Samantha Jayne Allen’s mystery debut, Pay Dirt Road, was the winner of the 2019 Hillerman Prize. To me, that indicates a quality mystery set in the Southwest that captures the local atmosphere of the setting, just as Tony Hillerman’s books did. In this case, it’s set in Garnett, Texas, a town struggling with job loss, drought, and the recession. But, it does have Artemis, a company drilling for oil and gas, buying up land rights, and bringing roughnecks to town, men with money to spend. Then, there’s the unusual voice of the narrator, twenty-two-year-old Annie McIntyre.
Annie’s a college graduate, but she returned home because her family and friends, her history, are in Garnett. She’s lost, with no purpose in life. She’s working as a waitress at the cafe in town, and she parties with her cousin, Nikki, at night. The two of them are at a bonfire party at the Schneiders’, where half the young people in town, and some of the roughnecks, all seem to be gathered. Annie only has one drink so she can try to keep Nikki from starting a fight. But, she recognizes Victoria, another waitress from the cafe, a work friend who is wasted.
When Victoria is found strangled on Annie’s grandfather’s land adjoining the Schneiders’ , Annie recognizes, too, that she could be the dead woman. She’s just as lost as Victoria seemed, just as likely to be wasted. And, she has some history of that before she left for college. Now, because she sees some of herself in Victoria, and the police seem to have arrested the wrong man, Annie turns to her grandfather, Leroy.
Leroy was once sheriff, but he shares a trait with his granddaughter; he drinks too much. Now, he owns a private investigation firm with Mary-Pat Zimmerman. Annie admits if she and her grandfather hadn’t gone to the crime scene where the body was found on Leroy’s property, she might have found a different purpose. But, now, she’s determined to find out who killed Victoria.
Pay Dirt Road is a sad novel filled with too many people stranded in a small Texas town with nowhere to go. They party too much, drink too much, and live what Thoreau called “lives of quiet desperation”. Annie McIntyre sees that in herself, and tries to find a purpose by finding the killer of a woman much like herself. You’ll remember Annie McIntyre’s voice long after finishing Allen’s strong debut novel.
Samantha Jayne Allen’s website is https://www.samallenwrites.com/
Pay Dirt Road by Samantha Jayne Allen. Minotaur Books, 2022. ISBN 9781250804273 (hardcover), 305p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley to review for a journal.
