Dust Bowl Mystery Reading Order
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Death of a Rainmaker | 2018 | Buy |
| Funeral Train | 2022 | Buy |
Standalone Novels
| Title | Published | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Unmentionables | 2013 | Buy |
Laurie Loewenstein writes fiction rooted in the American Dust Bowl, a period she brings to life with careful research and a genuine feel for the hardships of 1930s rural Oklahoma. Her debut novel, Unmentionables (2013), is a standalone work of historical fiction. She then turned to the Dust Bowl Mystery series, beginning with Death of a Rainmaker (2018), which introduces a small-town sheriff investigating a murder while dust storms and economic despair press in from all sides. Funeral Train (2022) continues in the same world, with another crime unfolding against the backdrop of a community struggling to survive.
What sets Laurie Loewenstein apart is her commitment to a specific time and place that most fiction overlooks. The Dust Bowl is not a common setting for mysteries, and Loewenstein uses it to create stories where the environment itself is almost an antagonist. Her characters are ordinary people contending with extraordinary circumstances, and the crimes they encounter feel organic to the desperation of the era rather than imposed from the outside.