Showing posts with label Blacklin County. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blacklin County. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 06, 2025
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Bitter Tea and Mystery Review: Death on the Move by Bill Crider
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Death on the Move: Bill Crider: Dan Rhodes is the Sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas. In this role, he is kept busy dealing with the smaller problems in his jurisdiction, an...
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Review: "The Blacklin County Files: 5 Sheriff Dan Rhodes Stories" by Bill Crider
Long familiar to readers via the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series novels Texas author Bill Crider has assembled a short collection of previously published stories featuring the good sheriff Dan Rhodes. The Blacklin County Files: 5 Sheriff Dan Rhodes Stories read just like the good novels in that the stories feature humor, mystery, and the extensive cast of folks that populate the town of Clearview and the surrounding East Texas County of Blacklin.
The small collection opens with the story titled “Buster.” Miss Onie Calder is quite elderly and someone has killed one of her many cats. She blames an angry neighbor and wants him arrested for murder. Things aren’t that simple but the truth will come out.
Sheriff Rhodes knows things happen in the county that might be technically against the law. But, Rhodes is not a hard-nosed law and order guy and is willing to look the other way on certain things as long as nothing happens. In “Gored” Sheriff Rhodes has to break his long standing policy of ignoring the Blacklin County Stagg BBQ. The quiet annual event deep in the woods as a remote cabin usually has no problems and nothing much happens but this year the addition of a dead man means Rhodes has to investigate. By the end of the story if you were not already hungry for barbecue and all the fixings Bill Crider helpfully includes a recipe for homemade Peach Ice Cream.
Ron Eller never did look like Jesus did in all the pictures Sheriff Rhodes saw as a kid in Sunday school classrooms. The fact that he did not look like Jesus at all didn’t stop somebody from killing him and wiring him to a cross. In “The Man on the Cross” Sheriff Rhodes has to figure who killed Ron Eller and why in a story that starts the Monday morning after Easter. The suspects are many in this complex tale of faith, profit, and deceit.
If you live in Blacklin County and you want real good food--meat and potatoes kind of food that will stick to your ribs-- you go to the “Round Up Restaurant.” The sign outside the door makes it clear that they don’t serve chicken¸ fish or anything vegetarian. In “Chocolate Moose” authored by Bill and Judy Crider, Sheriff Dan Rhodes has to go to the restaurant to investigate a death. Pretty much everyone in the county hated Mack McAnally and for various good reasons. Now he is dead in a very strange way in one of the dining rooms. It could be an accident or something more. A good story that finishes up with the killer caught and a recipe for the “World’s Best Chicken Fried Steak” and includes the recipe for gravy. Life doesn’t get much better than that.
Environmental issues are often a theme in the series---especially in recent books. An environmental problem and controversy are present in the “Who Killed Cock Rogers?” Shipping live cattle can often be a messy operation with unintended consequences and controversy. But, nobody expected a murder because of it.
So, get yourself some glass bottled Dr. Pepper (plastic bottles and cans just aren't the same), some peanut butter and cheese crackers, and kick back for a spell with the Blacklin County Files. Five good short stories featuring Sheriff Dan Rhodes, his wife Ivy, Deputy Rudy Grady, Jail Dispatcher Hack Jensen and numerous other good and no so good local residents. Plenty of humor¸ twists and turns in the cases, and detail regarding the residents makes The Blacklin County Files: 5 Sheriff Dan Rhodes Stories yet another fun comfortable cozy style read from award winning author Bill Crider. Solidly good, just like his novels, author Bill Crider provides yet more good reading.
The Blacklin County Files: 5 Sheriff Dan Rhodes Stories
Bill Crider
2012
Kindle E-book
Material supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2012
Monday, February 16, 2009
Reviewing: "Death By Accident" by Bill Crider
Clearview and the surrounding Blacklin County, Texas have seen their share of weird events and murders over the years. Sheriff Dan Rhodes has dealt with both over the years. In every case a rational explanation has eventually surfaced.
It's November and repercussions of events in Winning Can Be Murder are still felt by many including Rhodes. So too is his age because more and more the county is changing and not for the better. Back when Rhodes was a heck of a lot younger, he swam in the swimming pools on the Old Settler's Grounds. Fed by the river the pools had been a great place to cool off. As the years past, the pools fell into disrepair and nobody is supposed to be swimming in them any more. Technically, the man floating in one of the pools isn't swimming, as he is dead.
It looks like a freak accident and nothing more thanks to the rope and the busted limb from the tree adjoining the pool. It certainly appears that the man, no doubt drunk, was swinging on the rope over the pool when the limb snapped. The limb hit the man in the head and either knocked him out so that he drowned in the water or outright killed him. The dead man, Peter Yeldell, has been in trouble of one type or another for years and alcohol was usually involved. So the whole deal makes sense in a weird way.
