Blanco County Mysteries Books In Order

Publication Order of Blanco County Mysteries Books

The Blanco County Mysteries are a wacky series full of humor and lots of unexplained events. Well, that’s until the good ol’ game warden and star of the hilarious series steps onto the stage to save the day, yours truly, John Marlin.

He is the man in charge of keeping law and order in the wild and protects the animals from illegal poachers, but for some funny reason, he always seems to end up in the middle of weird murder investigations that include more people than animals! All these fictional events in this series take place in the Blanco County, Texas, the land of hot sun, cold beers!

Ben Rehder, brings out the plots creatively and in fact, other writers like Tim Dorsey have compared his writing style to that of one of the greatest writers of our time, Carl Hiaasen. Dorsey Calls him the “Hiaasen of Texas”. Rehder is an established writer who majored in English at the University of Texas. Before turning to writing novels, he was a creative writer in the advertising industry… probably where he honed his out-of-this-world humorous writing style exhibited in the Blanco Country Mysteries and all his other books. Ads have to be catchy, otherwise they flop… Rehder has definitely used this experience because he has a way of telling his stories in crooked, but well-cooked plots that still manage to bring out the endless fight between good and evil in a world where deception and temptations are endemic.

FYI: Check out his titles in the series… all of them are two-word titles! As you can clearly tell, they are snappy, short, yet captivating… all which point to Rehder’s background in the advertising industry.

Much of the series centers on crime investigation with some fun touch of the Texan hunting culture. And John Marlin is the man standing right in the middle of it all.

The mystery series follows the life of Marlin, a game warden, as he tries to lead a normal life despite the ups and downs of Blanco County. A place which turns out to be a not so normal place… The things he has to endure and fix can drive any normal man to the brink of insanity… or worse… dead. But again, Marlin is not your regular Joe either. Funny that he survives the series after nearly dying in the first installment of the series, Rehder’s debut novel titled “Buck Fever”. Two other major characters that keep things bubbly throughout the series are the poaching duo of Billy Don Craddock and Red O’Brien, who are involved in the debut novel’s first case where Marlin’s friend and county biologist Trey Sweeny accidentally gets shot by the two while in a drunken stupor.

But wait… what was Sweeny doing in a deer costume? Red and Billy Don had shot at two regular mating deer… so why was there a talking deer instead?

Marlin is called in after the dead body is discovered after an anonymous 911 call made by Red gets a response. This case throws Marlin off balance and it get him thinking that maybe he’s not cut out for Blanco County… maybe this place was too weird for him…? With the hectic deer hunting open season only weeks away, everyone in Blanco County is in a frenzy and things keep getting too thick too fast for Marlin. Can he handle it? And who are these Colombians who just walked into town? What’s their true intention?

The “Buck Fever” has more hilarious characters such as the veterinarian Tim, who gets high on canine tranquilizers to function properly, and then there’s Becky the beautiful nurse and Phil, Marlin’s friend who help our antagonist solve the mysteries.

The game warden thinks that he has seen a lot in his years, but Blanco County is a different plate of soup. The kind that’s hard to keep down; but Marlin is determined to make it work. He is determined to get to the bottom of all this madness. It turns out to be the longest weekend this game warden has ever had to live through as many more people find themselves in the way of flying bullets!

The second installment in this series titled “Bone Dry” presents our game warden antagonist with more perplexing cases to solve; which include a gorgeous 6 foot tall blonde woman disarming hunters in the wild by seducing them, a dead hunter, a loud-mouthed new resident from New York named Sal Mameli who seems bent on taking control of Blanco County together with his buffed up son Vinnie and his live in Guatemalan housekeeper who turns out to be doing more than just housekeeping. The intriguing events that follow leave Marlin and the Sheriff running around in circles as more inexplicable bodies keep popping up all over Blanco County. It is yet another crazy hunting season in Blanco.

John Marlin continues to battle more mysteries as the series progresses like in “Flat Crazy” where he encounters a half-naked immigrant ranting about seeing the legendary Chupcabra before disappearing without a trace and turning up again dead with deep fang marks. Then there are the Chinese who show up with a sinister scheme of their own… The adventure and mystery never seems to end in Blanco County! However, the author brings out Marlin’s character as one of integrity, decisiveness, curious, daring and witty.

The Blanco County Mysteries are a must read for all those who love detective like plots sprinkled with a pinch of Texan salt. It will take you on a wild roller coaster ride as strange events take place and a simple game warden’s world is thrown into a whirlwind. How does he handle it all? You just have to get your first copy of the series to find out… Guaranteed you will not stop until the series is done… which could mean a few weeks of total inactivity! The Edgar nominated Rehder will keep you guessing at every turn in this series full of captivating and mind twisting relationships between men and beasts.

State senator blackmailed using compromising X-rated photos, drunk poachers, beautiful blondes, strange animals, national scandals, dead illegal immigrants, unusual fetishes, questionable televangelists, major cover ups, suspicious reality show families, dead inventors, and much, much more. John Marlin has his hands full!

The series is a warped fictitious tale of corruption, murder, paleontology and infidelity among other social issues. Every story reads so well that the characters become real! The Blanco County Mysteries series is a masterpiece.