Funeral Train (Dust Bowl Mysteries)
The Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and, now, a train derailment batter the small town of Vermillion, Oklahoma in 1935. Sheriff Temple Jennings is the sleuth here, a middle-aged fellow in love with his wife, Etha, who is injured in the wreck. Many of the dead are Black passengers in a segregated rail car. But that’s not the end of the drama and trauma at the tracks. A local woman who lives nearby is strangled, and Temple must find out who killed her and whether her death is connected to the derailment.
While the mystery pulls the reader along with steady interest, the book really shines with the picture it paints of small-town, Depression-era America. The past is brought to vivid, fascinating life with Loewenstein’s skillful descriptions. The lonely call of the train echoes in the air, interrupted by accented conversation, the whistles of dust-choked winds, and the click and sway of vehicles along the tracks. It’s easy to slip into the past with these carefully chosen descriptions, as well as with the characteristics of the people who inhabit the area: the housewives and railroad workers, the maids and company bigwigs.
You’ll enjoy this tale of foul murder, marital faithfulness, and hard-won justice, set in a time and place drenched with authenticity.
