Wed 14 Apr 2010
Reviewed by Marvin Lachman: BILL CRIDER – Cursed to Death.
Posted by Steve under Bibliographies, Lists & Checklists , Characters , Reviews[2] Comments
by Marvin Lachman
BILL CRIDER – Cursed to Death. Walker, hardcover, 1988. Paperback reprint: Ivy, 1990.
Vol. 10, No. 4, Fall 1988.
We’re back in Blacklin County, Texas, for Cursed to Death, the third in the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series, and it is a pleasure to be there again.
The pace is relaxed, the main characters decent, and the mystery involving the disappearance of a dentist against whom someone had leveled a curse is reasonably challenging. The time is just before Christmas, and the holiday season always provides a nice contrast when one is reading about crime.
There aren’t a whole lot of clues and there is a bit of padding involving several fracases at a local nursing home. Also, Rhodes keeps getting into fights and dangerous situations because, like Pronzini’s Nameless, he doesn’t like to draw his gun.
Still, the book is extremely readable, and one walks away satisfied after spending a couple of hours in rural Texas, without either air fare or jet lag.
The Sheriff Dan Rhodes series —
1. Too Late to Die (1986)
2. Shotgun Saturday Night (1987)
3. Cursed to Death (1988)
4. Death on the Move (1989)
5. Evil at the Root (1990)
6. Booked for a Hanging (1992)
7. Murder Most Fowl (1994)
8. Winning Can Be Murder (1996)
9. Death By Accident (1997)
10. A Ghost of a Chance (2000)
11. A Romantic Way to Die (2001)
12. Red, White, and Blue Murder (2003)
13. A Mammoth Murder (2006)
14. Murder Among the O.W.L.S. (2007)
15. Of All Sad Words (2008)
16. Murder in Four Parts (2009)
17. Murder in the Air (2010)
April 14th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
What a remarkably consistent series, each one as good as the next. Having to shamefacedly admit I haven’t read them all yet — but I’m getting there — I think Marv’s review could serve as a template for each and every one of them.
Just change a few sentences to describe the new plot as each one comes along, leave the rest, and hey presto, you’ve just reviewed the latest one.
— Steve
April 15th, 2010 at 12:20 am
On top of everything else, the books are set in the Texas I grew up in. Like Edward Mathis’s Dan Roman books, these pass the “I been there” test — which is rare in mysteries set in Texas, which often seem more set in some Hollywood version of the state than the reality.