Annie McIntyre #2
While this book centers on Annie McIntyre, a young woman who has moved back home to Garnett, Texas, to work for her grandfather’s P.I. firm, it opens with a truly spectacular flood scene (the “Hard Rain” of the title). A woman named Bethany is spending the weekend with friends in a rental cabin when the flood sweeps her away, and she’s saved by a man who “looks like Jesus.” He saves her, and then is swept away himself. Fearing he’s dead, she hires her old high school buddy Annie to try and find out what happened to him.
That’s the straight ahead set up, but there are many layers to this well told story. For one thing, Annie has returned home, sure, but she’s uncertain about her choice, her future with the firm, or, as becomes clear later, her future with her present boyfriend. She’s young and she’s finding her feet. They turn out to be bad ass feet. She stands up to her grandfather, a lifelong alcoholic who is nevertheless charming as well as being her boss. He’s a bit laid up after a recent accident and she’s checking on him, buying him groceries and picking up his meds. He, for his part, manages to share some advice gems as she works her way through the case.
Annie’s relationship with Bethany is complicated as well. They are grown women, but in high school they were more or less frenemies. The grown Bethany is married to a pastor at one of the biggest churches in town, which makes her situation somewhat tricky and more visibly public. Throughout the book the relationship between Bethany and her husband seems slightly off. His family is a powerful one who owns lots of real estate in town and has been wheeling and dealing one way or another in tiny Garnett for decades. They seem to be humoring Bethany in her quest to find this man.
Annie uses some dogged and persistent investigation techniques to find a few leads and narrow down the missing man’s possible whereabouts and connections. The book is full of settings that stay with you, ranging from Garnett itself to the surrounding natural area, including the Geronimo River, which is the river that flooded. Lending atmosphere are on and off rain and clouds, making some of her investigations even more ominous. Annie’s grandfather and his partner, Mary Pat, make her an offer about half way through and she’s really forced to consider her future. When she was younger, all she thought about was getting out of town – now she’s looking to tie herself down to Garnett.
Annie is smart and fearless (sometimes too much so) and she does get herself into some situations which she could have avoided if she’d thought ahead. That’s a pet peeve of mine, but it’s a small caveat to this well told story, one that resonates with wonderfully indelible characters, a memorable setting, and enough heartbreak to catch you up and make you think about this book after you close the cover. This is PI work for the 21st century. It seems believable but at the same time carries echoes of classic PI novel forebears. I recommend checking this series out. — Robin Agnew