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Death of a Rainmaker: A Dust Bowl Mystery Hardcover – October 16, 2018

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 147 ratings

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A classic murder mystery set in the 1930s Dust Bowl that portrays the era with great beauty, tenderness, and sorrowful authenticity.

―Finalist for the 2019 Oklahoma Book Awards, Fiction

“This striking historical mystery . . . is brooding and gritty and graced with authenticity.” ―NPR, One of the Best Books of 2018 selected by Maureen Corrigan

“The murder investigation allows Loewenstein to probe into the lives of proud people who would never expose their troubles to strangers. People like John Hodge, the town’s most respected lawyer, who knocks his wife around, and kindhearted Etha Jennings, who surreptitiously delivers home-cooked meals to the hobo camp outside town because one of the young Civilian Conservation Corps workers reminds her of her dead son. Loewenstein’s sensitive treatment of these dark days in the Dust Bowl era offers little humor but a whole lot of compassion.” ―
New York Times Book Review

When a rainmaker is bludgeoned to death in the pitch-blackness of a colossal dust storm, small-town sheriff Temple Jennings shoulders yet another burden in the hard times of the 1930s Dust Bowl. The killing only magnifies Temple’s ongoing troubles: a formidable opponent in the upcoming election, the repugnant burden of enforcing farm foreclosures, and his wife’s lingering grief over the loss of their eight-year-old son.

As the sheriff and his young deputy investigate the murder, their suspicions focus on a teenager, Carmine, serving with the Civilian Conservation Corps. The deputy, himself a former CCCer, struggles with remaining loyal to the corps while pursuing his own aspirations as a lawman.

When the investigation closes in on Carmine, Temple’s wife, Etha, quickly becomes convinced of his innocence and sets out to prove it. But Etha’s own probe soon reveals a darker web of secrets, which imperil Temple’s chances of reelection and cause the husband and wife to confront their long-standing differences about the nature of grief.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This richly detailed historical mystery brings the Dust Bowl to life, with the hardscrabble farms and semi-rural community barely coping with the losses of farms and local businesses. This evocative first volume in a new series should appeal to readers of Larry D. Sweazy’s ‘Marjorie Trumaine’ mysteries or Donis Casey’s Oklahoma-set ‘Alafair Tucker’ books. Fans of narrative nonfiction, including Timothy Egan’s The Worst Hard Time, the book that inspired this work, may also want to give it a try."
Library Journal, Starred Review, One of the Best Books of 2018 (Crime Fiction)

"Set in Vermillion, Okla., in 1935, this superb series launch from Loewenstein . . . beautifully captures the devastation of the land and people in the dust bowl."
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review, Pick of the Week for October 8, 2018

"Loewenstein movingly describes the events and the people, from farm eviction auctions and hobo villages to Dish Nights at the movies. She vividly brings to life a town filled with believable characters, from a young woman learning her own worth to the deputy sheriff figuring out where his loyalties lie. This warm and evocative novel captures a time and place, with well-researched details shown through the lives and circumstances of one American town."
Kirkus Reviews

"The plot is compelling, the character development effective and the setting carefully and accurately designed . . . I have lived in the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma; I know about wind and dust . . . Combining a well created plot with an accurate, albeit imagined, setting and characters that ‘speak’ clearly off of the page make
Death of a Rainmaker a pleasant adventure in reading.

"
The Oklahoman

"The plot is solid in
Death of a Rainmaker, but what makes Loewenstein’s novel so outstanding is the cast of characters she has assembled . . . Death of a Rainmaker is a superb book, one that sets the reader right down amid some of the hardest times our country has faced, and lets us feel those hopeful farmers’ despair as they witness their dreams turning to dust.
"
Mystery Scene Magazine

About the Author

LAURIE LOEWENSTEIN is the author of the novels Unmentionables and Death of a Rainmaker, the first in the Dust Bowl Mystery series and a finalist for a 2019 Oklahoma Book Award. She teaches at Wilkes University’s Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing and is a fifth-generation Midwesterner. Funeral Train: A Dust Bowl Mystery is her latest work.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kaylie Jones Books (October 16, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 316 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1617756792
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1617756795
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 1 x 8.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 147 ratings

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Laurie Loewenstein
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Laurie Loewenstein, a fifth generation Midwesterner, is a descendent of farmers, butchers and salesmen. She grew up in central and western Ohio. She has a BA and MA in history. Loewenstein was a reporter, feature and obituary writer for several small daily newspapers.

