Dead, to Begin With

May 22, 2017
In Crider’s fun 24th mystery featuring laid-back Blacklin County, Tex., sheriff Dan Rhodes (after 2016’s Survivors Will Be Shot Again), reclusive Jake Marley, the 60ish scion of a wealthy oil boom–era family, takes a fatal fall onto the stage of the Clearview Opera House, a movie theater that’s been closed for decades. The Clearview, which Jake bought and restored, was about to mark its reopening with a performance of a Texas version of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. In his will, Jake, who was to play Marley’s ghost, stipulates four local people to play other roles—and requires Rhodes to attend—as a condition for the theater to receive continued funding. As Rhodes delves into what he suspects is a murder case, he has to put up with a number of minor distractions, starting with the annoying banter between dispatcher Hack Jensen and jailer Lawton, who “thought of themselves as the Abbott and Costello of Blacklin County.” Readers will cheer Rhodes along as he sorts through a tangle of old secrets and personal relationships en route to the satisfying solution. Agent: Kim Lionetti, BookEnds.

June 1, 2017
A Christmas Carol comes to Blacklin County, Texas, in the form of a production that leaves Sheriff Dan Rhodes (Survivors Will Be Shot Again, 2016, etc.) wondering just who made Jake Marley a ghost.For some years now, it's taken quite a bit to coax reclusive oil heir Jake Marley out of his shell. But he's made an unexpected splash in spearheading the restoration of the Clearview Opera House, which is scheduled to reopen with a production of A Christmas Carol scripted by local community college professor Harry Harris. Unfortunately, Jake's made a splash in the worst way possible: by dying onstage during the theater's renovation--maybe by falling from the catwalk, maybe by more nefarious means. There's no shortage of suspects, since Jake's recently written will specifies that if his money is going to keep paying for the renovation, all the major roles in this production of Dickens' hardy perennial be taken by people with a close connection to Jake's sister, Gwendolyn, who was killed many years ago in a car crash. From beyond the grave, Jake decrees that Gwen's best friend, insurance agent Glenda Tallent, play the Ghost of Christmas Present and that her high school swains Ed Hopkins, Al Graham, and Ron Gleason fill out the roles of Ebenezer Scrooge and the two remaining ghosts--even though most of the parties concerned scoff at the prospect of treading the boards. It's up to Sheriff Rhodes to take enough time from Blacklin County's all-you-can-eat buffet of low crimes and misdemeanors, idle gossip, and dumb behavior that doesn't rise to a criminal level to figure out who arranged for the ghost of Jacob Marley to be played by the ghost of Jake Marley. As usual in this gently humorous series, Crider pads out the slight mystery with enough anecdotes, updates, and digressions to make fans feel as if they've scarcely been away since Survivors Will Be Shot Again (2016).

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June 1, 2017

Small-town Texas sheriff Dan Rhodes's latest case includes a haunted opera house and a dead meth dealer. As usual, the 24th series title (after Survivors Will Be Shot Again) is a satisfying mix of cozyish policing and a pleasantly amusing visit to the American Southwest.--ACT

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2017
Jake Marley may be the wealthiest citizen of tiny Clearview, Texas. He's also the most reclusiveor had been until recently emerging from the family mansion to purchase the long-abandoned Clearview Opera House and supervise its renovation for a small-town Texas version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. But Jake (yes, Jacob Marley) will not see the debut. While in the theater, apparently by himself, he fell from the scaffolding and broke his neck. Suicide, accident, or murder? Sheriff Dan Rhodes leans toward murder. Was the play, commissioned by Marley, designed to reveal a long-ago secret? It takes a lot of digging, but Rhodes eventually learns that all four of the play's leads were friends of Marley's late sister, Gwen, who died years before in a one-car accident. The twenty-fourth Dan Rhodes mystery reprises the series' best qualities: sharp plotting, an omnipresent sense of humor, and a wry, self-aware protagonist. Rhodes understands people, small-town folks most of all. Insults and love affairs are never forgotten, just buried in very shallow graves.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)