I liked this mystery! The authors writing style is very good making it an easy read. The characters and story line were both engaging and kept me interested. A good start to I hope a new series, highly recommend!!

Good read. Interesting private detective origin story. College graduate Annie returns to her rural hometown in Texas and finds herself in a waitress job. When one of her work friends in murdered, Annie finds herself drawn into the mystery with her PI grandfather and his partner.

Things I liked:
1) sense of place. I felt like I had actually been to Garnett TX.
2) the dynamic between Annie and her grandfather. Clearly there is a lot of family history that was not revealed in this book (author holding it for the sequel?)
3) the imperfect characters. All the characters have a past and most are not all good or all bad. I felt like they were more real than in many books.
4) the story.

Things I didn’t love:
1) the author’s writing style. I couldn’t figure out if the book needed a good editing (I did read the I corrected pre-published edition) or she was trying to evoke rural Texas threw her awkward phraseology. I found myself distracted, having to reread the same sentence or paragraph several times to get it or giving up and putting the book down.
2) jumping place/time mid-paragraph. There were a few times when the characters were at a party at the start of a paragraph but some place totally different at the end of the paragraph. I couldn’t figure out if this was intentional (in which case, yuck) or a lack of editing.

I’ll give the author the benefit of the doubt and say, when The next book in what is likely to be a series comes out, I will read it.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read a early copy of this book.

Small Town Texas. A young woman trying to find herself, wading through her past, the people, place and things that make up who she is becoming. She's done with school and waitressing.
An oil company is moving in, buying up or taking land from the people around the town. With the oil company comes harder men, pollution and the politics of a big company.
Part of Annie's family has been in law enforcement and the P.I. business forever. Her grandfather and his business partner have asked her to apprentice with them. Vividly aware of the danger and her immediate family's disapproval she accepts.
When one of her co workers is murdered after a wild party Annie's determined to find the killer.
This is a good mystery. Annie makes some really dangerous moves when she drinks to much, which she does often. It's a very reflective story of a young woman's life in small Town Texas. Definitely a nail biter. If this was a movie I would have been sitting on the edge of my seat cussing at the screen!!!
Actually this book would make a great movie.
I'd like to thank St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the review copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #paydirtroad #stmartinspress #Minotaur_Books

So happy to discover a new author with Texas roots! As I've said before, I'm unabashedly partial to writers with personal knowledge of my home state. This debut did not disappoint.
My favorite quote from this story sums it all up:
"You can do everything wrong or everything right and somehow it doesn’t matter. The realization is both stunning in its freedom and stifling in its unfairness."
Annie McIntyre, just out of college, is at loose ends and back home in Garnett, rooming with cousin and best friend, Nikki. While trying to figure out life after college, she's waitressing at the small town's cafe, gossip hub central. Her new work friend, Victoria, is also new at the cafe where Fernando  is the cook.
Annie's "retired" granddad, Leroy, former county sheriff, is now doing private investigation services with Mary-Pat Zimmerman. There are  hard feelings between Annie's father and granddad going back years. Granddad is hinting that Annie could help out at the P. I. agency. This does not sit well with her dad.
Nikki pursuades Annie to go to a bonfire where many of their highschool friends will be. Wealthy rancher's son and former frat boy, Wyatt Reed, is there. He was Annie's first high school love. Justin from the neighboring Schneider ranch is also there. There are kegs and fights, maybe more than the bonfire flaming.
A mans hit and run death rattles everyone in the quiet town where nothing much ever happens. Meanwhile, Victoria misses another shift at the cafe. Her dead body is later discovered on Leroy's property.
Annie gets embroiled investigating what happened to Victoria. Are the two deaths related? Does she really know her family and the truth behind her father's and Grandad's hard feelings? Are her own buried memories of her past and hometown friends a lie? Is the powerful Artemis oil and gas company, where Wyatt works, involved? There's a town full of suspects, the list keeps growing, the twists come hard and fast, and kept me guessing till the end.
A true Texas size murder mystery with gritty  characters and small town flavor. More please! Would be a wonderful start to a new series (hint). There is suspense, misdirection, secrets, drama, murder, romance and a fresh plot. I look forward to more by this author.
Many thanks to Netgalley, Samantha Jayne Allen, and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for the digital advance reader copy of "Pay Dirt Road". These are my personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily.

