This book starts with the senseless murder of a young woman and her 15 month-old daughter, and then it gets dark as Krakauer investigates the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints. This isn't "Sister Wives on TLC"; this is an unflinching look at teenage girl-kidnapping-raping-brainwashing-daughter-swapping-incestuous-relevating-schismating-and-murdering zealots of the FLDS, and their connection to mainstream Mormonism and American society.

Krakauer is a master of literary non-fiction, specializing in using sensational events as a lens to look at bigger issues. In this case, the uniquely American religion of Mormonism, the limits of religious tolerance, and what it means to be inspired by god. I don't think he quite succeeds in bringing it together, but the parts are strong enough to stand on their own. The modern story is a crime drama straight out of In Cold Blood (but better researched). The history is a solid synthesis, drawing on the classic Nobody Knows my Name, The American Religion, and the more modern scholarship of excommunicated Mormom historian Dr. Michael Quinn.

Journalistic attacks against Mormonism are as old, and possibly older than the religion itself, and Under the Banner of Heaven slots neatly into a genre meant to titillate and incite Gentile readers. I've rarely been inspired to such hatred when reading a book, and I'm not sure how that makes me feel. I want to exterminate the FLDS now. Does that mean I'm no better than they are?

((Yes. Because I haven't raped any teenage girls.))