Pay Dirt Road by Samantha Jayne Allen

I had heard about this book on Book Riot where they described it as an origin story for a detective. They are very careful in outlining the plot of the book and that somehow made me miss exactly how dark this book really was going to be. This is also sort of a homecoming book as well as a self-realization book. 

Told from the first-person view of recent college graduate Annie McIntyre, we see brief glimpses of her life as she prepares to go out for the evening with her cousin. They get dressed, drive around for awhile visiting the diner where Annie works, and then head out to the land of what appears to be one of the local wealthy families. They have two sons, one of who has a past with Annie. 

While there, Annie sees a server from the diner, Victoria, and she is wildly drunk. Annie tries to help her but gets distracted trying to stop her cousin from getting into a fight. Victoria's body is discovered the next day.

This whole book dives into the love Annie has for her town, Garnett, but also the problems inherent with staying there. Annie decides to work with her grandfather, Leroy, to become a private investigator. She wants to know what happened to Victoria. But working on this investigation exposes more than just the murderer, it also forces Annie to face that her quaint little town might not be so perfect after all.

Three stars

This book came out April 19, 2022

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own