Laurie Loewenstein

I bought this book based on reviews on this site. I enjoyed it because I am very interesting in the Dust Bowl era and this book doesn't disappoint. It describes life at the end of the Depression, giving a window in to the struggles of people living in that era and that location. Cozy mysteries are my favorite genre and because of this I felt that the mystery in this book wasn't quite there. I didn't feel the tension or get the usual red herrings. Also felt unsettled with the niece story; no closure there. It was as if they were a means to an end in furthering the mystery.
Overall the story was good enough.… (altro)

I have yet to read a book written by Laurie Loewenstein that I haven't liked. She has a blend of character, story, and setting that suits me right down to the ground. The opening scenes of Funeral Train are chilling as I was introduced to people on a passenger train shortly before it derailed. Then I was sickened and infuriated when Loewenstein shared some information about passenger trains in the 1930s. (Black travelers had to pay full price to travel in shoddy, flimsy passenger cars commonly referred to as "pine hearses" placed right behind the locomotives while white passengers traveled in comfort farther back in metal cars that were much less likely to be damaged.)

The mystery is a good one, but the real strength of Funeral Train lies in its portrait of small-town life during the double whammy of the Depression and the Dust Bowl. I felt as though I were in Vermillion right along with the railroad detective, Claude Steele, and Sheriff Temple Jennings as they searched for clues among the cranks, gossips, and fine, upstanding citizens there in town. Jennings, who survived the Johnstown Flood as a child, is a mentor to his deputy, Ed McCance, who watches Jennings carefully and writes down what the sheriff says in a notebook. Newly married, McCance not only wants to be sheriff one day but he also wants to stay alive in order to earn the promotion. Jennings and McCance are trying to find a killer, but they also must deal with a noisy dog, the town's blind movie theater owner, and Gwendolyn the cow. Life in all its variety in small-town Oklahoma.

It's hard to describe how much at home I felt while reading this book, but the reason why did occur to me as the pages turned. It is the small details Loewenstein weaves into her story. I grew up among family members who were teenagers during the Depression. The way Loewenstein's characters talk is the way my family members talked. Grain elevators were also the biggest buildings in my hometown, my family also gathered to play pinochle on Saturday evenings, and A Child's Garden of Verses was familiar to me whenever I was sick in bed.

Funeral Train is steeped in its time and place, and its finely delineated characters bring a town and a mystery to life. If you enjoy historical mysteries and have yet to read Laurie Loewenstein, you're missing out. Do something about it!… (altro)