Funeral train A Dust Bowl mystery

Set in rural Oklahoma in 1935, when America was still deep in the throes of the Great Depression, Loewenstein's latest (following Death of a Rainmaker, 2018) combines a riveting mystery with an eye-opening look at the social milieu of the time. Laced with suspense, pathos, and violence, it's also an affecting portrayal of what makes humans behave the way they do. Temple Jennings, sheriff in Vermillion, Oklahoma, is usually busy rounding up stray cattle and closing down stills, but when a passenger train derails nearby, he's first on the scene. It's mass carnage, with many dead and injured. Temple soon discovers that the derailment was no accident--someone tampered with the rail switches. Then a local woman is found strangled near the tracks. Was she killed because she saw who caused the derailment? Murder is well outside Temple's wheelhouse, but he's both savvy and tenacious, and, with the help of a bumptious but persistent railway detective, he plows forward. This is a wonderfully evocative historical mystery, its Dust Bowl bleakness offset by hope and humor.

Set in 1935, "smack in the crosshairs of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl," Loewenstein's excellent sequel to 2018's Death of a Rainmaker continues the saga of life in the small town of Vermillion, Okla. Sheriff Temple Jennings is used to dealing with balky stray cows and occasional moonshiners. Then his comfortable routine is shattered by a passenger train derailment that turns out to have been caused by sabotage. Eccentric but shrewd railroad detective Claude Steele is soon on the scene to figure out who could have been angry and mean enough to do such a thing. Meanwhile, Temple has to solve the murder of Ruthie-Jo Mitchem, "who made it her business to know everything possible about everyone else." Ruthie-Jo's death may be related to the train wreck--or to her snooping into her neighbors' business. He also frets about his wife, Etha, who was severely injured when the train crashed, and about his responsibilities to the vulnerable people who depend on him. Loewenstein gives a rich sense of the period and place, and dramatically shows how hard times can bring out the best in some and the worst in others. Historical regional mysteries don't get much better than this. (Oct.)

Sheriff Temple Jennings of Vermillion, OK, is eager to see his wife, Etha, after her six-day visit to St. Louis. When the train she's on is involved in a wreck, he loses all control until his deputy reminds him he has to take charge, and start acting like the sheriff, not a panicked husband. After finding Etha in the hospital, he teams up with the railroad detective to find the cause of the accident. It doesn't take long to discover someone sabotaged the tracks, but during the Depression, with so many drifters, it will take a while to find the perpetrator. Someone, though, has a clue, which causes Temple to suspect a link between the train wreck and a local murder. Several crimes lead Temple and Etha, along with the deputies, to piece together a story of desperation and violence. VERDICT The sequel to Death of a Rainmaker (an LJ Best Book of 2018), is just as atmospheric. The anguish and struggles of the Dust Bowl and Depression years are vividly depicted in this historical mystery.--Lesa Holstine