The Bulrush Murders — Rebecca Rothenberg

At the Cutting Edge

Agua Dulce -- sweet water.... Only a few months ago the words would have meant little to Claire Sharples, shut away in the ivory tower of her microbiology lab at M.I.T. Now, transplanted in California's San Joaquin Valley, uprooted and culturally disoriented, Claire knows they denote both the valley's life-giving underground reservoir ... and the small, threatened Rodriguez ranch, whose survival suddenly means so much to her. Monolinea -- brown rot -- is destroying their peach crop. Is the fungus really resistant to treatment? Or is it sabotage? A blaze of arson and death soon send Claire and Sam Cooper -- taciturn, nonintellectual, and the all-time unlikeliest of lovers -- into the eerie heart of the valley. Here, on the bleak alkali flats, only a scientist's insights can sleuth out bitter secrets ... and stop a bloody harvest of greed, revenge, and murder.