The Tumbleweed Murders: A Claire Sharples Botanical Mystery [Paperback]

Rebecca Rothenberg (Author), Taffy Cannon (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2001

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Plant pathologist Claire Sharples unearths a skeleton by a river in California's Central Valley, and becomes embroiled in a mystery that began 50 years ago. Series heroine Claire becomes acquainted with the high-stakes cotton and oil industries as she investigates the skeleton's story in The Tumbleweed Murders: A Claire Sharples Botanical Mystery by Rebecca Rothenberg (The Bulrush Murders), completed by Taffy Cannon (Guns and Roses) after Rothenberg's death.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Rebecca Rothenberg was the author of the award-nominated Claire Sharples Botanical Mysteries. After her death in 1998, her friend and colleague, Taffy Cannon (author of Guns and Roses and the Nan Robinson mystery series) completed this manuscript.

Product Details

• Paperback: 237 pages
• Publisher: Perseverance Press; First edition. edition (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188028443X
• ISBN-13: 978-1880284438
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #105,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A song ends, but the melody lingers on, August 3, 2002

By 

Pat Browning "Author of ABSINTHEOF MALICE" (Yukon, OK USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Tumbleweed Murders: A Claire Sharples Botanical Mystery (Paperback)

THE TUMBLEWEED MURDERS is set in the ugliest part of the San Joaquin Valley, and one of the best characters talks like Granny in "The Beverly Hillbillies," but I kept going back to it anyway. Something about it just wouldn't let go. Maybe it's the music.

"And every night down in Aromas/ Sitting on the porch and talking low,/ Trying to get the Bakersfield station/ on the radio."

Lyrics by the late Rebecca Rothenberg are words on paper, but the melody is easy to imagine if you like California country music. Rothenberg's protagonist, Claire Sharples, is a transplanted Easterner who feels the pull of that music.

Rothenberg writes: "Claire, who had learned this stuff entirely against her will, said, 'I thought it was a Merle Haggard song.' A Merle Haggard song that had once stopped her dead in her tracks in Harvard Square and then sent her back across a continent. To stay." In this fourth and final series entry, Claire settles into a love/hate relationship with the Valley.

Claire is a plant pathologist working in the field for the University of California. On her way to a peach orchard where the fruit is afflicted with brown rot, she meets Jewell, a reclusive, long-retired country singer once known as The Cherokee Rose. The chance meeting with Jewell is followed by discovery of a skull near the peach orchard.

Claire already has a full plate. She's getting over a failed love affair. Her mother has died. Her stuffy brother is coming to visit. Her romance with the married Ramon is heating up. But the skull, a faded photograph, and the fate of a country singer reel her in.

Curiosity leads Claire into a labyrinth of lies and corruption, as an old murder brought to light leads to new murders. She narrowly escapes drowning, and almost meets her Waterloo at the hands of a runty tycoon named Tidwell, who disposes of enemies by tossing them into a hay baler.

Taffy Cannon completed this novel after Rothenberg's death, and the result is smooth as silk. I hate to see Claire Sharples go. She was good company. Still, as one of Rothenberg's own songs says:

"Now my life has led me on/ And left so many roads behind,/ But I can still recall them all/ So clearly in my mind."

The only thing missing here was a CD to go with the book. Love those songs!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Seamless work by two wonderful authors, September 20, 2001

By 

Lauri A. Hart "Lauri Hart" (Menlo Park, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Tumbleweed Murders: A Claire Sharples Botanical Mystery (Paperback)

I haven't read any of either of these authors works before and was a bit worried about reading a book finished by another author. This work, however, is seamless. I couldn't tell you where the plotting and characterization or even the writing styles are knit together.

Set in the Central Valley of California, a botanist for the county meets a retired country singer and stumbles across the shallow grave of a long dead body. This book mixes music (the Bakersfield sound), botany, and a strong sense of place to come up with a fascinating murder mystery.

If you're a fan of Rebecca Rothenberg's I can' imagine you'll be disappointed...and if you haven't read her books before, you'll be compelled to go dig them up.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite A Pair, December 17, 2001

By 

Edna H (Irvine, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tumbleweed Murders: A Claire Sharples Botanical Mystery (Paperback)

I was quite impressed with this new mystery that Taffy Cannon completed for the late Rebecca Rothenberg. I enjoyed the mystery, and Cannon has modified her usual writing style to blend hers perfectly with Rothenberg's. Tumbleweed Murders is a terrific book for a number of reason. It is a solid job all around.