In her fifties, she returned to college for an MA in Creative Writing. Her first novel, Unmentionables (2014), is a stand-alone historical novel set in 1917 western Illinois. It received a starred review from the Library Journal. Death of a Rainmaker (October 2018), was the first of her mystery series set in the 1930s Dust Bowl. Funeral Train is the second in the series (October 2022). Both mysteries received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly.

Loewenstein is a member of the fiction faculty at Wilkes University’s Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing .

After living in eastern Pennsylvania for many years, Loewenstein now resides in South Carolina.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
147 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the storytelling engaging and memorable. They describe the book as a wonderful, enjoyable read with beautiful prose and poetic images. Readers appreciate the compelling characters and three-dimensional villains. The pacing is described as believable and carefully crafted.

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29 customers mention "Storytelling"26 positive3 negative

Customers enjoy the storytelling. They find the tale interesting and memorable, with rich historical detail. The book is recommended for historical fiction lovers and those interested in Depression era Oklahoma. Readers appreciate the suspenseful mystery and context of a tough time in our nation's history.

"...Lowenstein is historical fiction of the highest order and a murder mystery to boot, a novel of extremes it seems that starts with a bang (literally)..." Read more

"...With Loewenstein's excellent misdirection, the solution to the murder is very satisfying, and now I'm left waiting impatiently for a second Dust..." Read more

"...The pieces of the puzzle unfold at a steady pace...." Read more

"A sweet, refreshing book, filled with the context of a tough time in our nation's history, colorful characters, and enough "who done it" to keep you..." Read more

20 customers mention "Readability"20 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's readability. They find it enjoyable, refreshing, and inspiring. The vivid prose draws them into the suffering. It's a quick, light read that keeps you hooked until the end.

"One of the best books I have ever read is Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl...." Read more

"...This novel was inspiring...." Read more

"A sweet, refreshing book, filled with the context of a tough time in our nation's history, colorful characters, and enough "who done it" to keep you..." Read more

"...They know their neighbors and community well. This is a great read." Read more

17 customers mention "Writing style"16 positive1 negative

Customers enjoy the writing style. They find it well-written and engaging, with poetic images and descriptions that draw them into the setting. The book is authentically written, and readers appreciate the author's empathy for the plight of those living during that time period. Overall, readers describe the writing as intelligent and low-key.

"...there’s something on every page, a twist, a turn, a reveal, a beautiful passage, something to make you laugh, cry, smile, or shake your head in..." Read more

"...a Rainmaker, and while the reader is being drawn into this wonderfully drawn setting, there is the mystery of the murder to solve...." Read more

"...The writing is very low key, sort of at the pace you can imagine in a small, agricultural town where there is nothing much to do, not even work...." Read more

"...Every page from start to finish is intelligent, important and beautifully written. Bravo, Laurie!" Read more

16 customers mention "Character development"16 positive0 negative

Customers find the characters compelling and well-developed. They describe them as realistic and three-dimensional, with flawed characters and villains.

"...Lowenstein Introduces characters and quickly develops them through vivid yet sparse description, unique and powerful action and authentic and..." Read more

"...the death of their son, to Lovell the lonely schoolteacher, these people are real and step right off the page. So does the setting...." Read more

"...The novel has quite the cast of characters, from housewives to teachers to secretaries and inn-keepers, bankers, a judge, a governor, the boys at..." Read more

"...with the context of a tough time in our nation's history, colorful characters, and enough "who done it" to keep you reading on...." Read more

6 customers mention "Pacing"6 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the believable mystery and well-crafted suspects. They find the characters loyal and sympathetic. The story reveals the goodness of humanity and exposes the goodness of others.

