by Cynthia L. Clark (Econ'82; Law'85)
(Outskirts Press, 278 pages; 2020)
When good-looking Ben 鈥淭ano鈥� Montano, of the Boulder Colorado based rock band 鈥淏adge鈥�, encounters a pretty red-headed girl stranded after a concert in San Angelo, Texas, he offers her a ride home to the Oklahoma Panhandle on his way to Kansas for the next concert. Two days pass on their fortuitous music-filled ride together in Tano鈥檚 van, during which time they connect in an unforeseen and intense way. When they arrive in Sage, Oklahoma, with regret they say goodbye on a dirt road main street in the tiny town believing they will never see each other again. Five years pass as Badge鈥檚 fame grows and Tano鈥檚 Boulder tequila bar thrives, but he is haunted and taunted by his memory of the girl, Holly. Without even knowing her last name, Tano is convinced that he must take a chance to find her, and he sets off on an August morning for Sage. When they reunite, their romantic past is renewed, and a secret is revealed. But the chance reunion is threatened by a hostile brother, a boyfriend in Kansas, a jilted ex, and a wildly obsessed woman stalker with guns and a hunger for Tano鈥檚 love. Dirt Road Main Street is a story of the strength and survival of love lost and found, entangled with the apprehension produced by the unpredictable desperate acts of an edgy mad woman.