The Hired Man

The Dust Bowl sweeps a handsome stranger into a small Colorado town to dangerous effect

1937. It's been seven years since the dust storms started in Colorado. Folks can barely remember a time when the clouds were filled with rain instead of dirt, and when the fields were green instead of brown. High school student Martha Helen Kessler and her family are luckier than most; they still eke out a living from the land. Even so, evidence of the Dust Bowl's grim impact on families, especially on the women who bear the brunt of their husbands' frustration and their children's hunger, is everywhere.

When Martha Helen's compassionate mother insists they take in Otis Hobbs, a handsome drifter who saves a local boy from a vicious storm, she quickly discovers a darker side to their rural community. Suspicion, jealousy, and prejudice grip their neighbors - and emotions reach a frenzy after Martha Helen's best friend, Frankie, disappears and is then found murdered. Ultimately, Martha Helen is forced to make sense of her conflicting feelings and loyalties in order to help find retribution and to reconcile the difference between the law and justice.

Full of period detail and Sandra Dallas's trademark focus on the lives of women, The Hired Man entertains and ultimately surprises.

Author: Sandra Dallas
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 03/31/2026
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.83lbs
Size: 8.37h x 5.71w x 1.09d
ISBN: 9781250352392


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/26/2026
Booklist 02/01/2026
Library Journal 01/01/2026 pg. 57

About the Author
Sandra Dallas is a New York Times bestselling author of nearly twenty adult novels, several children's novels, and numerous works of non-fiction about Western subjects. Her work has won numerous awards and prizes including the Colorado Book Award and, in 2021, she was inducted into the Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame. A former bureau chief for Business Week magazine, Sandra lives in Denver and Georgetown, Colorado with her husband.