PAY DIRT ROAD

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.