Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith (excerpt) is the story of Mormonism and Mormon Fundementalism. It's also the story of the murder of Brenda Lafferty and her infant daughter, Erica, by two of her brothers-in-law, carried out because the Lafferty brothers believed God wanted this woman and baby to die.
I would have never expected a book on Mormonism to hold my interest all the way through, as this one did. And, really, Under the Banner of Heaven is far more an exploration of the Mormon faith than a true-crime story, even though Jon Krakauer goes into horrifying detail as far as the Lafferty murders are concerned. Its focus on the religion and the faith it inspires makes sense, given that Krakauer's original intent was to explore that faith.
It was all the more fascinating to me since this is new information for me; I know very little about any faith except the one I was raised in due to the bubble that forms around you when you're in the church (especially when you're in a church-school). In any case, this was a book I'd been wanting to read for a while, so I was looking forward to it; it ended up being even better than I expected.
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