{"id":4952,"date":"2023-04-14T14:23:01","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T21:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=4952"},"modified":"2023-04-14T14:23:01","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T21:23:01","slug":"samantha-jayne-allen-hard-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/samantha-jayne-allen-hard-rain\/","title":{"rendered":"Samantha Jayne Allen: Hard Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Annie McIntyre #2<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>While this book centers on Annie McIntyre, a young woman who has moved back home to Garnett, Texas, to work for her grandfather\u2019s P.I. firm, it opens with a truly spectacular flood scene (the \u201cHard Rain\u201d of the title).\u00a0 A woman named Bethany is spending the weekend with friends in a rental cabin when the flood sweeps her away, and she\u2019s saved by a man who \u201clooks like Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 He saves her, and then is swept away himself.\u00a0 Fearing he\u2019s dead, she hires her old high school buddy Annie to try and find out what happened to him.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the straight ahead set up, but there are many layers to this well told story.\u00a0 For one thing, Annie has returned home, sure, but she\u2019s uncertain about her choice, her future with the firm, or, as becomes clear later, her future with her present boyfriend.\u00a0 She\u2019s young and she\u2019s finding her feet.\u00a0 They turn out to be bad ass feet.\u00a0 She stands up to her grandfather, a lifelong alcoholic who is nevertheless charming as well as being her boss.\u00a0 He\u2019s a bit laid up after a recent accident and she\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Annie\u2019s relationship with Bethany is complicated as well.\u00a0 They are grown women, but in high school they were more or less frenemies.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Throughout the book the relationship between Bethany and her husband seems slightly off.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Annie uses some dogged and persistent investigation techniques to find a few leads and narrow down the missing man\u2019s possible whereabouts and connections.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Lending atmosphere are on and off rain and clouds, making some of her investigations even more ominous.\u00a0 Annie\u2019s grandfather and his partner, Mary Pat, make her an offer about half way through and she\u2019s really forced to consider her future.\u00a0 When she was younger, all she thought about was getting out of town \u2013 now she\u2019s looking to tie herself down to Garnett.<\/p>\n

Annie is smart and fearless (sometimes too much so) and she does get herself into some situations which she could have avoided if she\u2019d thought ahead.\u00a0 That\u2019s a pet peeve of mine, but it\u2019s 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.\u00a0 This is PI work for the 21st<\/sup> century.\u00a0 It seems believable but at the same time carries echoes of classic PI novel forebears.\u00a0 I recommend checking this series out. —\u00a0Robin Agnew<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s P.I. firm, it opens with a truly spectacular flood scene (the \u201cHard Rain\u201d of the title).\u00a0 A woman named Bethany is spending the weekend with friends in a rental … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1168,180,1167,100,940,1166,140],"class_list":["post-4952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-annie-mcintyre","tag-flooding","tag-hard-rain","tag-minotaur-books","tag-private-eyes","tag-samantha-jayne-allen","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4952"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4956,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4952\/revisions\/4956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}