Book Review: Hard Rain by Samantha Jayne Allen

Hard Rain
Author: Samantha Jayne Allen
Series: Annie McIntyre Mystery (Book 2)
Publication: Minotaur Books (April 18, 2023)

Description: From the Tony Hillerman Prize-winning author of Pay Dirt Road comes Hard Rain, Samantha Jayne Allen's mesmerizing next novel set in a hardscrabble Texas town dealing with disaster.

In shock and found clinging to a tree branch, Bethany Richter is pulled from thrashing floodwaters that have decimated the town of Garnett, Texas and killed a dozen others.

Six months after solving the murder of a local waitress, Annie McIntyre is working as an apprentice P.I. when she's handed her first solo case: uncover the identity of the man who rescued Bethany before he was swept downriver.

When Annie's search turns up a different victim—shot dead, not drowned—Annie questions if the hero they seek is actually a killer.

Flexing her new skills while relying on the wisdom of her eccentric, ex-cop grandfather, the case leads Annie into a web of drug dealers, preachers, and wayward drifters trying to make sense of life after a disaster. Annie's own convictions are put to the ultimate test as long-held secrets, corruption, and violence are exposed like the ruin that lies beneath receding waters.

My Thoughts: Flash floods have decimated the town of Garnett, Texas, and Bethany Richter was found clinging to a tree branch. A dozen people were killed and property was destroyed. Annie McIntyre just managed to get to her apartment building when the floods came and spent three days marooned in her third-floor apartment.

A couple of weeks later, Bethany, a childhood acquaintance who was a friend of Annie's cousin Nikki, comes to Annie because she wants to hire her to find the man who rescued her during the flood and who has disappeared.

Searching for the missing man will be Annie's first independent case as a partner in the private investigations firm started by her now retired grandfather and his business partner. Naturally, she goes to her grandfather for advice. He suggests going back to the scene of Bethany's rescue to get a feel for the area.

While Annie is at the scene she discovers the body of a woman in her own pickup. However, Jacinda did not drown, she was shot to death. Annie wonders if the shot woman and the missing man are connected. She finds that both have ties to the local megachurch where Bethany's husband is the son of the founder and an assistant preacher.

As Annie looks into things, she finds herself discovering drug running and financial misdealing on her way to discovering a murderer.

This was another excellent mystery with intriguing characters. 

Favorite Quote:

People like to say that nothing ever happens around here, but it's not true. What they really meant was it wasn't getting better. The changes that had come to Garnett were like erosion -- of occupied houses, open businesses, maintained lawns -- and the courthouse, the square, and the nice parts fanning out from it like an island losing land mass.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.