But, Yeldell's death would be the second freak accident in two weeks. The first was John West. He literally exploded on a country road of Clearview around 2 in the morning in a bizarre accident.
That death was bugging Rhodes and now he has this accidental death. In typical Rhodes fashion, despite all the evidence to the contrary, Rhodes starts asking questions and poking around. Before long he finds more questions than answers and manages to get himself in trouble yet again.
Ninth in the series, this novel sheds no new light on the character or those around him. His daughter Susan is still a no show character having vanished early on, Rhodes still doesn't trust computers, loves Dr. Pepper and is tolerant despite grumbling of his wife's attempts to make him eat healthier. And he still doesn't call for back up and walks into situations that clearly by now he should have learned it would be a good idea at the very least to unholster his weapon.
Despite those quirks that some readers will question, Rhodes maintains a steady hand and comfortable feeling for the reader. Bill Crider's focus is always the latest fiasco in the county as well as the latest crime/murder and spends most of his story telling energy in that direction. Therefore, readers who want to see major character development and bloodbath every few pages or novels may wish to look elsewhere. Those who must wallow in the mind of the evil serial killer every other chapter should go elsewhere as well because Crider doesn't do clichéd. What he does and does very well is create interesting characters in real life you would be happy to know and call friends while telling a tale focused on the mystery and not the forensics. This is another solid good book in the series that hasn't produced a bad one yet.
Death By Accident
Bill Crider
http://www.billcrider.com/
Wheeler Publishing (Gale/Thorndike)
http://www.gale.cengage.com/thorndike/
1998
ISBN# 1-56895-663-0
233 Pages
Large Print Version
Review copy provided by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2009
(Reviews coming soon-- A Ghost Of A Chance by Bill Crider, Somebody Owes Me Money by Donald Westlake, and more)
It's November and repercussions of events in Winning Can Be Murder are still felt by many including Rhodes. So too is his age because more and more the county is changing and not for the better. Back when Rhodes was a heck of a lot younger, he swam in the swimming pools on the Old Settler's Grounds. Fed by the river the pools had been a great place to cool off. As the years past, the pools fell into disrepair and nobody is supposed to be swimming in them any more. Technically, the man floating in one of the pools isn't swimming, as he is dead.
It looks like a freak accident and nothing more thanks to the rope and the busted limb from the tree adjoining the pool. It certainly appears that the man, no doubt drunk, was swinging on the rope over the pool when the limb snapped. The limb hit the man in the head and either knocked him out so that he drowned in the water or outright killed him. The dead man, Peter Yeldell, has been in trouble of one type or another for years and alcohol was usually involved. So the whole deal makes sense in a weird way.
But, Yeldell's death would be the second freak accident in two weeks. The first was John West. He literally exploded on a country road of Clearview around 2 in the morning in a bizarre accident.
That death was bugging Rhodes and now he has this accidental death. In typical Rhodes fashion, despite all the evidence to the contrary, Rhodes starts asking questions and poking around. Before long he finds more questions than answers and manages to get himself in trouble yet again.
Ninth in the series, this novel sheds no new light on the character or those around him. His daughter Susan is still a no show character having vanished early on, Rhodes still doesn't trust computers, loves Dr. Pepper and is tolerant despite grumbling of his wife's attempts to make him eat healthier. And he still doesn't call for back up and walks into situations that clearly by now he should have learned it would be a good idea at the very least to unholster his weapon.
Despite those quirks that some readers will question, Rhodes maintains a steady hand and comfortable feeling for the reader. Bill Crider's focus is always the latest fiasco in the county as well as the latest crime/murder and spends most of his story telling energy in that direction. Therefore, readers who want to see major character development and bloodbath every few pages or novels may wish to look elsewhere. Those who must wallow in the mind of the evil serial killer every other chapter should go elsewhere as well because Crider doesn't do clichéd. What he does and does very well is create interesting characters in real life you would be happy to know and call friends while telling a tale focused on the mystery and not the forensics. This is another solid good book in the series that hasn't produced a bad one yet.
Death By Accident
Bill Crider
http://www.billcrider.com/
Wheeler Publishing (Gale/Thorndike)
http://www.gale.cengage.com/thorndike/
1998
ISBN# 1-56895-663-0
233 Pages
Large Print Version
Review copy provided by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple © 2009
(Reviews coming soon-- A Ghost Of A Chance by Bill Crider, Somebody Owes Me Money by Donald Westlake, and more)
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