As a fellow Texan, I was naturally drawn to Pay Dirt Road, a mystery set in a fictional, sleepy West Texas town. Very authentic, very realistic this atmospheric narrative focuses on Annie McIntyre who has returned to her hometown and is waitressing at the local diner. When her coworker disappears a bonfire party, she Annie teams up with her grandfather, a private investigator, to find what happened. I recommend this slow burn debut from Samantha Jayne Allen.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Pay Dirt Road in exchange for an honest review. Expected publication date is April 2022.

This debut mystery nails the setting and characters in small town Texas. Allen's vivid depictions of the dirt roads, bonfire parties, classic diner, and grandparents' homes transport the reader to Garnett, Texas in a very real way. Every stereotypical character from a small town makes an appearance in the book, creating the entirely realistic scene that Annie returns home to after college. Annie takes a job waitressing while plotting her next move in life, but struggles with a lack of direction or ambition for any certain career.

Until her co-worker - friend would be too generous a description, as we learn - goes missing after a bonfire party. Another man is killed in a hit-and-run the same night, which causes lots of drama and rumors in a small town unaccustomed to major crimes. Annie teams up with her grandfather, a private investigator with a problematic reputation, to find the truth behind her co-worker's disappearance. Family drama, long-held secrets, and threats from a big corporation all spur the story along. While I wasn't able to confidently predict whodunnit, I did enjoy the way Annie grew into herself through her investigation. As a total amateur, Annie doesn't have the best investigation skills, which makes the story all the more believable.

The ending left me wanting more - not necessarily from this book, but perhaps hope that this becomes a series. Pay Dirt Road is a great origin story that could serve a springboard to a series following Annie as she solves other crimes and continues to grow into her potential.

Annie McIntyre has recently returned home after graduating college with zero idea of what she wants to do. She settles into an easy, if not particularly satisfying, existence in her hometown in rural Texas. The kind of place where everybody knows everybody and people grow up to do what their families have done for generations.

The murder of an acquaintance from work has Annie teaming up with her semi-retired grandfather, a somewhat notorious local character who runs a private detective agency. A bit too curious (and reckless) for her own good, Annie finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into a case that might kill them both.

This one is a bit outside of my normal comfort zone, I prefer a hard-boiled, loner, barely-scraping-by kind of P.I. The book's main character, Annie, comes across more like an angst ridden young woman trying to figure out her place in the world and overcome a dark secret from her past.

Except for some adult language and suggestive sexual content this one could easily fall into the young adult category. The mystery is just okay, standard stuff with the normal stereotypes, the bigger story is about the young woman coming to terms with past traumas of her own and finding her way in life.

It has more of a reality TV, melodrama flavor than I like but I can see where it would appeal to readers who enjoy that style. Not bad just not for me.

A story of a reluctant private investigator — Annie is back home in small town Texas after college graduation without many life plans. When a fellow waitress goes missing, instead of considering law school, Annie gets drawn into her grandfather’s “family business” of private investigation. The plot is classic “ordinary person gets entangles in a murder mystery” story, but it’s told with such atmospheric detail that you truly feel the dust swirling around you and see the endless roads to nowhere. Annie grows as a character and it’s hard to not root for her success. The plot is well structured and realistic and Ms. Jayne has a future as a storyteller. 4 solid stars. Thanks to Net Galley and Minotaur for the advance copy. Watch for its publication in April 2022.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO human beings. There is a coyote, but….in real life coyotes have golden brown eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO.it’s September, the time when trumpet vines would be blooming

Pay Dirt Road by Samantha Jayne Allen is an enthralling and engrossing read with a great plot and characters! Well worth the read

Annie is home from college and not sure what to do with her life or how to pay off her student loans. She's biding her time waitressing, going out with her cousin and spending time with her grandpa. Small town options and activities aside, Annie has a need to make a difference.

The murder of a coworker leads Annie to more questions than answers as she navigates an amateur investigation.