"...Will Rogers and Leo Durocher, the history is solid and with viable well-crafted suspects, the mystery is smart, not contrived...." Read more

"...Etha Jennings is a good-hearted woman who is determined to prove a young boy's innocence...." Read more

"...or second chapters, everything is answered in a meaningful and believable way...." Read more

"...and even wife beating, it had its fair share of exposing the goodness of humanity - going out on a limb to help those less fortunate...." Read more

Review: Death of a Rainmaker: A Dust Bowl Mystery by Laurie Loewenstein
5 out of 5 stars
Review: Death of a Rainmaker: A Dust Bowl Mystery by Laurie Loewenstein
Death of A Rainmaker: A Dust Bowl Mystery by Laurie Loewenstein begins in early August in the 1930s. The Dust Bowl is centered in Oklahoma where farmers are literally losing their land in every breath and gust of wind. The soil is being stripped away as is the livelihoods of the farmers and everyone who relies on them in the small community Vermillion, Oklahoma. The small county seat of Jackson County is a desperate place full of desperate people which is why they have paid a lot of money to a stranger who claims he can and will make it rain.After 240 days without rain the locals are gathering out in a dry and baked field a little ways outside of town to see Roland Combs at work. Based on his experiences during the recent war years, he is going to fire TNT up into the skies. He promises that the explosions will bring rain. Despite the firing of twenty mortars into the cloudless heavens triggering numerous concussive blasts, no rain appears to wash away the new grit and dirt that coats all who were out gathered to see the Rainmaker at work. Though the first evening nothing happens, Roland Combs promises to keep blasting the skies every evening for the next three weeks to make it rain.That was his plan. It didn’t happen because before the next night fell he was very much dead. He did not drown in a flood. Instead, somebody whacked him over the head and took the opportunity of a massive dust storm to make sure the deed was done and to get away.With the Rainmaker dead, Sheriff Temple Walker has yet another problem. Not only is he up for reelection, but many people are suffering foreclosure and Sheriff Walker has to be at hand to enforce the peace at such events. He hates having to do that, but the law gives him no choice. While he is only doing his job and a few do understand that, the idea that he is helping the bank take their property does not sit well with anyone. Then there is the ongoing grief that he and his wife, Etha, feel over the loss of their young son.For Etha the sight of a young teenager, Carmine DiNapoli, who looks so much like her son, Jack, is almost unbearable. If he had lived, he would look much like Carmine does. Carmine is arrested for murder she can’t believe it. Having spent some time around him, Etha knows in her heart he did not do it and sets about trying to prove his innocence. Doing so first causes a strain on the marriage and then begins to spread outwards as she stirs up additional dark secrets and makes Walker’s election a more distant possibility.The truth sets some free and condemns others in this highly atmospheric mystery. Death of a Rainmaker: A Dust Bowl Mystery is complex in terms of multiple mysteries and deeply nuanced in terms of characters and setting. It quickly pulls the reader deeply into the story that also does a little history teaching along the way. Even for this reader who rarely reads a historical mystery, Death of a Rainmaker: A Dust Bowl Mystery by Laurie Loewenstein is very good. I am eagerly waiting the next installment of the series and that can’t be published soon enough.Material supplied by the good folks of the Dallas Public Library System.Kevin R. Tipple ©2019
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2019
    At its core Death of a Rainmaker: A Dust Bowl Mystery by Laurie Lowenstein is historical fiction of the highest order and a murder mystery to boot, a novel of extremes it seems that starts with a bang (literally) and then comes the storm in so many ways. Lowenstein raises the stakes with a looming election, the outcome of which will have life-altering ramifications for those involved. The author paints a vivid picture of life in Oklahoma in 1935 during the Great Depression.

    “In Oklahoma, the palette was nothing but brown. Brown bridal trains of dust billowed behind tractors. Curtains turned from white to strong coffee. Folks spit river mud after a duster. Washes of beige, cinnamon, and umber bled into the blue sky, depending on which direction the wind blew. The people, the land, the buildings absorbed the dust. All other colors leached away, while brown and its infinite variations remained.” But she doesn’t stop there; she elicits all of the senses.

