In her gripping follow-up to the widely acclaimed Dust Bowl Mystery Death of a Rainmaker, Laurie Loewenstein brings 1930s Oklahoma evocatively to life.The sequel to Death of a Rainmaker . . . is just as atmospheric. The anguish and struggles of the Dust Bowl and Depression years are vividly depicted in this historical mystery.Library JournalA portrait of Depression-era America so searingly authentic that the topsoil practically blows off each page.Louis Bayard, author of Jackie & Me[T]his striking historical mystery...is brooding and gritty and graced with authenticity.NPR on Death of a Rainmaker (book one in the Dust Bowl Mystery series), One of the Best Books of 2018Already suffering the privations of the 1930s Dust Bowl, an Oklahoma town is further devastated when a passenger train derailsflooding its hospital with the dead and maimed. Among the seriously wounded is Etha, wife of Sheriff Temple Jennings. Overwhelmed by worry for her, the sheriff must regain his footing to investigate the derailment, which rapidly develops into a case of sabotage.The following night, a local recluse is murdered. Temple has a hunch that this death is connected to the train wreck. But as he dissects the victims life with help from the recuperating and resourceful Etha, he discovers a tangle of records that make a number of townsfolk suspects in the murder.Temples investigations take place against the backdrop of the Great Depressionwhere bootlegging, petty extortion, courage, and bravado play out in equal measure.
