Some Colorado stories begin beneath blue skies and snowcapped mountains.

This one begins beneath a wall of dust.

For this edition of Colorado Bookshelf, we’re heading to southeastern Colorado in 1937 with The Hired Man, the newest historical novel from acclaimed Colorado author Sandra Dallas. Published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2026, the novel combines Colorado history, family loyalty, mystery, prejudice and questions of justice into a story rooted firmly in the landscape of our state.

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When Colorado Was Brown Instead of Green

It is 1937, and seven years of Dust Bowl conditions have transformed life on Colorado's eastern plains. Rain feels almost forgotten. Crops struggle, families are hungry, and enormous dust storms can turn daylight into darkness.

Fifteen-year-old Martha Helen Kessler and her family are managing to hold onto their farm, something increasingly rare among their neighbors. Then a stranger blows into their world almost as unexpectedly as the storms themselves.

Otis Hobbs, a handsome young drifter, saves a local boy during a dangerous dust storm. Martha Helen's mother insists the family take him in, and her father offers him work on the farm.

But strangers do not remain anonymous for long in a struggling small town.

Suspicion begins to grow.

Then Martha Helen's best friend, Frankie, disappears.

When Frankie is found murdered and Otis becomes entangled in the discovery, whispers become accusations. Martha Helen must sort through conflicting loyalties, community prejudice and uncomfortable truths while trying to understand the difference between what is legal and what is actually just.

More Than a Historical Mystery

That may be what makes The Hired Man particularly intriguing.

The Dust Bowl provides the setting, but the larger story is about people under pressure.

What happens to a community when fear begins making its decisions?

How quickly can uncertainty become gossip, and gossip become certainty?

What happens when someone is labeled an outsider before anyone really knows his story?

And perhaps most importantly, what happens when doing what is right requires questioning what everyone around you has already decided is true?

Those aren't merely questions from 1937.

Dallas layers those themes into a mystery that Publishers Weekly praised for its red herrings and vivid depiction of Colorado's devastating dust storms, describing the novel as particularly appealing to readers who enjoy historical fiction mixed with mystery. 

A Colorado Author Worth Knowing

Sandra Dallas brings an especially authentic connection to this month's selection.

A graduate of the University of Denver, Dallas began her career as a journalist before becoming an award-winning author whose work has repeatedly explored Colorado and the American West. Her honors include Spur Awards and the Women Writing the West WILLA Award, and her bibliography includes novels such as Tallgrass, Prayers for Sale, Where Coyotes Howl, Tough Luck and many others.

That Colorado connection makes The Hired Man especially fitting for Centennial readers.

Historical fiction has an unusual ability to collapse distance. A place we recognize on a map suddenly becomes populated by people worrying about crops, feeding children, protecting neighbors, questioning authority and trying to decide whom they can trust.

The landscape changes.

Human nature often doesn't.

Why It Belongs on the Centennial Reading List

At 320 pages, The Hired Man offers enough depth for readers who enjoy immersive historical fiction without becoming an enormous commitment, and its combination of mystery, Colorado history and morally complicated characters gives book clubs plenty to discuss.

It is also a reminder that Colorado's story stretches far beyond the Front Range.

Sometimes understanding the place we call home means looking west toward the mountains.

Other times, it means looking east across the plains and remembering the generations who watched the sky turn dark with dust and somehow kept going.

Ready to read?

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