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The Hired Man
Sandra Dallas
Publication Date: March 31st, 2026
St. Martin’s Press
320 Pages
Amazon | Goodreads | Bookshop.org
Genre: General Fiction | Historical Fiction | Women’s Fiction
I am not a fan of westerns, but for some reason, I love Sandra Dallas’s western-style books. The writing is always easy to get into, and her characters always bring something to the mix. This one is set during the Dust Bowl in 1937, Colorado. It’s part western, part coming-of-age, and part murder mystery. The main character is a teenager, Martha Helen, who lives on a farm with her family during these difficult years. The crops are dry, dust storms are happening over and over again, and her family is under a lot of pressure trying to survive.
During one of these dust storms, a drifter named Otis rescues a boy from the storm, and Martha Helen’s family takes him in as a hired hand. As the days pass, the town starts to judge and grow suspicious of Otis—especially when Martha Helen’s friend, Frankie, disappears and is found murdered. Of course, the town blames Otis, the outsider.
I really enjoyed this story, if you can say you enjoyed a book where a youngster is murdered. Dallas does an amazing job bringing the era to life; it was easy to imagine how hard life must have been back then. I loved Martha Helen; even though she was just a teenager, she was strong and resilient, and I just love books with strong female leads. She worked hard to figure out what the right thing to do was when everything around her was so uncertain and when the townsfolk were against her family’s new helper. The mystery was interesting, and even I grew suspicious. It isn’t a fast-paced thriller, but the tension slowly mounts and makes me want to keep reading. I found the ending very satisfying and heavy.
Overall, this story is a thought-provoking read. I found it to be a very engaging historical story with a bit of mystery and mayhem mixed in. Sandra Dallas books are to be savoured, and there is something uniquely gripping about Dust Bowl noir—that mix of a harsh, unforgiving landscape and a slow-burn mystery makes for a very atmospheric read. Dallas proves once again that a well-told story can be satisfying even when the subject matter is heavy.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
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