No bull—Ben Rehder’s “Bum Steer” is an entertaining read

Sept. 18, 2015, Boerne Star

     When Billy Don Craddock shoved $142,000 in chips onto a Vegas casino blackjack table, his good buddy Red O’Brien felt like the quart of cheap beer in his stomach was going to erupt. Half of the money that Billy Don just bet belonged to Red. When Billy Don first bragged to Red a few months ago that he was a damn good blackjack player, Red thought it was liquor talking. After playing a few hands, however, Red became convinced that Billy Don had been harboring a very lucrative gambling talent that could lift them from their run-down trailer trash existence into a life of luxury and leisure.

     When Billy Don was sixteen, his father took him to Vegas. “My old man drug me along ‘cause he said I was a better player than he was,” Billy Don explained to Red, “and he was right. See, you learn when to hit and when to stay, when to split, double down, and all that stuff. There are charts you can memorize that tell you what to do. But there are other times when you’re operating on nothing more than a gut feeling. Sometimes you gotta go with it. I was always good at that part.”

     Billy Don was good at adding numbers in his head, too. His dad made him deal cards for hours at a time. Even though Billy Don hated doing it, he humored his dad and even passed math that year because he had learned to add numbers at a phenomenal clip.

     In true Ben Rehder style, Bum Steer, the ninth installment of his rollicking Blanco county mysteries, is a tribute to Texas hillbilly humor. There are numerous unpredictable plot twists and turns that keep the story going at breakneck speed. Rehder’s cast of memorable characters reappear in this latest novel, but “Bum Steer” is a stand-alone story that does not require reading the previous books.

     Three weeks before Billy Don’s and Red’s foray into the Vegas world of glitz, glamour, and gambling, Rodney Bauer’s red Brangus bull is shot dead in the middle of the night. As if that is not bad enough, a deceased young woman is discovered underneath the body of the bull and Sheriff Bobby Garza calls in game warden John Marlin to assist in the investigation. Just as expected, they find that the young woman has been gored to death. The evidence suggests that she was not alone with the bull and that someone had attempted to steal the prize steer. And, of course, Billy Don and Red become entangled in a web of murder and mayhem.

     Rehder’s first book in this series, Buck Fever, was nominated for an Edgar award. He has also authored ten “Die Laughing” crime novels and several standalone books including the YA book The Driving Lesson.

     Rehder is recognized for his satirical and irreverent approach to contemporary issues. Much like Carl Hiaasen, his novels parody the circumstances of everyday life. Bum Steer is a delight.

Every hunter's dream -- 'Stag Party'

Boerne Star, Jan. 20, 2015

It was every hunter’s dream. From his perch in a tree, Jasper Endicott scrutinized a huge herd of agitated bucks below him.
      “As he watched, more bucks arrived. Dozens more. They didn’t emerge tentatively from the brush, wary of danger, as deer usually did. Instead, they came bursting from the woods at full speed, caution to the wind. . .Their brains weren’t sophisticated enough to understand they’d been tricked.”
      It was a special scent that 102-year-old Harley Frizzell, an eccentric recluse, invented. He wanted to sell it and Jasper’s family was interested in buying the pheromone. The Endicott entertainment empire inspired hunters all over the country with their weekly reality television series.
       “A typical episode might include the men castrating bulls, shoeing horses, repairing a tractor . . . filling deer feeders, or building a barn.” But mostly the Endicotts hunted and they had a very large following.  Throngs of “wallhanger” bucks just for the picking would surely increase their ratings.
      Stag Party is Texas hill country author Ben Rehder’s eighth irreverent installment of his Blanco County mysteries. His cast of memorable characters reappear in this latest novel, but the book is a standalone story and does not depend upon reading the previous books.
      When Harley Frizzell’s lifeless body is discovered by Red O’Brian, Sheriff Bobby Garza questions Red and dismisses him as a suspect. Red, however, believes that he is number one on Garza’s list and enlists his buddy Billy Don to help him find the killer. He and Billy Don had recently won a feral pig shoot with a bounty of $25,000.00 for each of them. Red had considered buying Frizzel’s deer scent formula, but before he could cinch the deal, the old man was murdered.
      The two bungling rubes track down Frizzell’s girlfriend, a seventy-one-year-old hippie sculptor named Sparrow Holliday, who was purportedly the last person to see Frizzell alive. Could she have murdered him in a fit of jealous rage? Or did one of the Endicotts kill Frizzell to obtain the old man’s deer scent without having to pay for it?
      At the same time, 19-year-old PETA activist Liam Mooney and his partner Jessi Winslow, 18, set out from Nebraska to Texas to protest the Endicott’s fervent incitement of the public to kill innocent deer. The two misguided teens use Google Earth to locate the Endicott’s massive compound, which overlaps Kendall and Blanco counties, and they hatch a plan to burn the main house down.
      Lurking in the background of the story is Aaron Endicott, the sociopathic son who does not appear in the television show and who the Endicotts would rather not acknowledge. Aaron is a grotesque, colossal man with a pocked face and feral eyes. Aggressive and combative, the youngest Endicott seems always on the offensive for violent encounters. When Liam and Jessi mistake Aaron’s cabin in the Endicott compound for the main house and set it on fire, Aaron confronts the young couple and fireworks ensue.
      Stag Party ( ISBN-13: 978-1505440263, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, December 15, 2014) is bawdy, clever, irreverent, and infinitely entertaining. It is available on Amazon as a kindle e-book or paperback.

