My thoughts
This is what a good friend called "a well-crafted story." She was so right. It had me doing some head scratching in places where I did know who was bad. Who really did the horrible thing to a young girl. Who murdered her?
Yes this is a story of hardships. Of the dust bowl. Of a time when people had little. When people didn't seem to want to help strangers. Anyone they didn't know what to be treated as lower than. At least if they were deemed vagrants.
The Kessler family had it rough. But they also had each other and they were good people. They believed in helping others. When they hired Otis the town's people were upset. He was a vagrant. How dare they let him into the community. But Mrs Kessler was adamant about helping him.
When a young lady disappears and is later found dead everyone thinks it was Otis. Everyone except Mrs Kessler. But why was she so set on his innocence? What secrets was she keeping?
This book is both historical and has a thriller effect. Parts had me on the edge wondering who did what. I was so wrong. I did not figure out who it was. I was stunned. To say the least it was a pleasant surprise to not figure it out though. A very well written story keeps you guessing but not giving a thing away...
I loved this story. It was hard to read in places but so very good. Times were hard. Times were bleak. People were cruel. But eventually the rain did fall!!!!
Thank you St Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for this arc.
Five stars....
Yes this is a story of hardships. Of the dust bowl. Of a time when people had little. When people didn't seem to want to help strangers. Anyone they didn't know what to be treated as lower than. At least if they were deemed vagrants.
The Kessler family had it rough. But they also had each other and they were good people. They believed in helping others. When they hired Otis the town's people were upset. He was a vagrant. How dare they let him into the community. But Mrs Kessler was adamant about helping him.
When a young lady disappears and is later found dead everyone thinks it was Otis. Everyone except Mrs Kessler. But why was she so set on his innocence? What secrets was she keeping?
This book is both historical and has a thriller effect. Parts had me on the edge wondering who did what. I was so wrong. I did not figure out who it was. I was stunned. To say the least it was a pleasant surprise to not figure it out though. A very well written story keeps you guessing but not giving a thing away...
I loved this story. It was hard to read in places but so very good. Times were hard. Times were bleak. People were cruel. But eventually the rain did fall!!!!
Thank you St Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio for this arc.
Five stars....
About
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.
Full of period detail and Sandra Dallas’s trademark focus on the lives of women, The Hired Man entertains and ultimately surprises.
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.
Full of period detail and Sandra Dallas’s trademark focus on the lives of women, The Hired Man entertains and ultimately surprises.
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