Bill Crider Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.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
The Blacklin County Files | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Carl Burns Books
One Dead Dean | (1988) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Dying Voices | (1989) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Dangerous Thing | (1994) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Dead Soldiers | (2004) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Truman Smith Private Eye Books
Dead on the Island | (1991) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Gator Kill | (1992) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
When Old Men Die | (1994) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Prairie Chicken Kill | (1996) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Murder Takes a Break | (1997) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Mike Gonzo Books
Mike Gonzo and the Almost Invisible Man | (1996) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Mike Gonzo and the Sewer Monster | (1996) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Mike Gonzo and the UFO Terror | (1997) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Stanley Waters Books
Murder Under Blue Skies | (1998) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Murder in the Mist | (1999) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Professor Sally Good Books
Murder is an Art | (1999) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Knife In The Back | (2002) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Bond with Death | (2004) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Humphrey Bogart Books
We'll Always Have Murder | (2003) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Ted Stephens Books
Houston Homicide | (2007) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Mississippi Vivian | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Ellie Taine Books
Outrage at Blanco | (1998) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Texas Vigilante | (1999) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
Ryan Rides Back | (1988) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Keepers of the Beast | (1988) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Galveston Gunman | (1988) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Goodnight Moom | (1989) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Blood Dreams | (1989) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Time for Hanging | (1989) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Rest in Peace | (1990) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Medicine Show | (1990) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Vampire Named Fred | (1990) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Just Before Dark | (1990) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Blood Marks | (1991) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Texas Capitol Murders | (1992) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Girl Who Wanted to Be Sherlock Holmes | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas
My Heart Cries For You | (1992) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How I Found a Cat, Lost True Love, and Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo | (1995) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
At the Hop | (1999) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Chocolate Moose | (2001) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Death's Brother | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
What a Croc! | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
A Werewolf Named Wayne | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Cranked | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
The Nighttime is the Right Time | (1991) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Raining Willie & Cranked | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
I am a Roving Gambler | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Eight Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Publication Order of Adventures of Wishbone Books
Publication Order of The Dead Man Books
Publication Order of Anthologies
Obsessions | (1991) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Dark Destiny II: Proprietors of Fate | (1991) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Truth Until Paradox | (1994) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Dark Destiny | (1994) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Partners in Crime | (1994) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
How the West Was Read, Volume 2 | (1996) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
White House Horrors | (1996) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Once Upon a Crime | (1998) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | (1999) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Best of the American West II | (1999) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Murder, Mayhem and Mistletoe | (2001) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Death Dines at 8:30 | (2001) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories 3 | (2002) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Murder, My Dear Watson | (2002) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The World\\\'s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories: 4 | (2003) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Cross Plains Universe | (2006) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Spider Chronicles | (2007) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Many Bloody Returns | (2007) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Gift of Murder | (2009) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Beat to a Pulp: Round 1 | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Discount Noir | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Beat to a Pulp: Round 2 | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Lone Ranger Chronicles | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Making Story: Twenty-One Writers on How They Plot | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Wolf Creek: Kiowa Vengeance | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Showdown at Demon's Drop | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Wolf Creek: Night of the Assassins | (2013) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Dead But Not Forgotten | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part II: 1890 to 1895 | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Nine Deadly Lives | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Tales from the Otherverse | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Sherlock Holmes The Lady on the Bridge and other Stories | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Crime Cafe Short Story Anthology | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Silent Night, Deadly Night | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
The Further Crossovers of Sherlock Holmes | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Down & Out: The Magazine Volume 1 Issue 2 | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Down and Out the Magazine, Vol 2, Issue 2 | (2020) | Description / Buy at Amazon |
Bill Crider was one of the best mystery novel authors in America today. His work has won different awards like the Antony award (1987) for the best first novel. He is the author of multiple book series such as The Carl Burns series, Truman Smith series, Stanley Waters Sires, and the sally good sires. His books are filled with neck gripping suspense, something that will keep you craving for more.
Bill passed in February 2018 of cancer.
