Review: The Sower

Rob Jung, The Sower (Hawk Hill Literary 2021)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57635713-the-sower-book-two-of-the-chimera-chronicles?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=7cmOzROmcO&rank=1

This book is the second in a series, and I haven’t read the first one, but it works as a standalone. It continues the story of The Reaper, a still-lost painting by Spanish artist Joan Miro, which disappeared from the 1937 Paris Exposition.
Trans P.I. Ronni’s detective agency is investigating the cold case murder of Lorraine Blethen, hired by the woman’s grandson, Hamilton. But someone is trying to stop her, slashing her tire, burgling her house—transphobes? or someone trying to thwart her investigation?
Hamilton’s only clue regarding the existence of his mother, who left him when he was 4, was an enigmatic graduation card signed ‘Magnolia’. Could Massachusetts senatorial candidate Magnolia Kanaranzi, with her connections to media mogul Arthur Kincaid, have had a secret love child? No one seems to have any information on Magnolia’s childhood. Now, the museum has received a tip-off that The Reaper, sold to them by Hamilton, is a forgery.
Ronni tries multiple lines of inquiry, and multiple suspects pop up. There’s a spate of trans murders in Dallas. Meanwhile, shenanigans are kicking off in Magnolia’s senatorial campaign, and disgruntled staff from her election campaign enter the picture.
It’s very carefully edited. The characters are interesting, the dialogue lifelike, and the writing style fluent and witty. I feel compelled to mention the cleverest description I’ve ever come across of someone who has undergone a sex change—’a “T” in that familiar string of letters (LGBTQ), and a relative newcomer to the status of “W”’.
As someone who has not read the first book in the series, I would have appreciated a brief rehash of what happened in Book 1. The detective investigation is interesting and believable, and the multiple story lines make the plot quite complex, and it even has a love story. The Lorraine Blethen plotline and the Magnolia Kanaranzi plotline come together at the end in a thoroughly satisfying way. This novel has all the elements of a great crime thriller.