Genre: Mystery Suspense
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Release Date: April 19, 2022
Order Link: Amazon
3 Small Town Hearts
Special thanks to Minotaur Books for an arc of this book.
Friday Night Lights meets Mare of Easttown in this small-town mystery about an unlikely private investigator searching for a missing waitress. Pay Dirt Road is the mesmerizing debut from the 2019 Tony Hillerman Prize recipient Samantha Jayne Allen...
Review:
Annie McIntyre is a college graduate who reluctantly returns to her hometown of Garnett, Texas to work as a waitress. A recession is making it hard to find meaningful work leaving Annie pretty much adrift in a sea of college debt and wasted dreams. However, things quickly change when her new friend and fellow waitress Victoria disappears in thin air. In an effort to discover what happened to her, Annie teams up with her grandfather, the former sheriff and now private investigator, to search for her friend.
Pay Dirt Road is rich in small town atmosphere and characters. The simple plot line is well written with characters that feel authentic. While the pace is a bit slow, there are enough red herrings to keep readers guessing most of the way through. While Brooke tends to blunder her way into trouble without a clue what's she's doing, I like the character growth shown by the end. This story could take place in any dead, small town American town where the biggest thing happening is teenagers cutting donuts in the local Walmart's parking lot on Saturday night. I think Allen has laid the groundwork for a nice, light murder mystery series if she should so choose to do so. As a standalone, Pay Dirt Road would benefit from a bit more depth in my opinion. However, fans of lighter mysteries will enjoy this one.
Synopsis:
Annie McIntyre has a love/hate relationship with Garnett, Texas. Recently graduated from college and home waitressing, lacking not in ambition but certainly in direction, Annie is lured into the family business - a private investigation firm - by her supposed-to-be-retired grandfather, Leroy, despite the rest of the clan's misgivings. When a waitress at the café goes missing, Annie and Leroy begin an investigation that leads them down rural routes and haunted byways, to noxious-smelling oil fields and to the glowing neon of local honky-tonks.
As Annie works to uncover the truth she finds herself identifying with the victim in increasing, unsettling ways, and realizes she must confront her own past - failed romances, a disturbing experience she'd rather forget, and the trick mirror of nostalgia itself - if she wants to survive this homecoming.
As Annie works to uncover the truth she finds herself identifying with the victim in increasing, unsettling ways, and realizes she must confront her own past - failed romances, a disturbing experience she'd rather forget, and the trick mirror of nostalgia itself - if she wants to survive this homecoming.
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