cults, this is the book for you.

There is so much going on that it can be almost overwhelming, and I do wish the authors had gone with a chronological timeline. The story is told through big events, so one chapter will begin years before the previous chapter ended in an attempt to keep a cohesive storyline, but it does get a little hard to keep track of who the characters are. I probably should have taken notes.

It's fascinating because Ervil, the aforementioned cult leader, was arrested and put on trial in 1980, so the book, though old, is very timely and has some highly entertaining quotes from people involved. It is a fascinating history of Mormonism as well as a study of what kind of person becomes a cult leader and how they do it.

Also, check out this cover. Terribly 80s, and I love it.