Death of a Rainmaker: A Dust Bowl Mystery by Laurie Loewenstein

Being Sheriff in a small town is usually pretty tame.  He's running for re-election and has someone running against him.  He's concerned but he's not as politically motivated as his opponent.  Then a big dust storm comes through and turns everything black and full of dirt.  It's even worse when the theater manager finds a dead body out his back door.  Initial thought was that the dust storm killed him, but no.  Someone whacked him in the head...

Akashic Books sent me an ARC of this book to read for review (thank you).   It has been published and you can grab a copy now.

Since the coroner identifies the weapon as a shovel the CCC workers use, the Sheriff takes a hard look at them.  When a witness tells him one of them got in a fight with the dead man earlier in the day, he asks more questions and then arrests him.  His wife doesn't agree.  She'd met the young man earlier and he wasn't like that.  Her husband knows she associates him with their young son that died and he tells her he has to go by the evidence.  So she starts looking for evidence that will prove he didn't do it.

She finds more suspects, finds a battered wife and attempts to help her and talks to the CCC worker and tells him her progress.  In the meantime, the Sheriff finds more voters are going to vote for his opponent...

This story visits the plains where the wind blows mercilessly and gives old and young dust pneumonia that most don't survive.  It's not an easy life here and finding a murderer isn't easy either.

The historical content is good and the story kept my attention all the way through.  I enjoyed this read.  If you like historical mysteries, this will be a good one for you.