Ben Rehder Hits a Home Run With "The Driving Lesson"

 

Fourteen-year-old Charlie Dunbar adores his grandfather, Opa, and the feeling is mutual. When classes are dismissed on the last day of school for summer vacation, Charlie is surprised to find Opa outside waiting for him. The old  man wants Charlie to drive him to a doctor’s appointment. After expressing his reluctance because he didn’t have his learner’s permit yet, Charlie finally agrees to drive him. Before he realizes it, Opa has directed him to the interstate. With each mile travelled, Charlie becomes a little bit more nervous. Finally, after an eighteen wheeler rumbles up beside Opa’s car, Charlie asks how much further to the doctor’s office. That’s when Opa tells him that they were headed for Seattle.

Just a few days earlier, Charlie had overheard his parents talking about Opa. They mentioned hospice, an unfamiliar word to him. During a driving lesson with his father the following day, Charlie learns that Opa is terminally ill with cancer. Charlie knows instinctively that the doctor’s appointment in Seattle has something to do with Opa’s condition.

By the time Charlie and Opa reach Lubbock, Charlie is feeling comfortable behind the wheel. His mom has been leaving numerous, frantic voicemail messages on his phone, but Opa isn’t particularly concerned. When they get to Amarillo, Opa asks Charlie to stop at a motel. Once inside, Charlie confronts his grandfather and demands to know what is going on. Opa explains his choices in facing terminal cancer: do nothing, follow the doctor’s treatment plan, or take control of the situation and deal with his impending death on his own terms.

“All I wanted to do was spend some time with my favorite person in the world. That’s you,” Opa tells him. “The truth is sometimes none of your choices in life are good. Sometimes you’re faced with a terrible problem, and the only thing you can do is pick the least objectionable solution. Sucks, Huh? Believe me, I wish I had a fourth option, or ten more options, but I don’t.”

Before they leave Amarillo, Charlie and Opa visit Cadillac Ranch, a sprawling auto museum/junk yard for deceased cars. In Tucumcari, New Mexico, they stop at a local café for a bite of lunch and when Charlie glances at the television he does a double-take.

“It was so totally unexpected, like when you suddenly catch a glimpse of yourself in a mirror, except you didn’t know there was a mirror there. . .that’s what was happening now, because there, on the TV screen, was a photo of me in my football uniform.”

By the time Opa and Charlie get to the west coast, they’ve ditched their credit cards and cell phones, disguised their appearances, visited the Grand Canyon, driven through the breathtakingly beautiful Kaibab National Forest, and had their car burgled. They have observed their own faces in every corner they’ve traversed—television news in motel rooms, cafes, and restaurants and splashed across newspapers at every convenience store.

Ben Rehder’s new young adult novella, The Driving Lesson, chronicles the cross-country journey of a young man and his grandfather. Like Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley, it’s the road trip and the companion that elevate the story. While Rehder is best known for his Blanco County mystery series, The Driving Lesson shows his depth and breadth as a writer. He skillfully and with great sensitivity weaves a difficult subject—mortality and loss—into a heartwarming, poignant story filled with humor, hope, and love. This is a story that will have you shedding tears and cracking smiles at the same time. Although it is marketed as a young adult novel, The Driving Lesson is a compelling read that adults will also enjoy.

The Driving Lesson is available through Amazon in print, e-book, and audio editions. All of Rehder’s books, including his latest novel, The Chicken Hanger, are available on his web site at http://benrehder.wordpress.com/.

Appeared in the Boerne Star, January 1, 2010
 

Authors' Guild President Roy Blount urges "Let's mount a book-buying splurge"

"We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let's mount a book buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Clear out the mysteries, wrap up the histories, beam up the science fiction! Round up the westerns, go crazy for self-help, say yes to the university press books! Get a load of those coffee-table books, fatten up on slim volumes of verse, and take a chance on romance! " --Roy Blount, Jr.

Texas Hill Country authors were busy this year creating dazzling cookbooks, knuckle-biting fiction, memorable memoir, gruesome true crime, and some delightful non-fiction books about Texas and the Hill Country. Books are thoughtful, inexpensive, and lasting Christmas gifts that can be matched to the receivers’ likings.

