The Prodigal Daughter

Written by Mette Ivie Harrison

Narrated by Kirsten Potter

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, has it become easier to speak out about sexual assault in religious communities?

Linda Wallheim, who is increasingly jaded with the Mormon church, has begun marriage counseling with her bishop husband, Kurt, hoping to reconcile their household and philosophical disagreements. On other days, Linda occupies herself with happier things, like visits to see her five grown sons and their families.

When Linda's eldest son, Joseph, tells her his infant daughter's babysitter, a local teenager named Sage Jensen, has vanished, Linda can't help but ask questions. Her casual inquiries form the portrait of a girl under extreme pressure from her parents to be the perfect Mormon daughter, and it eventually emerges that Sage is the victim of a terrible crime at the hands of her own classmates—including the high school's academic and athletic superstars.

Linda's search for Sage will lead her to the darker streets of Utah and once again cause her to question whether the Mormon community's most privileged and powerful will be called to task for past sins.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: May 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781705031001

Mette Ivie Harrison

Mette Ivie Harrison has a PhD in Germanic literature and is the author of The Princess and the Hound; Mira, Mirror; and The Monster in Me. Of The Princess and the Bear, she says, "I never thought there would be a sequel to The Princess and the Hound, but when I read through the galleys, I realized that there was another book waiting in the story of the bear and the hound. In some ways, you might think of it more as a parallel novel than as a sequel, because it stands on its own as a new story. But who knows? Maybe I’ll look at these galleys and find another story demanding to be told." She lives with her family in Utah.