I have lukewarm feelings about this book. It's interesting to a point, but it's really annoying to another point. Annie is a cool character, but man, there is so much talk about weddings and family and yadda yadda yadda I had a hard time paying attention. Even the payoff wasn't that big of a deal. Oh well. It was okay.

With each new book in the series, I become more and more hooked. Annie is back, taking on a case to help an acquaintance find his birth family. That opens Pandora’s box with a nemesis from a previous mystery on the fringes. Old crimes, forbidden relationships, and hidden agendas propel Annie to pursue the truth with her grandpa Leroy by her side. The ending had nice twists that were just out of my own reach when I was trying to guess the truth so I quite enjoyed how it all came together. I can’t wait to see what happens next to Annie.

Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for the arc.

Maybe it’s better not to know your next of kin… Small town atmosphere, oppressive and intrusive, discovery of hidden connections, and a death make for a compelling story. I will definitely read the two previous books in the series.

Annie McIntyre returns for another investigation in Next of Kin. Annie is now a licensed PI working alongside her grandfather and his partner in their firm. When Clint Marshall asks her to help him find his biological parents she accepts, thinking it will be a straightforward case. However, once she digs into Clint's family tree she finds out his biological father is man in prison for a bank robbery that happened decades ago. The money from the heist was never recovered and soon Annie realizes someone is looking for it, willing to do whatever it takes to find it. Complicating things even more is that Annie is also being targeted by a local drug dealer she told the police about in relation to a different case. What I love about this series is how Samantha Jayne Allen keeps up the tension of the story without sacrificing character development. The reader can understand Annie's struggle of staying loyal to her grandfather while also looking to someday leave her small town. I hope this series continues for more books! Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Newly minted Texas PI Annie McIntyre is asked to find the birth parents of a local adopted man and stirs up past town problems including a bank robbery with unrecovered loot.

Third in a series and might have been better if I had read the first two. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars!

Wow, what a great story! I loved the writing style, it was really well written overall. Samantha gave a lot of depth to the characters and to the story itself. The main character, Annie, is very likeable!

I did not realize this was part of a series, but I enjoyed and followed along just fine without having read the other books!

Thank. you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

The author has really hit her stride in this small town Texas series, it’s by far her best yet. The depth of the plot and characters just keeps getting better. Annie is the next generation coming into her own at McIntyre Investigations. She’s still learning to trust her instincts and continues to seek counsel from her grandfather, Leroy and senior partner, Mary-Pat. Mary-Pat isn’t the warm and fuzzy type but, she can occasionally impart wisdom. Annie has a new client involving an adoption case to find a young man’s birth parents. Adoptive parents don’t always want to be known or found and old wounds can be deep. Annie also stumbles on another broken and wounded family. A teen went missing years ago, her mother’s still angry, broken. No one ever believed her, nobody tried to find her or cared. There’s a lazy Sheriff who doesn’t seem to care and a DEA agent hounding Annie for assistance on a case against a local dealer. The man searching for answers about the past and his real family may wish he’d left the secrets stay in the past. The unbelievable truth could break him. It sure kept me guessing and each time I was positive I’d guessed the answers I wasn’t even close. There’s plenty of suspense and it kept me hooked with great characters and an original plot. I hope the series continues!
Many thanks to NetGalley for the digital advance reader copy of “Next Of Kin” an Annie McIntyre Mysteries Book (volume 3), by Samantha Jayne Allen, published by Minotaur Books, anticipated publication 04/23/2024. These are always my own honest personal thoughts and opinions given voluntarily without any compensation.

This is an interesting mystery, the third in a series but fine to read on it's own. There are poetic moments and moments of insight, that help flesh out the character, Annie a PI with a law enforcement family background. She is a relatable character, while not perfect, making healthier choices than some of her counterparts, making her more realistic than the more typical very flawed damage heroines. 4.5

Annie Mcintyre gets more than she expected when she takes a case to find a client's birth parents. Not only is the client her cousin's soon-to-be brother-in-law, the investigation leads back to some of her grandfather's cases from when he was sheriff. This series has complex characterization and realistically captures Annie's self-doubt while providing an intriguing ,investigation.

Her best yet! This is the third mystery featuring the young PI, Annie McIntyre, and it's the best one yet. Allen continues to capture the culture and ambience of central and west Texas in a way only a Texas native can, but the plot of this one is a tightly woven mystery filled with twists and turns that kept me guessing.

Annie is asked to locate the birth parents of adoptee, Clint, who is a budding country music star. When he disappears on the eve of his brother's wedding, Annie is caught up in a mystery that involves a bank robbery, murder, kidnapping and much more...and somehow her grandfather is also involved.

I really liked this one, and I think it hits all the "misses" from the earlier books. Annie still spends a lot of time in her head ruminating her career and life choices, but she seems to be settling in back in Garnett and spends more time doing instead of thinking. The mystery is more intricate and the connections between the characters seem to be more believable and intriguing. all-in-all a much better effort. I'll definitely look for the next book in the series.

