cover image The Dandelion Murders

The Dandelion Murders

Rebecca Rothenberg. Mysterious Press, $18.95 (293pp) ISBN 978-0-89296-561-8

The romance that blossomed between plant pathologist Claire Sharples and botanist Sam Cooper in The Bulrush Murders begins to wilt, scattering its dreary debris throughout Rothenberg's second novel. Claire, hassled by the visit of Sam's preteen sons, escapes to the agricultural field station where she and Sam work, where she discovers an even better distraction: a dead journalist in an irrigation canal. It's the third corpse, following the bodies of two field laborers, found in a San Joachin Valley canal in three weeks. Claire's curiosity is fueled by a sense of responsibility to the journalist; when relations with Sam further deteriorate, she moves from his house to the run-down motel the writer shared with the families of field workers. While tracking the journalist's story, Claire learns how death lurks in fields dedicated to life and growth. Although some of the botanical detail slows the pace like tangled undergrowth and Sam has all the appeal of crabgrass, Claire struggles quite convincingly with her own personal development while solving the mystery behind the deaths. (Sept.)