D.O.A. Recommends All the Sad Words by Bill Crider

I’m always looking for a good new series, and I will sometimes read the latest one, then if I like the characters, I’ll go back and start the series with book one, methodically reading them in order. Reading book fifteen of the Sheriff Dan Rhoades books “Of all sad words” by Bill Crider was a pleasure, and I’ll go back to book one “Too late to die” (1986) once I finish my current reading stack.

I’m not sure what I expected, but since the main character is a sheriff and the setting is Blacklin County Texas, I was thinking maybe a mystery with a little old-fashioned western tossed in. The story absolutely isn’t a western, but having spent a little time in Texas I could picture the heat, the dry brush landscapes, and the river beds that can be hard dusty soil one minute and floating a car along after a downpour the next. I came away with a feel of the west anyway, I think because of the pacing and the laconic dry wit of all of the characters, which explains the accompanying pictures.

The plot involves a moonshine producing still, an unexplained murder and a nasty black pickup truck. I found all of the characters appealing, even the bad guys. A long time reader would know all about the man who is plagued by flying saucers at his home, the woman with the possoms in her attic, and the zany co-authors of a book so loosely based on Sheriff Rhoades as to be unrecognizable as ol’ Dan. These folks are woven into the tale so that you know them as if you’d been reading all along.

The main character is always the thing, and you have got to like Sheriff Dan Rhoades right away. He is keenly observant, easy going, and determined to solve his case. He seems to be a pretty philosophical fellow, responding to everything from lies to encouragement with a drawled “Right”.

Visit Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine daily for an wild collage of current odd things going on, plus vintage video clips and mystery book reviews.

Visit Bill's web page for more on his Sheriff Dan Rhoades mysteries and his other extensive writings.

Read a great interview with Bill Crider by Steve Hockensmith (author of the Holmes on the Range mysteries).

Read the Sheriff Dan Rhoades Mysteries in order in order to catch all those nuances of character:

Too Late to Die
Shotgun Saturday Night
Cursed to Death
Death on the Move
Evil at the Root
Booked for a Hanging
Murder Most Fowl
Winning Can Be Murder
Death by Accident
A Ghost of a Chance
A Romantic Way to Die
Red White & Blue Murder
A Mammoth Murder
Murder Among the O.W.L.S.
Of All Sad Words