The Hired Man by Sandra Dallas

 

 

The Dust Bowl sweeps a handsome stranger into a small Colorado town to dangerous effect

1937. It’s been seven years since the dust storms started in Colorado. Folks can barely remember a time when the clouds were filled with rain instead of dirt, and when the fields were green instead of brown. High school student Martha Helen Kessler and her family are luckier than most; they still eke out a living from the land. Even so, evidence of the Dust Bowl’s grim impact on families, especially on the women who bear the brunt of their husbands’ frustration and their children’s hunger, is everywhere.

When Martha Helen’s compassionate mother insists they take in Otis Hobbs, a handsome drifter who saves a local boy from a vicious storm, she quickly discovers a darker side to their rural community. Suspicion, jealousy, and prejudice grip their neighbors – and emotions reach a frenzy after Martha Helen’s best friend, Frankie, disappears and is then found murdered. Ultimately, Martha Helen is forced to make sense of her conflicting feelings and loyalties in order to help find retribution and to reconcile the difference between the law and justice.

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About The Author

Dubbed "a quintessential American voice" by Jane Smiley, in Vogue Magazine, Sandra Dallas is a New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen adult novels, several children's novels, and numerous works of non-fiction about Western subjects. Her adult novels, which include Prayers for Sale, Tallgrass, and The Persian Pickle Club, all share themes of loyalty, friendship, and human dignity and have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and have been optioned for films. Her work has won or been nominated for numerous awards and prizes and in 2021, she was inducted into the Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame. A former bureau chief for BusinessWeek magazine, Sandra lives in Denver and Georgetown, Colorado with her husband and with her two grown daughters nearby.

 

My Review

Another great read from Sandra Dallas, she doesn't disappoint.
This story takes place during the Dust Bowl in 1937, a time during the depression, where everything is filled with dirt! Sweep it out of the house and its right back again.
People in this Colorado town are leery of drifters, and there are a lot coming through. A missing child, and a drifter, he finds the child, and yet the locals want him gone!
The Kessler family hire this drifter, well, Mrs Kessler does, but the family goes along with it. He seems to be a jack of all trades, and works for his meals.
Then there is a murder of Martha Helen's best friend, and the hired man is a suspect, he's the vagrant.
I loved this family, through all they are there for one another, but the Kessler family, have some deep held secrets, and they do come to light, but you'll wait awhile.
This did become a page turner, and yes, there are big surprises. Now I can't wait for the next book!
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher St. Martin's Press, and was not required to give a positive review.