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Dan Rhodes Books In Order

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Publication Order of Sheriff Dan Rhodes Books

Too Late to Die (1986)Description / Buy at Amazon
Shotgun Saturday Night (1987)Description / Buy at Amazon
Cursed to Death (1988)Description / Buy at Amazon
Death on the Move (1989)Description / Buy at Amazon
Evil at the Root (1990)Description / Buy at Amazon
Booked for a Hanging (1992)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder Most Fowl (1994)Description / Buy at Amazon
Winning Can Be Murder (1996)Description / Buy at Amazon
Death by Accident (1998)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Ghost of a Chance (2000)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Romantic Way to Die (2001)Description / Buy at Amazon
Red, White, and Blue Murder (2003)Description / Buy at Amazon
A Mammoth Murder (2006)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder Among the OWLS (2007)Description / Buy at Amazon
Of All Sad Words (2008)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder in Four Parts (2009)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder in the Air (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Wild Hog Murders (2011)Description / Buy at Amazon
Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen (2012)Description / Buy at Amazon
Compound Murder (2013)Description / Buy at Amazon
Half in Love with Artful Death (2014)Description / Buy at Amazon
Between the Living and the Dead (2015)Description / Buy at Amazon
Survivors Will Be Shot Again (2016)Description / Buy at Amazon
Dead, to Begin With (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon
That Old Scoundrel Death (2019)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Sheriff Dan Rhodes Collections

By: Bill Crider, Judy Crider
The Blacklin County Files (2012)Description / Buy at Amazon

There are those books you read, and you try to imagine how you would react if you met with one of the characters that have been developed by the author. Now imagine that character being found in more than one book but series of a book. One such character is Dan Rhodes, who gets found in most of Bill Crider series. Bill Crider is an American author born in 1941 in Texas and gets well known for writing Mystery fiction and has authored a number of series including Dan Rhodes series. So, what is the story behind Dan Rhodes and who is he in all Bill Crider fictions?

Dan Rhodes in this series done by Bill Crider happens to be a sheriff in Blacklin County in Texas. Bill has portrayed Dan as one man that you as a reader would love to meet and even share an apartment with in life. Dan appears to be a character which when given a chance to meet, every user would probably wish him to be a neighbor and the best friend. Though he has lost his wife, Dan still continues to be a good father to their daughter, Kathy, who has been left behind by her mother. Apart from being a good dad and loving husband still mourning the death of his wife, Dan continues to do the work he is paid to do.

Dan Rhodes lives in a community that expects him to behave in a certain way and sometimes he has to bow down and gives in to this pressure. He, however, does this in a polite way that leaves one with a lot of admiration for this sheriff. Though he takes his job with some seriousness, he never takes himself too serious for life itself. Being in the civil service of Texas, he lets the air out of his fellow civil servants who consider themselves as the high and mighty. Who would not like such a person to be his friend and if possible a neighbor?

The two early series of Dan Rhodes that Bill Crider wrote are Too Late to Die and Shotgun Saturday Night written in Jul 1986 and September 1987 respectively. So, let’s try to understand the traits of Dan Rhodes based on these earliest series by Bill Crider. Here is a brief description of these two books that opened Bill to the fictional word.

In the book of Dan Rhodes series, Too Late to Die, Bill Crider introduces us a series of mystery which Dan Rhodes, who is a sheriff, has to solve. We start this series at Blacklin County, and the peace that the residents enjoyed is disrupted with the murder of Jeanne Clinton in her home. Jeanne was a talkative woman and was the late-night confidant of several men in the society. The men always visited while Jeanne’s husband worked the night shift. As Dan is called to carry on the investigation, he feels like giving up when an informant gets killed right before his eyes. The killing is even more complicated when we are made to understand that this is an election year. All these make Dan Rhodes to worry so much. Working with deputies has not made things any better for Dan as one of Dan Rhode’s deputies might be guilty of assaulting citizens as he wishes. Another candidate for sheriff position might have stopped by the deceased house once or twice. On the election trail, Rhodes who is a widower starts a friendship with a window Ivy Daniels. The book Too Late to Die opens a reader to a number of mysteries that are going to follow, and the reader can’t resist from going on with the series. Bill throws a spanner somewhere when he makes us learn that Rhodes is out of step in matters of technology though it’s not about being ignorant. Rhodes seems sometimes to take and never considers all that he finds will be of importance to him as he tries to solve the murder. Dan believes in his instincts, and he quickly knows how to interact with people, talk to them and listens to all their stories as he tries to unearth the murder.

The second of Dan Rhodes series is one called Shotgun Saturday Night where Rhodes has to investigate another mysterious death. It all starts almost where the first book, Too Late to Die ends. Rhodes gets a number of arms and legs that have been found in Blacklin County. The matter becomes more complicated when the man who had found these bones gets murdered leaving Dan stranded. As Rhodes tries to unearth this case, he risks his life. When Bert discovers a number of boxes as he cleared the bush, he is tempted to open them. What he finds in the first corrugated cardboard forces Bert not to open any more of them. Bert decides to ask Dan to go there and open them himself, but he is also not willing to do it.

Sheriff Rhodes believes that this can’t be true since the county is too small. According to him, no one is missing from the county. So, Rhodes concludes that the boxes are not from the region but people from somewhere else with someone dumping the boxes there and going back. Crime, murder, and even romance take center stage in this series by Bill Crider.

We now have Rhodes living all by himself after his daughter, Kathy, has already taken a teaching job in Richardson. Romance takes a center stage as Rhodes and Ivy Daniel have some growing romance. Now Dan is all by himself, and this gives him time to test his water in love where Rhodes has been performing so poorly. Dan has never dated someone else since the time of Claire. We have Rhodes struggling to solve the murder and still be able to make some progress in his search for romance.

With these two opening books for Bill Cider under Dan Rhodes series, Bill has been able to help us keep looking forward to more of his fictional books that are more than entertaining apart from being mysterious.

Book Series In Order » Characters » Dan Rhodes

2 Responses to “Dan Rhodes”

  1. Lee Rowan: 3 years ago

    I don’t have or want a Kindle. Are the stories in “Blacklin County Files” available in any other format — for instance, collections of short stories with one of the Dan Rhodes stories in them? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Graeme: 3 years ago

      Unfortunately not. You could always get the Kindle App on your computer, phone or tablet and read that way.

      Reply

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