The Gangs of Zion
February 22, 2025
Determined to pursue his passion for undercover work wherever it leads, Ron Stallworth finally lands in Salt Lake City, Utah. Once again, he’s an outsider—not only as a Black man on a mostly white police force but also as an unapologetic nonbeliever in a state dominated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. But soon after his first drug bust in the Beehive, Stallworth makes a startling discovery—Bloods and Crips are infiltrating Mormon Country, threatening to turn the deeply conservative community into a hotbed of crime. Kids are bombing homes while carrying pocket versions of the Book of Mormon, yet his fellow cops are in denial that gangs are wreaking havoc in their Christian town.
This was an interesting book because it made me have to admit to a problem that I have never seen in Utah and probably am too dense to recognize it if I were to ever see it. The language made me consider putting it down several times and I was hoping for a more exciting narrative, but it is real life, so obviously it’s not as adventuresome as a movie might be.