I'm hoping this book is the start of a series- Annie is a likable character with room to develop. The author's style of writing is subtle - you can feel the Texas heat, hear the snap of a can of beer being opened and see the side-eye Annie flashes her cousin, Nikki.

Totally evocative debut mystery -- its sense of place so revved up the dusty wind burns your eyes. After finishing college, Annie McIntyre returns to her small Texas town to regroup before deciding whether to go to law school and incur more student loan debt. Jobs don't come easy there, even with a degree and she ends up waitressing. When her co-worker ends up dead after a big bonfire party, Annie is compelled to search for the killer. Fueled by guilt of not giving her a ride home, the search forces Annie to face some past incidents she had tried to suppress. An original take on an origin story of a private investigator. Highly recommended!

There's something about mysteries set in small towns (Texas!) where the author is able to make the reader feel that they are present and hanging out at the cafe with all of the characters. Allen did a great job with this and with character development. It's a mystery that keeps the reader guessing and has a very satisfying end. I'd like to know more about Annie's adventures and I hope a follow-up book is in the works!

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

I truly enjoyed many parts of this novel. The storyline is interesting, it’s a murder mystery/thriller that had several different reasons for why our main character involved herself in trying to solve the death of someone she knew. It had a nice amount of character building with everyone (mostly the main characters). The topics of loss, forgiveness, happiness, doubt and determination was bittersweet. I did get confused a few times when the storyline went from present to past. This was a good read.

One of the best mysteries I've read in a long, long time. The interesting and complex back story reminds me of reading Jane Harper's "The Dry," which is one of my favorite mysteries. Great characters and setting, rich with detail. I'm hoping that this is the first of a series, because I want to a lot more reading hours with Annie and family in rural Texas.

I was born and raised in small-town Nebraska. This is what drew me to pick up Samantha Jayne Allen's debut, Pay Dirt Road, a mystery about a a young woman looking for answers about the disappearance of her coworker and friend. Minotaur Books and Net Galley were kind enough to share a copy with me to read and review.

Annie is back home after college, having piled up student debt, with no great job openings on her horizons. When her coworker and young, single mother, Victoria, disappears soon after she last saw her, Annie finds herself drawn into investigating where she's disappeared to and what happened.

The entire tone of this mystery rings with authenticity. This mystery blows like a lazy tumbleweed down a Texan highway on a breezy day during the dog days of summer, until the ever fickle Texas wind picks it up and hurtles it towards where it will finally rest. Set in a small town with an oil company set up to become dominant, there are numerous motivations and candidates for a suspect. Some readers will recognize the guilty party nearly immediately, like I did. Yet my conviction wavered as I came across other candidates and potential motives, with a couple seeming entirely plausible.

Annie's investigation skills don't especially help matters. She went off to college not sure she'd want to return home, so now that she's back, her confidence seems shaken, and with her richly interwoven personal and family history, even more reason for this to be. Mistakes common enough to young people of her age are made, giving things a realistic slant. Some common, overused mystery tropes are brought into play, not entirely helping or harming the story. The primary one being alcoholism, although in this instance it's her grandfather's and not her own. Also, she indubitably manages to stir up the hornets' nest, only to be threatened and more. However, the author included issues in the threat that young women often face in our present day and age, and I respected this divergence from the run-of-the-mill threats often made in mysteries.

The book ends with Annie having learned some things the hard way and better respecting the unpredictability and bittersweet nature of life. She has definitely shown some growth. This could make a fantastic little mystery series, if the the author chooses to go that way. I would enjoy seeing where life takes this new private investigator and her family and friends. It's definitely worth purchasing a copy if you enjoy the genre..

Pay Dirt Road starts out slowly but begins to build in suspense as Annie McIntyre stops self-doubting her future and begins to follow her talent as a private investigator. The death of a co-worker causes Annie to “start acting like an adult” and take responsibility for her future and her relationships with family members. Annie is a character I could read more about. Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this advance copy. #NetGalley

This book was definitely worth reading but just ok for me, it had suspense, intrigue, action and a decent storyline! But it just wasn't one of my top favorites?! Idk it was good but just ok for me! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!