THE HOP RANCH MYSTERY

Much more hop ranch than mystery, this tells of Joan Frazier's months working along side of attractive Jim Harlan on his family's land, near Yakima, Washington where the hands include a good many Indians and some newer Mexican workers. When Joan arrives there, she is privy to some threatening letters that the Harlans have received followed by some tampering with the tractor and irrigation controls and an attempt to ruin the crop. Even though she doesn't learn the identity of the offender until the close, she does pick up a good deal of incidental agricultural intelligence about the vine from pole to kiln along with a little Indian lore and some of their survival practices such as bone gambling. The story itself is flaccid; the dialogue commonplace; and reader interest must be harder to cultivate.