Bill Crider Books in Order

The murder of talkative Jeanne Clinton exposes affairs, politics, and election-year pressure in Blacklin County. Dan Rhodes's first case shows how dangerous small-town secrets can be.

A murdered man with gang tattoos brings Los Muertos, a violent motorcycle gang, into Blacklin County. Dan Rhodes has to untangle city trouble that has rolled straight into his quiet patch of Texas.

A dentist's complaint about witchcraft sounds ridiculous until he disappears and his wife is found bludgeoned. Dan Rhodes has to investigate murder under a cloud of hexes and feuds.

After three desperados rob and nearly kill him, Lee Strate follows them from near Houston to Galveston. What starts as revenge widens into a larger plot with race violence and political danger.

Crider's Jack MacLane horror novel pits ordinary people against a threat that grows more savage the closer it comes. It is compact, pulpy, and built to move.

When a college dean is killed, English professor Carl Burns gets drawn into a campus investigation full of vanity, resentment, and secrets. It is a smart academic mystery with a dry streak.

Ryan returns to Tularosa after years away, determined to see his sister's killer hang, only to suspect the wrong man is about to die. His ride home becomes a hunt for the real truth.

After the preacher's daughter is murdered, a Mexican teenager becomes the town's easy scapegoat. Sheriff Ward Vincent has to dig past rage and prejudice to find the truth.

A boy's nightmares start coming true just as a meticulous killer moves closer. Crider sets a child's frightening visions against a grown-up horror story with real bite.

Missing valuables at a funeral home are bad enough, then another corpse appears stuffed in a closet. Dan Rhodes has to decide whether the two ugly problems are connected.

Professor Carl Burns gets caught in another campus mystery where talk is cheap and the truth is hard to pin down. Faculty politics and real danger make an uneasy combination.

A brutal family history creates the monster at the center of this nasty small-town horror tale. Once the violence starts moving, it does not slow down.

This kid-friendly spooky adventure gives Crider room to have fun with monster lore. Fred may be a vampire, but the tone stays lively and approachable for younger readers.

What starts with a complaint about stolen dentures at a nursing home turns grim when their owner is found murdered. Dan Rhodes has to sort out old grudges, a missing suspect, and chaos at the local jail.

Murder, revenge, and hints of reincarnation drive this lean horror novel forward. Crider keeps the setup simple and lets the menace build quickly.

Ray Storey plays Kit Carson in a traveling medicine show while secretly hunting the men who killed his parents. The western mixes performance, pursuit, and a showdown that has been coming for years.

This Jack MacLane horror novel turns an apparently ordinary death into mounting fear and violence. It has the quick, pulpy momentum Crider brought to his darker books.

Nine women have been brutally killed in Houston, and the police finally realize they may be hunting a serial murderer. Detective Howland and psychologist Dan Romain race to stop him before Casey Buckner becomes the next target.

Galveston private eye Truman Smith takes on a case that exposes the island's shadier edges. The coastal setting gives the mystery a relaxed surface and a rough underside.

This collection brings together eleven stories ranging from series sleuths to monsters and oddball crimes. It is the best quick sample of how wide Crider's short fiction could roam.

A search for a stolen rare Poe book opens into murder in Blacklin County. Dan Rhodes follows the case through booksellers, gossip, and the usual small-town complications.

Truman Smith works another Gulf Coast case where the local landscape is as dangerous as the people. The mood is hardboiled, but the setting keeps it firmly Texan.

A brief crime tale about longing, regret, and the trouble that follows when old feelings will not stay buried. Crider keeps it tight and emotionally sharp.

Texas Ranger Ray Hartnett investigates murder inside the state capitol, where political vanity and private appetite make a deadly mix. The book has fun with Austin politics without losing the case.

Professor Carl Burns gets pulled into trouble when violence touches his small college world again. The academic talk is lively, but the danger around him is anything but theoretical.

Dan Rhodes has emu thefts, cockfights, anti-big-box protests, and then a dead man floating in a portable toilet. Crider turns rural absurdity into a genuinely satisfying mystery.

Truman Smith reluctantly helps hunt for a missing old man, only to find murder and gunfire waiting almost immediately. It is a tough private-eye case with dry humor and Texas atmosphere.

In this witty mystery, Monte Carlo glamour, gambling trouble, and a missing cat collide. Crider plays the whole thing with a light hand and a crooked smile.

Mike Gonzo goes after another apparently impossible mystery when a nearly invisible menace shows up. Crider keeps the pace quick and the scares fun rather than grim.

Strange stories from below ground send Mike Gonzo into a messy, scary, and very kid-sized investigation. It is monster fun built like a brisk mystery.

Galveston PI Truman Smith takes a case that leads him into rural Texas, where old habits and present danger mix badly. The title is quirky, the trouble is not.

Blacklin County is celebrating a rare winning football season when the team's offensive coach is murdered. Dan Rhodes has to solve it fast before the town's big dream turns sour.

Mike Gonzo faces his weirdest challenge yet when rumors of UFOs stop sounding silly. It is a fast, funny young-reader adventure with just enough science-fiction flavor.

Truman Smith never gets much peace, and this case proves it again. A seeming pause in the action turns into another Galveston-area investigation full of danger and bad luck.

Wishbone imagines himself as d'Artagnan in a playful spin on *The Three Musketeers*. The story pairs swashbuckling daydreams with the kind of warm, kid-friendly problem solving the series does well.

A man walking with a gas can is hit, explodes, and starts a run of deaths Dan Rhodes cannot dismiss as bad luck. The sheriff has to find the link before more people die.

Retired weatherman Stanley Waters hopes his quieter Virginia life will stay quiet, but local trouble and murder blow in anyway. The setup is cozy, the resentments are not.

