Booked for a Hanging

As this sixth book in the series opens, the merry month of March has come to Blacklin County, Texas. Computers have come as well as Hack finally has one. Dispatcher for the small department, Hack has been pushing for a computer and all that one can do for years. Getting sued does have at least one advantage as the County Commissioners have increased the budget of the sheriff's department. The computer is one of several items that the County Commissioners finally allowed to be purchased. While Hack is absolutely giddy over it, Rhodes isn't impressed. Rhodes doesn't think much of computers as he prefers to investigate the old fashioned way by asking a lot of questions. He gets his chance when a man stumbles into the office out of the dark and windy night. The man is Hal Brame, a book dealer out of Houston. He says he was out in Obert to meet with Simon Graham. He couldn't find Graham, but something weird was going on out there at the abandoned college. Years ago, Simon bought the land and buildings with great plans for restoration. Unfortunately, he hasn't done much since and lives pretty much by himself out there though there are a couple of neighbors nearby. Brame convinces Sheriff Rhodes to drive out and take a look around. While Sheriff Rhodes doesn't find any sign of what Brame says he saw, he does find a very dead Simon Graham hanging from a rafter on the third floor of one of the buildings. What initially appears to be a suicide is soon determined to be a murder with quite a cast of suspects. Showing the same down home folksy style as other novels in the series, this book released in 1992 does not disappoint. While Susan, Sheriff Rhodes daughter who is a school teacher in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, does not appear and isn't mentioned, almost all of the other usual recurring characters make another appearance. Rather surprisingly, the recent marriage of Ivy and Dan is hardly referred to at all and Ivy only makes a couple of appearances as a sounding board to discuss the various cases. One hopes this is not a trend in the series as Ivy brings an interesting angle to things by her presence. Instead of what was expected given the recent nuptials, this novel is primarily all about Sheriff Rhodes and how he works cases. Those who prefer by the book police procedurals my become annoyed as Rhodes frequently still goes into situations without backup and neglects to report his locations via the radio. Inadvertently, by doing so, astute readers who have been paying attention through the series can easily predict when mayhem involving the Sheriff will happen. Despite that fact, author Bill Crider still manages to put a couple of twists in this story that are guaranteed to surprise a lot of readers. Along the way he tells another engaging tale of the people and life in Blacklin County, Texas. So, put your feet up and sit a spell because this too is a good one. Kevin R. Tipple (copright) 2008

Obert is a tiny settlement in Blackin County, Texas, and Sheriff Dan Rhodes doesn't usually have much cause to go there. But when a used book dealer from Houston is found dead, hanging from the rafters in a vacant building in Obert, Rhodes finds himself spending a lot of time in that area. Evidently more than one person is interested in finding "Tamerlane and Other Poems," a rare pamphlet written by Edgar Allan Poe. Simon Graham, deceased, is said to have last had it. Several out-of-towners show up in Obert, looking for "Tamerlane." Did one of them off Graham in order to get the book? Or was Graham killed by Cy Appleby, a violent cattle-rustler and wife-beater who lives within spitting distance of Graham's property? And how much do Claude and Clyde, Cy's twin sons, know about Graham's hanging? As usual, Rhodes has more than just one investigation to work on. Ten of Adkin's cows are missing. The town librarian thinks that someone is unduly "censoring" paperback books by using white-out to cover "bad" words in the texts. The county has also finally entered the computer age, and Hack Jensen back at the jail is gleefully accessing information through the Internet. And then there's Ivy, the new Mrs. Dan Rhodes. The sheriff warned her about his erratic schedule, and she seems to be able to adapt to his duties. She's already getting him to eat better and on a more regular basis. "Booked for a Hanging" is a worthy episode in this series. And the book-related plot may attract readers of Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr series as well as readers of John Dunning's books. The plot here is thinner but is still entertaining.