Bill Crider

Following Booked for a Hanging, Anthony Award-winner Bill Crider brings back his amiable, computer-phobic sheriff Dan Rhodes to investigate a murder that may or may not be related to a recent wave of emu-rustling. For an officer of the law, Blacklin County, Texas, used to be pretty peaceful, but now, what with the emu-rustling, cockfights, and protests at the new Wal-Mart store not to mention murder Sheriff Dan Rhodes has his hands full. Hit hard...

He's smart, he's attractive, and he has a special vision: whenever he sees the blood marks on a woman--marks only he can see--he knows what he must do.Kill her. Brutally. And not leave a trace of himself behind.Nine women have died so far. And pretty Casey Buckner may be next. A young divorcee who's recently moved into an apartment complex near the Astrodome, Casey's already met three men in the building: a married accountant, a single writer, and...

Dr. Sally Good, head of the English and Fine Arts Division of the Hughes Community College in Texas, has her hands full. On top of dealing with the numerous complaints from testy faculty members concerning the allocation of the department's budget, she must also conduct an inquiry into the recent misbehavior of the department's philandering art professor, Val Hurley, who stands accused of molesting a young female student. And then there is the complaint...

"Ellie Taine was a newlywed working the dry land in 1880s Texas when the desperados came. They killed her husband, raped her and left her for dead. But she hunted them down and, along the way, found an inner strength that no man can match. Now ruthless killer Angel Ware has engineered a bold escape from a prison wagon. Blaming his sister Sue for his arrest, Angel and his gang track her down to Ellie's ranch, mount a bloody attack, and take Sue's child....

Anthony Award-winning author Crider delivers the 14th book in his highly acclaimed smalltown Texas series. When a black cat appears on Sheriff Dan Rhodes's doorstep, it leads him into a murder investigation in which he soon deals with a women's literary society, a Red Hat club, a metal-detecting group, illegal gambling, and a chainsaw attack.

One hot summer morning, big, tough Bud Turley brings an enormous tooth into the Blacklin County police station and asks Sheriff Dan Rhodes to keep it for him until the paleontologist from the community college comes up to examine it. Turley insists that the tooth is proof that Bigfoot roams the woods, unless it is from a prehistoric animal, which Rhodes thinks is more likely. But Turley's buddy Larry Colley has maintained for years that he's seen...

"There's no such thing as a day off for a sheriff. Even in a small Texas town like Clearview, there's always something going on for law enforcement. Still, most days don't involve a run-in with an alligator. And that's not the worst of Sheriff Dan Rhode's troubles, either. There's a dead man in Billy Bacon's barn, through Bacon swears he doesn't know how the body got there. Rhodes is a bit skeptical, given that the intruder has been shot twice and...