That Old Scoundrel Death

December 15, 2018
Dan Rhodes' last case.The sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas, has nothing against state-of-the-art forensics, but he's found that just talking to people often gets results. Stopping to help two cars pulled over by the side of the road, he's surprised to find himself facing a pistol held by local bad boy Kenny Lambert, who's run another man off the road while high on meth. Disarming Kenny, Dan talks to the other man, who identifies himself as Cal Stinson, a Clearview resident heading to Thurston to look at the old school building that's the center of a major controversy among local families. Dan's next call finds him driving to Thurston, where Wanda Wilkins has reported a dead body in the old school. The dead man told Wanda his name was Bruce Wayne, but Dan recognizes him as Cal Stinson. Meanwhile, annoyed by a gossip blog, the mayor of Clearview hires Dan's friend Seepy Benton, a college teacher and part-time detective whose computer skills have often helped Dan out (Dead to Begin With, 2017, etc.), to identify the blogger. Seepy suspects that it's Roger Prentiss, but Prentiss reveals that he's been working with his former college roommate, Lawrence Gates, who's gone missing--and sometimes uses aliases. Lawrence seems to have been obsessed by the Thurston schoolhouse, and it turns out that he's the dead man. Wanda tells Dan that three wealthy families are involved in the school controversy: those of Charlie Reese and the Falkners, who want the school torn down, and the Hunleys, a father and son known for their heroism in several wars, who want to save it. Dan has the feeling Kenny Lambert knows something, but by now he and his friend are hiding from two other troublemakers who have it in for them. Dan soon has more problems on his hands, but he quietly pursues several leads until he has it all figured out.Crider's sadly final entry provides a twisty mystery and plenty of the gentle humor and quirky characters fans have come to love.

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When Sheriff Dan Rhodes faces a suspect holding a gun on him, he's afraid he wasn't paying attention. He's still fast enough to get the pistol from the man and manage the confrontation. But it's yet another indication that Rhodes might be aging out of the role of Blacklin County sheriff. In fact, as he investigates a murder in an old schoolhouse, saves a woman from a fire that burns down that same schoolhouse, and works the day-to-day cases for a sheriff in a small Texas county, he continues to warn people he might not run in the next elSECTION. He still has to deal with the social media that strives to make him a hero and the wealthy families who think they're above the law. Retirement certainly looks good to the aging sheriff. The late Crider wrote a satisfying final ending to Rhodes's career, indicating the beloved sheriff wouldn't run for reelSECTION. VERDICT Readers looking for a series that combines the best of a police procedural with a smart cozy should start with the award-winning first book in the series, Too Late To Die. Crider's works remain a model for mysteries featuring small-town sheriffs who take on cases with wit and humanity.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

December 1, 2018
The sadness readers felt upon hearing of Crider's death last February was two-pronged: a nice man is gone forever, and, presumably, there won't be any more adventures of Crider's deceptively ordinary small-town sheriff, Dan Rhodes. Fortunately, this one was already in the hopper. We'll remember Rhodes scarfing buttermilk doughnuts, doubting that modern technology is really good for us, and worrying about too much sun on his bald spot. Here he must solve the murder of a stranger who hid his identity behind joke names, like Bruce Wayne. That's part of a larger mystery that includes the seemingly pointless burning of an abandoned schoolhouse. The sheriff investigates the old-fashioned way, talking to people until things cleared up for him. And displaying some action-hero chops when he can't avoid them, as that alligator in 2016's Survivors Will Be Shot Again found out (here he wrestles a gun away from a sweating hophead). The novel ends with Rhodes wondering if he should run for reelection, but we know the answer. Clearview, Texas, will have to do without him, and, unfortunately, so will we.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)