One picky criticism -- two of the main characters are Clint and Cody. Admittedly it would not be strange for brothers to have similar names, and those names aren't uncommon in Texas, but I found it sometimes confusing to remember who was who. I wish their names were more different.

Next of Kin
Samantha Jayne Allen
Pub Date: April 23, 2024
St. Martin's Press
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
This was a new author for me and it was good! I wasn't aware it was in a series.

From Tony Hillerman Prize-winning author Samantha Jayne Allen comes Next of Kin, a mesmerizing novel set in a hardscrabble Texas town dealing with disaster.
4 star

I loved it! Annie is a tough and gritty private investigator. I admire how she looks at all angles before acting and observes people's faults without judging. She can't leave anything half done and isn't afraid to ask for help. Excellent author.

This was my first Samantha Jayne Allen book and i’m impressed! However I do wish I knew this was part of a series before I picked it up. That didn’t take away from my enjoyment though!

I really enjoy the setting and the characters. Annie McIntyre has been in other books by this author and I’m hoping more to come.

I read a prepublication copy of this novel. The author is new to me, and I really like her polished writing style. The action moves as a good pace, the characters are believable and likable, and to plot is varied and sufficiently complex to keep readers reading.

Number three in Allen’s Annie McIntyre / Garrett, Texas series. Nice and complicated, full of atmosphere, and I really like the way Annie is developing. In my review of the last book, I said, “Annie suffers from occasional bouts of self-doubt which I hope she has less often in the future (I like to see characters grow!)” and guess what? She really has grown into the role, and her bouts of self-doubt have largely disappeared. Made me happy!

This deliciously convoluted plot includes long lost relative discoveries on Ancestry.com with a heavy dose of bad guy blood mixed in. Social services, group homes, drug dealing, bank robbers — they pop up in unexpected places and through it all Annie keeps her cool, pursues justice like a tenacious bulldog, and treats us to her ongoing reflections, many of a philosophical and moral nature (my cup of tea). The regular characters — her 85 year grandfather retired sheriff Leroy, his investigative partner of many years Mary Kate, Annie’s newly married cousin Nikki, and increasingly serious boyfriend Wyatt — all get better and more interesting with each book.

This is the best book so far — tighter plot, better balance of “novel” and “mystery,” and a well-developed (and continuously developing) set of characters.

A couple of quotes:

“He let information sit before speculating, enough time to regulate his own emotions, square them off, and keep them sealed.”

“Though I knew myself to be a believer in redemption, it was hard to overlook the universe’s uneven distribution of such favors.”

Annie is a private detective hired by adoptee, Clint, to find his biological family. As soon as her search begins, Clint's biological brother is found dead, and Annie needs to get to the bottom of his "suicide". And then she discovers information about an old murder case, and is able to knit some clues together regard Clint's family, and the murder that her now retired grandfather investigated years ago.

This story is intriguing - I was excited to read about Texas geography and gems like HEB! There's A LOT to read here. Linking all the information together requires numerous characters, and lots of memories and past events, as well as a very active present. I wish the story was slightly simpler - it was so complex! There was quite a bit to put in one book.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review Next of Kin.

Annie McIntyre is back in her third book after “Paydirt Road” (which won the Tony Hillerman Prize) and the sequel “Hard Rain.” Annie is now a full-fledged private investigator, mirroring her grandfather/mentor after he retired as sheriff. Her cousin Nikki is getting married to Sonny and Annie meets Sonny’s brother Clint, an aspiring country singer, at a pre-wedding event. Clint knows he was adopted and wants Annie to find his birth parents. Sometimes finding the truth behind adoptions is messy, but this actually seemed like an easy task — she quickly locates his father and mother and a couple of full siblings, but the birth family has had some hard times (including the fact that dad is in jail and had been caught by Grandad Leroy). The investigation didn’t seem like it would stir up a wasp’s nest of family secrets or connections to Annie and her grandfather, but it apparently did. Now someone is dead and the assumption that it was a suicide does not sit right with Annie.

As usual, author Allen’s novels are atmospheric and evocative —she eerily depicts small town stories where everyone seems to know everyone else’s business or has heard gossip about them. She can create a sense of claustrophobia as Annie moves from clue to clue, trying to piece together a bigger picture. It’s easy to root for Annie and be worried about whether she’s gotten into a dangerous world too deep. Annie is definitely a character worthy of a continuing series. 4 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NOT THIS TIME In “Hard Rain”, Wyatt’s hazel eyes would get a glint of green; not here.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO Ms. Allen is a master of describing hardscrabble Texas — cacti, mesquite, gnarled live oaks, tumbleweeds, and lots of dust.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

Good book! This book had a bit of everything! It had suspense, Action, intrigue, mystery, murder, a bit of a who done it, great plot twist, and some crazy twists and turns! The storyline was very interesting and kept me glued to my Kindle!! I definitely recommend reading this book as it was well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!