Author(s): Samantha Jayne Allen

General Non-fiction Shortlist

Annie McIntyre has a love/hate relationship with Garnett, Texas. Recently graduated from college and home waitressing, lacking not in ambition but certainly in direction, Annie is lured into the family business--a private investigation firm--by her supposed-to-be-retired grandfather, Leroy, despite the rest of the clan's misgivings.When a waitress at the café goes missing, Annie and Leroy begin an investigation that leads them down rural routes and haunted byways, to noxious-smelling oil fields and to the glowing neon of local honky-tonks. As Annie works to uncover the truth she finds herself identifying with the victim in increasing, unsettling ways, and realizes she must confront her own past--failed romances, a disturbing experience she'd rather forget, and the trick mirror of nostalgia itself--if she wants to survive this homecoming.