    Lowenstein Introduces characters and quickly develops them through vivid yet sparse description, unique and powerful action and authentic and specific dialogue to have an immediate impact in the story. The heroes and heroines (and there are many) are flawed and the villains are three dimensional. There’s a grittiness, spirit, and elegance that makes you gradually fall in love with Etha. She’s impulsive, fiery and loyal, the kind of gal you want in your corner for life...forever! This makes the tension that starts early on between her and her husband, Sherriff Temple excruciating. The tension between the protagonists and antagonists are also ever-mounting and the suspense is palpable.

    Rainmaker reminds of The Hunger Games in that it never stops punching, there’s something on every page, a twist, a turn, a reveal, a beautiful passage, something to make you laugh, cry, smile, or shake your head in disbelief. It never lets up. I was torn between putting this book down to savor, so it would never end or not being able to put it down because it’s so damn good. Things are never what they seem. The story is told with fluid but limited point of view that allows the reader to see the whole story unfold but through the eyes of the major players, keeping you dead center of the story.

    There’s a musical scene where Etha plays the piano along with a harmonica-armed Carmine that moves the soul as music should.

    From Dish Nights to the Civilian Conservation Corps to Will Rogers and Leo Durocher, the history is solid and with viable well-crafted suspects, the mystery is smart, not contrived. In short, Rainmaker easily goes in my top ten of all-time, maybe top five, and highly recommended. Prediction: Film adaption and academy award nominee for best cinematography. This one has just that kind of potential.
  • Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2018
    One of the best books I have ever read is Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. Reading that book fostered an interest in this period of history, so when I heard about Laurie Loewenstein's first Dust Bowl mystery, Death of a Rainmaker, I had to read it. I am thrilled to say that it's an excellent fictional companion piece to Egan's history.

    Loewenstein peoples her story with one believable character after another. From thirteen-year-old Maxine trying desperately to impress the young deputy, to Temple Jennings forced to keep the peace at foreclosed farms that are being auctioned off, to his wife Etha who still mourns the death of their son, to Lovell the lonely schoolteacher, these people are real and step right off the page.

    So does the setting. The local movie theater is reduced to having "Dish Nights" in order to stay open. (Plunk down your nickel to see a movie and receive a free piece of china-- a different piece every week.) There are teenage boys thrown out of their homes because there are too many mouths to feed, and they're now working for the Civilian Conservation Corps. The down-and-out living in Hoovervilles out in the woods. A young woman ashamed of the fact that her family still lives in a soddy. And the ever-present dust and dirt: "Dunes rippled across the highway as if the denuded land were trying to draw a blanket over its naked limbs."

    Loewenstein's characters live-- and try to breathe-- in Death of a Rainmaker, and while the reader is being drawn into this wonderfully drawn setting, there is the mystery of the murder to solve. Etha Jennings is a good-hearted woman who is determined to prove a young boy's innocence. She makes plenty of mistakes and she certainly upsets her husband, but the unfolding of her character is a fine sight to behold. With Loewenstein's excellent misdirection, the solution to the murder is very satisfying, and now I'm left waiting impatiently for a second Dust Bowl mystery. Historical mystery lovers really need to get their hands on this book.
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  • Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2020
    I love historical fiction, and the setting of this book in Dust Bowl Oklahoma during the Depression is extremely well-rendered. The writing is very low key, sort of at the pace you can imagine in a small, agricultural town where there is nothing much to do, not even work. Each character has his or her burdens to bear, which they do with a quiet stoicism. I generally have time to read a book rich in setting and characters, but a murder creates a certain urgency, and I felt that the story was being needlessly drawn out. I got to the middle of the book, then skipped to the last couple chapters to get to the point, as it were. I don't disagree w/the 5 star reviews - there are lots of reasons to like this book - but for me it wasn't a well-crafted mystery.