The Hired Man

A family takes in a stranger who arouses suspicion in this tantalizing tale of Dust Bowl Colorado from Dallas (Tough Luck). The narrator, 15-year-old farmer’s daughter Martha Helen Kessler, describes the harrowing dust storms that have destroyed crops and left her community in ruins. When handsome young drifter Otis Hobbs comes to town, he saves a young local boy from a storm and wins the favor of Martha Helen’s mother. Her father offers him a place to stay and a job on the farm. Then Martha Helen’s best friend Frankie goes missing and is found dead by Otis, who had joined the search party. The townspeople’s idle speculation about Otis’s origins and motives leads to accusations of murder, which the Kesslers dispute. Dallas skillfully peppers her well-crafted plot with red herrings, keeping the reader guessing at the truth about Otis and making the final revelations even more explosive. Along the way, she offers a transportive depiction of the storms, when “the earth is on the move” with a “wall of dust,” the sky turns “purple-black,” and the air thrums with static electricity. Readers who enjoy historical stories with a dash of mystery will race through this. Agent: Danielle Egan-Miller, Browne & Miller. (Mar.)