Reads while traveling

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, October 2019; written by Tammy Dinsmore

Traveling is the perfect time to get in some reading. All of that time spent in airports, on an airplane, on the ferry, on a train or in the car can provide a great opportunity to polish off some of those books that have been in your to-be-read pile. I took advantage of that kind of idle time in September to read some novels.

At the top of my list was “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” by Kim Michele Richardson. During the Depression, Cussy Mary Carter gets a much coveted job as a Pack Horse Librarian. As a part of Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration in the 1930s, the Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project provided books to folks in the mountains and hollers of Kentucky. Cussy’s father believes the job to be dangerous and that she shouldn’t be putting herself in that situation and keeps trying to marry her off. Cussy wants no part of that. Cussy’s family is different, and they believe they are the last of their kind, because the color of their skin is blue and they’ve never seen anyone else like themselves . Some folks along her route embrace her, while others will only accept the books she provides from a distance. Cussy encounters dangers and cultural biases at every turn but loves her job and her patrons anyway.

Next was a mystery. “Death of a Rainmaker” by Laurie Loewenstein is also set in the 1930s, but in the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma. People are desperate for rain and some of the town’s businessmen hire a “rainmaker”. The rainmaker makes a big show of it, but no rain comes, and after a huge dust storm blows through town, the rainmaker is found dead behind the local theater.

Sheriff Temple Jennings is fighting off an opponent in the upcoming election so the last thing he needs is a new case. At first he thinks the rainmaker was caught in the storm and suffocated, and that the case is a slam dunk, but after seeing evidence to the contrary he starts investigating. He has to find the killer before the election and before his opponent can get the upper hand. There are a number of suspects including a young man who is serving with the local Civilian Conservation Corps. Sheriff Jennings’ wife gets involved in the case and believes the boy to be innocent. The sheriff is also trying to train a new deputy, but the deputy’s connection to the Civilian Conservation Corps makes matters more difficult. This story is about keeping secrets in a small town, the hardships of a small farming community during one of the worst times in US history, and a murder mystery.

I was able to finish reading 2 other novels while I was traveling about, but these two were my favorites.