In 1880s Texas, a gang's raid on Blanco leaves Ellie Taine brutalized and her husband dead. What follows is a hard western about survival, grief, and the need for justice.

This nostalgic short mystery uses music, memory, and one bad night to spark trouble. It has the easy pace and sly humor that suit Crider's shorter work.

Retired weatherman Stanley Waters helps with a Civil War reenactment in tiny Higgins, Virginia, only to have real gunfire leave him wounded and a businessman dead. Local grudges do the rest.

When a killing near her Gulf Coast community college seems headed toward an easy explanation, Sally Good starts noticing what the police miss. Her practical eye makes her a sharp amateur sleuth.

Ellie Taine is still carrying the damage of Blanco, but she has not given up on justice. This western follows her through a hard country where revenge and survival keep crossing paths.

Rumors of a haunted jail are funny until Dan Rhodes runs into a corpse in an open grave. This case blends ghost talk, small-town comedy, and solid police work.

A romance writers' conference comes to Clearview, bringing cover models, aspiring novelists, and more ego than Sheriff Dan Rhodes wants to handle. Then one attendee turns up dead.

A light setup involving food and company takes a darker turn in this playful short mystery. Crider turns a small situation into a quick, tidy puzzle.

Department chair Sally Good has to untangle a campus case built on grudges, ambition, and betrayal. Crider keeps the academic setting grounded and the mystery moving.

A heat wave, corruption charges from a reporter, and a dead county commissioner make for a rough stretch in Blacklin County. Dan Rhodes has to keep his cool while local politics flare up.

In 1940s Hollywood, private eye Terry Scott teams up with Humphrey Bogart when blackmail and murder threaten to become a studio scandal. It is a playful mystery with real noir energy.

Sally Good faces a case where personal ties and hidden motives make a simple explanation impossible. It is an academic mystery with sharp observation and steady suspense.

Professor Carl Burns gets drawn into another academic mystery where old loyalties, campus tension, and a very real death collide. The book keeps its focus on character even as the danger grows.

One of Dan Rhodes's strangest cases starts with an odd discovery and grows into murder. Crider mixes rural Texas humor with a puzzle rooted in local greed and curiosity.

Set in 1969, this crime novel follows homicide sergeant Ted Stephens through a tough Houston murder case. It has the feel of a police story driven by street work instead of glamour.

When a neighbor's cat leads Dan Rhodes to a dead woman, a supposed household accident starts looking like murder. Clubs, old romances, and small-town gossip widen the suspect list.

Newcomers bring trouble to Blacklin County, and Dan Rhodes soon finds that fresh faces can carry old secrets. The case stays low-key on the surface and thorny underneath.

A local barbershop quartet and a community music event turn deadly in this Dan Rhodes case. Small-town performance and backstage resentments make a neat harmony for murder.

Ted Stephens goes to a small Mississippi town looking into insurance fraud, then finds himself surrounded by fresh murders and old secrets. The easy job vanishes fast.

The owner of a foul-smelling chicken farm turns up murdered, and nobody in Blacklin County is exactly grieving. Dan Rhodes has to sort through protests, grudges, and a mysterious arrow-shooting troublemaker.

This offbeat story gives a werewolf mystery the same dry humor Crider brought to his crime fiction. It is strange, fast, and more fun than solemn.

A lean, dark crime story about family ties and violence that feels both sudden and inevitable. It is brief, pointed, and hard to shake.

Shirley Holmes is sure she descends from Sherlock, and when a murder hits her high school, she decides to prove it. With a willing Watson beside her, she dives straight into the case.

Feral hogs are already making life miserable in Blacklin County when Dan Rhodes has to track a human killer too. The mix of rural nuisance and real danger is classic Rhodes territory.

Crider mixes creature-feature fun with quick suspense in this brisk short piece. What starts as an odd problem keeps growing until the joke has real teeth.

A traveling carnival brings more than cheap thrills, and Matt Cahill can feel something wrong before anyone else does. When people start dying, he has to dig into the show’s secrets and face what’s hiding behind the lights.

A drifting gambler rides into the kind of trouble luck alone cannot fix. This short western tale keeps its cards close until the end.

Sheriff Dan Rhodes steps into a small-town case full of gossip, vanity, and hurt feelings when a beauty shop queen is murdered. Everyone seems to know something, and nobody tells the whole truth.

This volume pairs two short crime stories, including the Edgar-nominated Cranked. Together they show Crider shifting easily from sly humor to genuine menace.

This collection gathers five Sheriff Dan Rhodes stories full of crooks, cats, cattle, and quiet Texas humor. It is a compact way to sample the world of Blacklin County.

When an English instructor is found dead outside the community college, Dan Rhodes arrests a fleeing student, then realizes the case is far from simple. Campus grudges and a survivalist father complicate everything.

A visiting artists' workshop brings tension to town, then a loud local critic winds up dead. Dan Rhodes has vandalism, runaway donkeys, meth cooks, and murder on his hands.

Gunshots at a haunted house leave a meth dealer dead and Sheriff Dan Rhodes juggling suspects, ghost hunters, and a second body. The paranormal talk is funny until the violence turns very real.

A dead man in Billy Bacon's barn points Sheriff Dan Rhodes toward thefts, trespassing, and a sign that may be more truth than joke. An alligator on the loose makes the case even messier.

In Clearview, a wealthy man dies inside the old opera house he is restoring, and Sheriff Dan Rhodes has to decide whether it was accident or murder. Small-town distractions keep piling up while he works the case.

These eight original Holmes pastiches send Sherlock and Watson through fresh cases written by a lifelong mystery fan. They are affectionate, readable, and built for quick visits to Baker Street.

A roadside attack puts Dan Rhodes in the path of a thug with a snake tattoo and a much bigger case. What begins with a good deed turns into the sheriff's final investigation.