Early life
Bill Crider was born in Texas, Mexia (1941). He attended the university of Texas at Austin where he attained his undergraduate degree. He later went to the university of North Texas where he received his Masters in Arts Literature. Teaching has been his love. He taught English at the Howard Payne University for 12 years before writing a dissertation on the hard-boiled detective novel that earned him a PHD at the Texas University at Austin. After earning his degree, he moved his family to Alvin in Texas. Here he served as the chair of the Of Division English and fine arts at the AVIN community collage. He retired in 2003 to focus more on his writing career. This led him to establishing himself as a full term writer. He is the author of Professor Sally Good Sires, the Sheriff Dan Rhodes, Truman Smith PI series, books that he wrote under the pen name Jack Buchanan. In this article, I am going to sample some of his characters and books from his series. He has written very many mystery books, it is difficult to write a complete review of all his books so I will choose randomly.
Professor Carl Burns Series.
This series is based on the life of professor Carl Burns, A college tutor at the local Gorman collage. In Bill Crider’s book, “A dangerous thing”, Professor Carl Burns knows that the dean will to going to get worked up when she bought her two goats. This is the least problem in the dean’s mind since the school is being attacked. The attack is from political forces. The dean is new on top of being a hippie. The new dean comes with new policies and ideas, courses have to be rewritten, everyone has to watch their manners, unless they want to step on the dean’s toes, something that will have to be paid for dearly. Every one was expecting Burns to be the next dean since she was the most qualified candidate. The drama thickens as Tom Henderson’s falls through the window and sustained fatal injuries. This was not part of the curriculum and leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Burns takes it upon himself to figure out who did it, as this was far more interesting than grading boring developmental papers for his English class. Through this series, Bill Crider manages to shed some light on the daily life of a collage professor. He manages to show the world that being a professor is more that wearing an oxford sweater, some geeky glasses and spending your entire life in a library. He makes being a proffesor fun!
PI Truman Series.
This series is based on the life and adventures of one Galveston PI Truman Smith. He is a private detective and in the fourth book of the series “When old men die”, he is hired by his old high school class mate, the unpleasant Lance Garrison, to investigate the shooting incident involving a prairie chicken in his federally protected estate. Though Smith is reluctant to accept the assignment, his defenses crumple and he undertakes to uncover the secrets behind the shooting. The main reason why smith accepts the assignment is because his high school lover, Anne Lindeman is now living in Picket Ville. The prime suspect of the shooting is an anti government talk-radio host, Ralph Evans who airs his concerns for endangered species by advertising a spotted Owl in A can. The plot thickens when Smith and Red Lindeman get shot at as they explore the scene of chime. Red is Anne’s father in law. The owner of the radio station where Ralph works, who is Anne’s husband, is shot to death. A local bird watcher, Martin York is charged with the murder by the police chief Ward Peavey. Things begin falling in place when Smith discovers that a number of prisoners have already died in wards cell. He discovers deception, lies and treachery.
For those looking for a good book to read, a book to keep you glued to its pages from beginning to the end, the Crider is the man to read. He manages to weave suspense, reality and irony in his books. His hero’s are as smart and sharp as they come. He will keep you smiling with his Texas talk. Each new Crider book comes out better than the last, the characters more developed, the plot and setting more defined and the scene more realistic. He will give you one mean murder story that will end with the hero walking tall or even sometimes crawling! That is how unpredictable Crider is. His books are faced paced; he manages to leave the reader breathless as he takes you through the daily adventures of his heroes. He also has a very good command of the English language. His sentences are well structured with a musical touch. You will find your self-singing along instead of reading.
Book Series In Order » Authors »
I just finished my first Bill Crider book “Dead, to begin with”. Sherriff Rhodes mystery. Totally enjoyed and intend to find more of Bill Crider’s books to enjoy!
So glad you enjoyed it, Pat!
Bill Crider died of cancer in February 2018. His last Sheriff Dan Rhodes book, That Old Scoundrel Death, was published in February 2019.