Killer Weed

June 17, 2013
The San Francisco marijuana scene, from the glory days of Haight-Ashbury to the latest fight for legalization, forms the backdrop of Castleman’s entertaining fourth Ed Rosenberg mystery (after 2010’s A Killing in Real Estate). The present-day action starts off with a bang with the assassination of ex-hippie dope dealer and popular mayoral candidate Dave Kirsch. Ed’s wife, Julie, served on Kirsch’s campaign, and that draws the investigative reporter in—plus a dot-com tycoon wants him to find out his given name, lost in a cloud of reefer memory. As the search goes on, Ed worries that Julie might be hitting the vino a little too often, but then he’s not willing to give up his daily tokes. This is a fun and even educational romp, complete with blurbs from Grace Slick and Woodstock icon Wavy Gravy. It’s not as good as Floyd Salas’s classic What Now My Love, but what marijuana-deal-gone-bad novel is?