Small Town, Big Trouble
Pay Dirt Road
by Samantha Jayne Allen.
New York: Minotaur Books, 2022.
315pp. $16.99 Paperback.
Reviewed by
Andrew Bourelle
In Pay Dirt Road, the debut mystery novel from Samantha Jayne Allen, protagonist Annie McIntyre has recently returned to her hometown of Garnett, Texas, after college and is working as a server at the local café while trying to figure out what to do with her life. One possibility that presents itself is to tag along with her grandfather, Leroy, and his partner, Mary-Pat, who own a private investigation firm. Leroy was once county sheriff and is a bit of a local celebrity, but now he’s mostly retired and too old to drive (which is probably good because he has a beer in his hand in just about every scene he’s in). Annie’s dad was briefly in law enforcement before he was injured on the job, which created a lasting tension between Annie’s father and grandfather. The last thing Annie’s parents want her to do is follow in the footsteps of grandpa, but Annie can’t help it. She’s drawn to her grandfather’s mythology and, more importantly, to the idea of doing what’s right and seeing justice served.
Annie gets a crash-course apprenticeship in private investigation when a friend of hers, Victoria, doesn’t show up to a shift at the café and subsequently disappears. When Victoria’s body is found, there are plenty of suspects. She had an ex whom she was still legally married to who might benefit by her death, and she owned a small patch of land that a big oil company wants to run a pipeline through. There’s also no shortage of smarmy young men who may have been interested in her. The book contains a large cast of characters, and my only real criticism is that many of them get quickly dumped onto readers. Within the first three chapters, readers are introduced to at least a dozen characters, some who become important, some who are hardly mentioned again. More characters are introduced as the story goes on, including many questionable young men (Cade, Justin, Wyatt, Troy, Randy, Steve, Brandon, Sonny) and nearly as many not-so-nice young women (Ashley, Macy, Sabrina, Kelsey, Layla, Megan) who seem more or less interchangeable at first. It can be hard, at least initially, to keep track and recognize who matters to the plot and who doesn’t. Chief among the important characters, however, are two of Annie’s ex-boyfriends, both who are interested in rekindling things with her, creating a love triangle intertwined with the mystery.
Pay Dirt Road is a slow burn. The mystery and thriller genres often bleed together, but I’d categorize this book as squarely in the mystery group. More specifically: an amateur sleuth mystery. The mystery elements are handled with dexterity—I wasn’t sure who the killer was until the reveal—and there is plenty of suspense. A quiet dread permeates the book. It’s clear that Annie is in over her head, and I found myself worried throughout that she is in danger. The conflicted emotions she feels as a young inexperienced investigator on a dangerous path feel legitimate. This isn’t an experienced hardboiled detective—this is a realistic young woman grappling with whether she has it in her to actually solve crimes. If I have a second criticism of the book, it’s that her primary strategy as an investigator seems to be going to bars or parties and casually questioning people, only to drink too much and find herself impaired, ineffective, and unsafe. There are only so many times, as a reader, that I wanted to see her keep making the same mistakes.
What I liked most about Pay Dirt Road was the portrait of the town and of the people. If you take away the mystery, this reads like a literary coming-of-age story. It’s a character study and a portrait of a place. The rural Texas landscape, with mesquite trees and pumpjacks, comes to life. The people do as well. Whether it’s the alcoholic grandfather or the hairdresser cousin or the former high school football star who now works for the oil company, the characters feel like real people living in small-town Texas. Allen paints a warts-and-all picture that doesn’t shy away from exposing problems in such a community, nor does it refrain from showing how much there is to love about rural Texas.
Pay Dirt Road was published in 2022 and deservedly won both the Tony Hillerman Prize and the Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in Crime Fiction. Allen has already continued the series with two more Annie McIntyre mysteries: Hard Rain and Next of Kin, and while I haven’t read the sequels yet, I’m interested in seeing where Allen takes Annie as she continues to navigate the world of private investigation and the gravel backroads of rural Texas.
Andrew Bourelle is the author of the novels 48 Hours to Kill and Heavy Metal as well as coauthor with James Patterson of Texas Ranger and Texas Outlaw. He is a professor of creative writing at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.