The Hired Man

BY SANDRA DALLAS

Coming on March 31, 2026

 

Here’s how St. Martin’s describes the book:

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

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1937. It’s been seven years since the dust storms started in southeastern 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.

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When Martha Helen’s compassionate mother insists they take in Otis Hobbs, a handsome drifter who saves a local boy from a vicious storm, Martha Helen 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 reconcile the difference between the law and justice.

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

~ St. Martins

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Releases March 31, 2026

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Stay tuned for book signing dates, there is one on Saturday, April 25, at Books & Brunch, a PEO benefit in Lakewood, Colo. I’ll post the schedule in my next newsletter and on my website.