Recent college graduate Annie McIntyre, the narrator of Tony Hillerman Prize winner Allen's solid debut, has felt rudderless since moving home to Garnett, Tex., and taking a job at the local café, so she's thrilled when her grandfather, Leroy McIntyre, and his business partner, Mary-Pat Zimmerman, offer her part-time work at their PI firm. Annie starts out doing the detectives' filing, but then fellow waitress Victoria Merritt turns up dead after attending the same drunken bonfire as Annie. Police make an arrest, but Annie has her doubts, and when the detainee's grandmother hires Leroy and Mary-Pat to clear his name, Annie insists on joining their investigation. Viable suspects abound, from Victoria's estranged husband to an oil exec intent on running a pipeline through Victoria's backyard, and Annie is determined to catch the real culprit, even if doing so means imperiling herself. The story is slow to start and much of the interpersonal conflict feels manufactured, but evocative prose and a powerful sense of place lift an otherwise run-of-the-mill mystery. Allen is a writer with promise. Agent: Sharon Pelletier, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Apr.)

This mystery, which won the Tony Hillerman Prize for best debut novel set in the Southwest, is that rarity in private-eye fiction: a coming-of-age story. Very often, the fictional PI is older, well established, and cynical. Here, the PI, Annie McIntyre, is young (22), a recent college grad, and doesn't know what she is. Annie returns to her hardscrabble Texas town, directionless and conflicted. She divides her time between hanging out with her high-school buddies, who never left town, and waitressing at a local café that is filled with farmers and ranchers in the morning, and long-haul truckers, shift workers, and stoned teens at night. One of the waitresses at the café goes missing after a bonfire party that Annie attended. This marks Annie's awakening, since she identifies with the wild, vulnerable, missing young woman, who is eventually found strangled. Annie then gets a plot-convenient offer to join her grandfather, a former sheriff, in his detective agency. Readers will forgive this ploy as they learn, with Annie, the tricks of the investigating trade, starting with "never ask too many questions" when doing an interview. Annie grows before our eyes, and the Texas landscape, with its falling-apart houses and bedraggled bars, comes alive in this remarkable novel, reminiscent of Larry McMurtry's The Last Picture Show.

A gritty, down-home exploration of murder and dysfunction in a Texas town. Upon her college graduation, Annie McIntyre returns home to Garnett, Texas, thinking about law school but with no clear path in sight. She's living with her cousin Nikki and waitressing at a diner, where she meets young mother Victoria Merritt. Attending Justin Schneider's bonfire party takes Annie right back to high school, as beer flows and a volatile combination of jocks, mean girls, and out-of-town roughnecks mix. Victoria turns up apparently bombed out of her mind; it's the last time Annie sees her alive. When Victoria's disappearance and a fatal hit-and-run roil the town, Annie, whose dysfunctional family has a long history in law enforcement, feels pulled to investigate. Mary-Pat, who runs a private investigation firm with Annie's grandfather Leroy, hires her to do office work that may lead to an internship. Annie and Nikki's many visits to bars in search of Victoria end when her body is discovered in a shallow grave on Annie's family land. The experience brings on a bout of PTSD from a traumatic experience Annie had at a fraternity party during her senior year in high school. When Fernando, a high school friend who works at the diner, is arrested, Annie gets Leroy and Mary-Pat to investigate for his lawyer. A gas company that sought to lease Victoria's land gives her husband a financial motive for her murder; the environmental problems the company is hiding give it a powerful motive as well. A dark picture of hardscrabble Texas juiced by the heroine's angst makes for a great debut. Here's hoping for a follow-up. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

DEBUT After graduating from college, Annie McIntyre returned home to her family, friends, and history in Garnett, TX. A small town hit by drought and recession, Garnett is desperate for the money from a company buying drilling rights. Annie is just as desperate for a purpose, a lost young woman who works as a waitress in the town's café, and parties at night with her cousin. At a community bonfire one night, she recognizes Victoria, another waitress, who is stumbling drunk, but Annie is too busy stopping her cousin from picking a fight to help her work friend. When Victoria's strangled body is found on Annie's grandfather's land, Annie realizes that the dead woman could have easily been herself. Annie's grandfather Leroy is co-owner of a private investigation firm that has been hired by a suspect's family to prove he's not guilty. Annie latches onto the investigation as a way to deal with her own demons and prove she's not a victim, nor a drunk loser with no future. VERDICT Annie's brooding voice stands out. Fans of Southwestern atmospheric mysteries will appreciate this debut with a strong sense of place by Allen, winner of the 2019 Hillerman Prize.--Lesa Holstine