Last year, about this time, authors and reviewers started releasing their Top Ten lists. The one I was most interested in was the Top Ten Mysteries. After reading five or six different lists, I realized I had not read a single one of the books. That bothered me to the point that I was determined to see what a listed book was like. Hard Row by Margaret Maron made several lists. 
I finished this story last night and have now found a new author to read. Yeah! And she has several other books. Yeah!
In terms of story craft, I will have to read the book over as expected. However, on the first read, one chapter stuck out because it was so unlike all the others previous to it. There was a point of having it in the book and craft-wise, I was suspicious of what that was.
The story follows two main characters who are married to each other, one is a Judge and the other is a Sheriff’s Deputy. Both are from rural, farming North Carolina so farm life and the rural south are very much a part of the story. The story is very heavy-handed with farm, crop, and rural life. Some readers might say that is characterization, and I would agree. For some readers, it would go too far and detract from the story. There is a line there. Since I’m interested in the characterization, I was more than willing to see where it went.
The chapter I wondered about is a family scene where the many generations of the Judge’s family decide what to plant for the next season. There are many people in the chapter and the level of detail in the conversation is intense. I was most interested in how the chapter drove the story which was a murder mystery. The characters discuss gross profits, pesticides, labor and equipment requirements among other things. Not once is the murder mentioned. I’m sure if I went back into the chapter and read it, at least one tertiary detail would be there for the over-all mystery.
The point of the chapter is educational to the reader. The level of detail is important to understand the motive behind the murder. As a writer, the question is always, “Is there a better way to present this?”
My main concern is that it is dumped into a single chapter that sticks out. It probably wouldn’t be so obvious to the average reader just going along for the ride. It was skillfully done, in dialogue, with context. I’m wondering what are some other ways to do this? Info dump to the reader without losing the reader?