Well-written, gripping historical fiction like “The Hired Man” takes us back to another place and time and allows us to experience that setting through the eyes, and usually meticulous research of the author. Sandra Dallas takes us back to Colorado in 1937, during the time of the Dust Bowl, when instead of rain falling from the sky, dirt blew in from neighboring states blanketing the ground and covering everything with layers of dirt and grit. Thanks to her careful, detailed descriptions we can almost feel the grit in our mouths and eyes as a storm blankets the town with dirt.

It was a dark time, but darker still as we view the mistrust with which people viewed outsiders. Hobos, or vagrants, were unwelcome, perhaps because there were so many of them, men and boys driven to travel looking for work when their own farms were blown away and there was no work to be found. The town of Burke is so inhospitable to men passing through that they enact a vagrant law. “Penalty for being a vag’s a month of hard labor.”

This is what the town’s sheriff told Otis Hobbs after he saved the life of a six-year-old boy who had been missing all day following a storm. He found the boy covered with dirt in a ditch and picked him up and carried him to the nearest farm. It was the Kessler farm, and Martha Helen Kessler is the first person narrator. When the Kesslers point out, rightly, that Otis just saved the life of a child, the sheriff says that he feels bad, but Otis will have to move along unless he has a job. And, he adds, there are no jobs to be had.

That’s when Martha’s mother tells the sheriff that Otis will be working for them. But when the sheriff leaves, they don’t know how they can pay Otis when they barely have enough for themselves. It’s decided that Otis will work for room and board, and the arrangement seems to be working well for all. Martha’s fifteen-year-old narration sounds pitch perfect as she relates the events of their small town. Through her eyes, we see the cruelty and abuse their neighbor subjects his wife and daughter to.

And that’s the thing about communities, both small and large. There are those who are decent people with kind hearts who believe in giving everyone a chance. There are also those who are small-minded, jealous, selfish, and who view everyone they don’t know with suspicion and distrust. We encounter both kinds in the pages of this novel.

Then there is a murder. Martha Helen’s best friend, Frankie, disappears and is found murdered. Martha, her father, and Otis are the ones who find her, and it’s obvious from the description that she was raped before she was killed. Martha is forced to grow up quickly after this tragedy as the sheriff is out of town and the deputy is inept. Otis is arrested because he’s a stranger, and Martha and her family support him.

It’s important to remember that Martha is only fifteen. Does being only fifteen make a narrator unreliable? Martha has led a fairly sheltered life, and over the course of the novel, she learns a lot about the world and how hard life can be for those who may not have the gift of a loving family. We see that everyone — or almost everyone — has secrets. Even Martha’s mother has secrets that she has hidden from Martha and her siblings.

What Dallas does in this novel is multifaceted. She creates a fascinating story that shows what life was like during this period of time when for almost a decade the ground turned brown instead of green and the skies rained dirt. It’s horrifying to consider this time and how so many died from hunger, violence, disease, and the poverty that engendered all of the foregoing. But read this novel for more than just the historical facts. For Dallas also creates a group of people whose values and morals are admirable, and she forces us to wonder if in addition to being admirable, these people are also naive. Martha Helen is a child at the start of the story, but she is forced to mature, and by the end of the novel, she makes a decision that is shocking. In fact, this twist is so surprising and jarring that readers might just want to go back to reread the novel to see what clues they might have missed.

This story has a bit of everything, from love to hate, from kindness to extreme cruelty, from generosity to callous greed, and maybe even a psychopath. Dallas’ descriptions are detailed and help readers picture the desperate conditions there, but there is also a touch of humor. Martha’s mom says that “First Kansas rolls by and now Texas.” And Martha narrates, “It was Texas all right, because the dirt was red. Kansas sent yellow dirt. Oklahoma’s dirt was brown.”

Spring might just be the perfect time to read this story of a decade of dry when we can look out the window and see the rain streaming down. Right now, we have rain and our wells are not dry. But it’s a cautionary tale of how Mother Nature can be cruel, as cruel as some of the characters in the novel. And there are those who will not live to tell the tale.

This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.