I've heard lots of other authors talking about Bill Crider and I thought I would check out one of his books. "Too Late To Die" was the first in the series featuring Dan Rhodes. While the book was written great, not a wasted sentence or word in the book, I just never felt anything for the main character or any of the other characters fpr that matter. So I think this will be a one and done. ( )

Bill Crider's Dan Rhodes mystery series is one that I've been meaning to get around to reading for a long time. Many of you know how it goes. But a recent recommendation nudged me in the right direction, and I picked up this first book in the series.

I enjoyed Crider's gentle sense of humor throughout the book. Whenever Sheriff Dan Rhodes has to tell someone something he (or she) doesn't want to hear, the first thought through his mind is, "Well, there goes another vote." Rhodes is a genuinely nice guy who's fairly well acquainted with all the folks in his county. Speaking of those folks, Crider's provided his sheriff with a good supporting cast, including his daughter Kathy, Mrs. Wilkie (who has the hots for this widowed lawman), and Ivy, a strong, intelligent woman who's running for justice of the peace. The only problem is, he doesn't always make use of that supporting cast. He likes to ponder a case, and when he thinks he may have all the puzzle pieces in the proper places, he runs off to check it out all by his lonesome. I can see times where that's not going to be such a good idea.

With a main character who has an independent turn of mind, it's a good thing Bill Crider has a lot of talent when it comes to adding elements of surprise and writing action sequences. I can see that this is a series that I'm probably going to enjoy a lot. I may even wind up adding Dan Rhodes to my list of favorite fictional sheriffs. ( )

Two different bloggers sent highly favourable reviews of books in this series ON THE SAME DAY. I took it as a sign from the universe that I should find the first in the series, although it is out-of-print. It was well worth the effort it took to track it down.

This is my new favourite sheriff-mystery series. ( )

My exposure to Texas consists of a couple of hours in Dallas airport and binge-watching Friday Night Lights so I won’t claim any expertise on the subject but TOO LATE TO DIE seemed to me to have a very authentic sense of place. Our guide is Dan Rhodes who is, at least for the next little while, the Sheriff of Blacklin County which is, I think, fictional in name but not in essence. The small towns, getting smaller by the day as jobs dry up, and rural areas that make up Rhodes’ jurisdiction have a realistic sensibility, as do the people Rhodes and his deputies serve. The crimes are…ordinary for want of a better word. No serial killers or the like. Just bad luck and bad judgement for the most part. The first crime we learn about as the book opens is that a small grocery store has been robbed and the store owner looks unlikely to vote for Rhodes unless he can find the culprit pretty quickly. But Rhodes is soon too busy to court that particular vote as the body of a young married woman is found in her home. The investigation into this murder uncovers several people with secrets they’d prefer to keep hidden and places suspicion on a young mentally challenged man. The case unfolds at a slower pace than a big city story might do but this is more to do with the lack of resources afforded the Blacklin County Sheriff’s office than any inherent slowness on Rhodes’ part. Plus even though locals care about what happened to Jeanne Clinton they also expect their law enforcement officers to take care of all the smaller issues affecting their communities so even what meagre resources are available have to be shared.

As with all good crime series the central character has to engage the reader on several levels and Dan Rhodes nails it. A relatively recent widower with an adult daughter living at home and facing an election battle for his job Rhodes is immediately likable due to his sense of humour and his sense of honour. He doesn’t rush to judgement or act on scant evidence, even when this puts him at a disadvantage. I was – as ever – equally fascinated and disturbed by the concept of an elected law enforcement officer (not something that exists in my part of the world) but Rhodes is the kind of guy you’d appoint to such a job if it was filled in the more usual way. The other characters, including a love interest and a couple of wily old blokes acting as near-volunteer labour for the Sheriff’s office, round things out nicely.

The pace of TOO LATE TO DIE does pick up towards the end of the story as a suspect is cornered. This kind of ‘thriller-style’ element is often jarring in a book that has been quite low key up to that point, but Crider does a good job of making this ramping up of tension feel natural. And scary.

Really the only downside to this reading experience is that there are more than 20 books in this series now and I’m unlikely to ever catch up given how much else I have to read. But I definitely plan to re-visit Bill Crider’s version of Texas, even if I have to dip in and out of the series rather than read everything. As with all the best books in this genre the crime element of TOO LATE TO DIE is really only a backdrop for a good writer to tell compelling stories about interesting people. That he does so without gratuitous violence or unnecessary length makes me extra fond of Bill Crider.