IR VERDICT:
THE LAST ORPHAN by Jeffrey Lowder is the fictional account of a Mormon woman struggling to hold onto her illegally adopted son as the U.S. army and the child’s family come searching for him two years after the boy’s parents were murdered. The author does a splendid job of weaving fact and fiction, taking readers on a dramatic and educational journey that includes detailed descriptions of life in–and the hierarchy of–a small Mormon community in Utah Territory several years prior and leading to the beginning of the Civil War.