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.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
April 19, 2022 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781705050057
- File size: 252793 KB
- Duration: 08:46:39
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Publisher's Weekly
January 3, 2022
Recent college graduate Annie McIntyre, the narrator of Tony Hillerman Prize winner Allen’s solid debut, has felt rudderless since moving home to Garnett, Tex., and taking a job at the local café, so she’s thrilled when her grandfather, Leroy McIntyre, and his business partner, Mary-Pat Zimmerman, offer her part-time work at their PI firm. Annie starts out doing the detectives’ filing, but then fellow waitress Victoria Merritt turns up dead after attending the same drunken bonfire as Annie. Police make an arrest, but Annie has her doubts, and when the detainee’s grandmother hires Leroy and Mary-Pat to clear his name, Annie insists on joining their investigation. Viable suspects abound, from Victoria’s estranged husband to an oil exec intent on running a pipeline through Victoria’s backyard, and Annie is determined to catch the real culprit, even if doing so means imperiling herself. The story is slow to start and much of the interpersonal conflict feels manufactured, but evocative prose and a powerful sense of place lift an otherwise run-of-the-mill mystery. Allen is a writer with promise. Agent: Sharon Pelletier, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. -
AudioFile Magazine
Narrator Sandy Rustin's youthful tone and energetic delivery guide listeners down PAY DIRT ROAD with youthful energy and palpable anxiety. Allen's mystery features a small-town murder investigated by an unlikely private eye. Rustin empathizes with recent college graduate and former waitress Annie McIntyre, who is seeking her purpose in life. She attends a party with former friends and co-workers at which someone murders a waitress. Annie knows the man arrested is innocent, so she stumbles into her family's private investigations business with her grandfather, a former sheriff. Rustin picks up the pace as Annie works to uncover the truth and confront some of her own unresolved issues. Rustin performs Allen's debut with passion and aplomb. R.O. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
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