Lifestyle - Only Girl Alive
HOLLY'S CRIME BLOG

Years ago I wrote one of the top cop blogs in the country. It won numerous awards and helped relieve stress from my job. This new blog talks about cult horrors and the endless research I've done on the fundamental polygamist Mormons and gives inside info on the Eve Bennet crime thriller series. Thank you for joining me.


FLDS Cult: Punishment for Women

As with Only Girl Alive, Lost Little Angels has many threads of truth. The idea for the series began when I read about a federal judge ordering oversight for law enforcement in the Hildale, Utah area due to decades of corruption. I knew what book 2 would be about when I read a true account of a woman who escaped the FLDS (Fundamentalist Latter-day Saint) community. Before she managed to escape, she was held in a small travel trailer with very little food and water and only a cell phone. She had to check in every fifteen minutes or she was punished by withholding the food and water. This was known as isolation. Because of the absolute control since infancy, she didn’t know another phone number to call only that 911 connected her with the corrupt policemen who also belonged to the cult. The seed for Lost Little Angels was planted in my brain and it grew from there.

purchased via Deposit Photo credit to SlezakPatrik

Old travel trailer photo, purchased via Deposit Photo credit to SlezakPatrik

In book 1, Detective Sergeant Eve Bennet’s mother disappeared from her life when Eve was a child, leaving her in the hands of fundamentalist monsters. Eve often wondered why it took four years for her mother to rescue her but her mother refused to speak of it. In Lost Little Angels we discover the secrets her mother hid and the horrors women who disobey are put through in the cult.

Book 2 truthfully examines human nature and the unnatural dictates of Warren Jeffs while he’s in prison for life, based on his prophetic warnings and outlawing marital sex. My thinking on this, which I also give to Eve’s character, is if Jeffs can’t have sex with his 60 plus wives, his male cult followers should suffer as he does. The caveat is he needs the men in power on the outside to continue doing his bidding and establishes them as seed bearers for "specifically designated" women to carry the seed of God’s children. These men are the only ones granted the right to procreate and keep the bloodlines pure. The women are held down by their husbands while seed bearers have sex with them. This led me to another aspect of book 2 where a newborn baby is missing and Detective Eve Bennet and her team are called to find the child only to discover more babies, known as "children of sin" have disappeared.

"The women are held down by their husbands while seed bearers have sex with them."

Men unable to have sex with their multiple wives would be nearly impossible preposterous and is where human nature supersedes cult prophesy. I don’t believe all these men would follow the new rules. So, what happens to the babies born outside Jeffs’ dictates? We haven’t heard a news story about these children but I think we eventually will. Like the graves in Babyland where innocent children with genetic disorders due to incest were possibly murdered and buried, what about the so called "children of sin" that have not been discovered? Is anyone even looking? I cannot fathom men going without sex when their multiple wives are brainwashed to do their bidding. And, like Babyland, will these children remain a mystery that no one wants to uncover because they should rest in peace? I find the entire concept questionable but so far I have found no trace of children being born by the FLDS members that go against Jeffs’ prophecies.  

I spend hours researching cults, not just the FLDS. The minds of the people caught up in unbelievable controlled deception fascinates and terrifies me. I’m grateful I’m able to share these thoughts with my readers. For those who want further reading, I’ve included links above to some of my research.

Only Girl Alive - available now

Lost Little Angels - available for preorder releases 7/19/2023

Book 3 is waiting for title and cover, available December 2023 by Bookouture Hachette Publishing.

Holly Roberts is a retired sex crimes and homicide detective who worked several hours from Warren Jeffs' compound. She's a USA TODAY bestselling author of spicy romance but her passion is reading and writing thrillers. Her now defunct police blog won numerous awards including #1 Police Blog in the country and is now available in ebook and paperback, writing as Suzie Ivy. She lives high in the Arizona mountains with her husband and two spoiled dogs. 

Story Behind the Story

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Release day for ONLY GIRL ALIVE

As an officer and detective, I dealt with members of the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints cult. I also served as a Terrorist Liaison Officer. When Warren Jeffs made the FBI Most Wanted list, I had inside information disseminated through a government secure email that I couldn’t talk about. I paid close attention to the case.


I cheered when he was caught. The area I worked, was several hours from his Hildale compound and I spoke directly with women who had gotten away. They still lived the polygamist lifestyle but had managed to escape the worst aspects of the cult. In my early career as a writer, I wrote some super steamy erotic menage romance. I have no problem with what consenting adults choose to do in the privacy of their own homes. I have poly friends that have solid foundations and wonderful children who know love from multiple parents. That is not what the FLDS religious cult is about. It’s about control of women that includes generations of brainwashing to keep sexually deviant men in power using religion and fear.


ONLY GIRL ALIVE takes place after the downfall of Warren Jeffs in the heart of his Utah community where his ten thousand members continue to support him. Imagine no internet, television, and the only radio broadcast is funneled directly from the power base of the cult. This is absolute control that is something you would see from a fascist government, not a rural town in the US.


The story of Detective Sergeant Eve Bennet and her team of specialists takes place after Warren Jeffs is released from prison in Utah on a technicality and finally sentenced to life in prison in Texas for continuing his molestation of young girls. Don’t mess with Texas!


In actual FLDS history, a federal judge had the opportunity to disband law enforcement in the Hildale, Utah area where Jeffs atrocities grew exponentially and law enforcement protected him because they were members of his cult. That’s not what the judge decided. He assigned oversight for ten years. My fictional character, Detective Sergeant Eve Bennet, is in charge of that court ordered oversight and must battle the cult’s hierarchy at every turn to solve a horrific case where an entire FLDS family is murdered.


Due to Eve’s background as a rescued cult member, she is the perfect woman to lead her squad and discover the terrible secret the cult is willing to kill for to keep it hidden. For my romance fans, there is a relationship between her and one of her team members that builds as Eve struggles to overcome her past where she was facing marriage at age 12 to an old man. She was rescued just in time but old wounds are hard to heal and her best friend, Clyde, stands by her as she comes to terms with what real love and caring should be. The book is a crime thriller and the relationship is in the background but I think you’ll enjoy the scene at the end of the story.

ONLY GIRL ALIVE is available in eBook, Paperback, and Audio. For a very limited time (the publisher decides when) the book is 99 cents in the US and some other countries and $1.99 elsewhere. I’ve been told when release sales drop, the price will go up.

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What readers are saying about Only Girl Alive:

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Absolutely gripping… Will keep you reading late into the night, unable to put the book down for a second.” Goodreads reviewer

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immediately drawn in… I honestly did not want to put this book down… Edge of your seat.” Goodreads reviewer, 5 stars

Gave me chills throughout.” NetGalley reviewer, 5 stars

Wow!… Thrilling, fast-paced, moving, and marvellous!… Magnificent!” Tove Reads

WowHooked from the prologue… What a thrill ride.” Goodreads reviewer

Brilliant… Kept me hooked.” NetGalley reviewer, 5 stars

“A 
rollercoaster of twists and turns… Heart-wrenching.” @a_likely_storie

“Intriguing and
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