Join Jim Hawkins as he embarks upon his most difficult and perilous quest — a quest for survival against unseen enemies. A quest to solve the deepening mystery of the disappearance of his sister, Jennifer, and his old friend Garth Plimpton.
Jim, now the father of two teenage daughters and a ten-year-old son — as all stubborn and self-willed as he ever was! — must battle the forces of an old and secret adversary set on destroying his very existence. Once again Jim must descend through the mysterious passages of Frost Cave and the Rainbow Room, only to emerge with his family in a land and time teetering on the brink of ultimate destruction. The time just prior to the Savior's appearance in the new world.
Tropes:
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Jim pulls a bit of this at dinner with Sabrina.
- Bad Boss: Jim’s boss Doug Bowman is a real jerk. He even takes credit for a project Jim did and then lets Jim play himself into quitting.
- Bad Date: Jim has a bad double date when he doubles with his daughter and her boyfriend, who he does not like.
- Bound and Gagged: Melody when she’s kidnapped
- Bumbling Dad: Jim feels inadequate compared to his son’s stories of dads who bungee-jump or go hang-gliding.
- The Bus Came Back: Boaz returns from the previous book.
- Cliffhanger: The story ends with Jim embarking on a trip to retrieve Melody with a team of Nephites from the Christian settlement in Zarahemla.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Renae was definitely a good mom. Jim especially laments that she was raising their daughters on a wavelength he couldn’t.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: Discussed. Jim pushes their car down a small ravine to mask their trail. Harry is sad it doesn’t blow up, but Jim is relieved at not attracting attention.
- Feeling Their Age: The story starts the morning Jim turns forty. When they get to Nephite times, he worries that his fourteen-to-ten-year-old kids won’t be able to keep up the pace, but soon finds himself faltering behind.
- Frame-Up: Jim is framed for the murder of his boss, Doug Bowman.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Boaz has had quite the upgrade since last book.
- Fugitive Arc: Jim is a fugitive after escaping from prison halfway through the book, complete with hurried changes of clothes and sneaking around.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The last Melody chapter features smoke curling itself into the shape of a jaguar, something that has never been seen before. After a series that’s mostly been normal, this is a big change.
- Heroic Sacrifice: The elderly prophet Samuel the Lamanite stays behind to face an angry mob so everyone can escape. It’s noted that he ‘’has’’ to stay behind, because killing him will placate the mob enough that they won’t continue after everyone else.
- Historical Domain Character
- The Infiltration: Marcos infiltrates Jim’s workplace to spy on him and help put together the Frame-Up.
- Made a Slave: Jim and the kids get enslaved by the slaver Kumarcaah for a stretch, but luckily their Nephite friend avoids capture and is able to get help.
- Missing Mom: Renae Fennimore-Hawkins has passed away in the interim between books.
- No Biochemical Barriers: Discussed. Jim ponders the wisdom of drinking ancient river-water without purifying it first. However, he drank it in the first book with no problem, and he decides to just go with it. Since getting sick from river water would be a pretty boring story, this is acceptable.
- No Prison Segregation: Averted. Jim is kept with the other homicide suspects in the maximum security area.
- Parents as People: All over this book. Jim worries about being uncool, how to raise three kids, how to be a good example, how to be good at his job. And then he gets framed for murder, bringing things to a whole new level.
- Perp Sweating: Jim has this done to him during his Frame-Up. He notes that the detectives don’t believe him, and that they keep asking him the same questions hoping he’ll slip up.
- Promotion to Parent: Melody has stepped up to this role a bit, as she helps direct her siblings and confers with her dad about his work troubles.
- Rescue Arc: This and the following book are about rescuing Melody from Jacob of the Moon.
- Struggling Single Mother: Gender-flipped with Jim. He has to parent three kids (including two teenage girls) while also making a living and struggling with his wife’s death.
- Vagueness Is Coming: The Mexican lady Jim talks to ( who turns out to be Marcos’s mother) is incapable of saying who is coming after him, both out of fear and because she’s a mentally ill drug addict jonesing for her fix.
