The Tumbleweed Murders — Rebecca Rothenberg

Passion, greed, deceit, and murder surface when plant pathologist Claire Sharples discovers a skeleton buried beside the Kern River and finds herself drawn into events of a half-century earlier. Set in California's Central Valley, this evocative mystery moves between past and present, exploring the worlds of oil, cotton, and country music. With the help of enigmatic Ramon Covarrubias and his eccentric journalist cousin Yolanda, Claire follows the mystery: Who was singer Cherokee Rose's lost love? Why is it a secret someone will kill to keep? This is a story dictated as much by the nature of the land as by the character of its inhabitants.