Coleen Grissom’s memoir, A Novel Approach to Life, is an uplifting, humorous, and delightful glimpse of one of Kendall County’s most interesting residents. Her collection of speeches reveals her passion for life, her devotion to Trinity University, her unbridled enthusiasm for teaching English, and her faith in “humankind.” As dean of students, Vice President for Student Affairs, and English professor at Trinity University for over fifty years, Grissom witnessed the birth of the feminist movement, dealt with campus social upheaval, and adroitly handled the special challenges of each decade with aplomb and vigor. Grissom has enjoyed the company of some of the great writers of our time – Margaret Atwood, John Updike, John Irving, Toni Morison and others too numerous to mention. She has shared in the joys and successes of her students and has endured heartache along the way, as well. Grissom’s book is available through most book stores.

My pick in the cookbook category this year, especially for friends who like to cook and travel in the Hill Country, is Terry Thompson-Anderson’s The Texas Hill Country: A Food and Wine Lover’s Paradise. Thompson-Anderson chose some of the most interesting “foodie” destinations and included information about the locale as well as recipes. The book’s photography is spectacular. Copies can be acquired through most bookstores and the publisher’s web site http://www.shearerpub.com/.

New Braunfels writer Diane Fanning was busy this year with her psycho-thriller The Trophy Exchange and her true crime book The Pastor’s Wife.

In The Trophy Exchange, investigator Lieutenant Lucinda Pierce must overcome not only emotional scars of her childhood but severe facial disfigurement from a shotgun blast. Pierce has allowed her work to overcome her life, blurring the distinctions between private and public. When two innocent little girls, Ruby and Charley, discover their mother’s brutally bludgeoned body in the basement of their home, Pierce finds herself drawn into the middle of a chilling investigation of a series of serial murders with the childrens’ own father as the prime suspect. The Trophy Exchange is a fast moving, knuckle-biting thriller, perfect for curling up with on a cold winter night.

Fanning’s true crime account of Pastor Matthew Winkler’s murder at the hands of his wife Mary in The Pastor’s Wife is a shocking chronicle of a family divided by violence and tragedy. Within a seemingly “perfect” marriage grew a kernel of domestic violence fueled by deceit, misplaced values, and duplicity. With great skill Fanning guides the reader through the bizarre destructive events of a dysfunctional family culminating with Mary Winkler’s murder trial.

Fanning’s books are available through national and independent booksellers. For more information about this prolific author check out her website at http://www.dianefanning.com./m./

On a humorous note, Ben Rehder’s Holy Moly, his sixth Blanco County mystery, takes on prosperity theology with a vengeance. His confluence of motley characters in this comedy of errors manages to disassemble an entire Dallas mega-church, strewing chunks of theological waste, murder, and mayhem in its wake. Rehder’s characters are always memorable, as are his satirical plots. His Hiasenesque style is entertaining and fun to read. Rehder’s books are widely available through major booksellers and his website http://www.benrehder.com./

Another memorable novel this year is A Tale Out of Luck, collaboratively written by Mike Blakely and Willie Nelson. Nelson and Blakely deliver an action-packed who-done-it that provides far more substance than the average western novel. Added to the mix of intrigue and suspense, the enduring qualities of the characters make this book a good read. Blakely and Nelson are currently busy adapting their novel to the big screen. The book is widely available through booksellers and through Blakely’s web site http://mikeblakely.com/

Rounding out fiction for the year is Jo-Ann Power’s political romance, Baring Arms: A Me and Mr. Jones Mystery. Touted by Janet Evanovich with “My vote for the fastest, funniest and sexiest mystery series ever to hit Washington, D.C.,” Baring Arms is a delightful mix of Washing politics, murder, chick-lit, and romance. Power previously worked as a lobbyist in Washington D.C. and is the author of seventeen novels. Power’s books are available in most bookstores. Check out her web site at http://www.jo-annpower.com/

In the non-fiction category, Candice DuCoin chronicles the lives of her ancestors, the Jones family, in her book Lawmen on the Texas Frontier: Rangers and Sheriffs. In her epic account, there are numerous references to the lure of the Texas Hill Country followed by hardship and strife. DuCoin’s epic saga of her Texian ancestors is meticulously researched. She includes end notes with each chapter as well as several appendices of the Jones’ lineage, letters, and other interesting additions. She also provides a full bibliography and index. Her academic approach does not detract from the general readability of the book and the inclusion of photographs and old documents greatly enhance the enjoyment of the story. Ducoin’s book is available through Riata Publishing at http://www.riatabooks.com/

Laurie Jasinski’s Dinosaur Highway: A History of Dinosaur Valley State Park captures her readers’ imaginations with her descriptions of Texas dinosaurs that existed 144 to 65 million years ago. Dinosaur Valley State Park is situated on both sides of the Paluxy River in Somervell County, just four miles west of Glen Rose, Texas where dinosaur tracks are abundant and visible on the river bottom. The Glen Rose tracks probably belong to Acrocanthosaurus, a large intimidating carnivorous creature that left footprints up to two feet long. Four-legged herbivore sauropods co-existed with the Acrocanthosaurus and were given the name Paluxysaurus in 2007 after the Paluxy River where its tracks are found. As of this year, Dinosaur Valley State Park encompasses a total of 1,588 acres. It boasts two hundred thousand visitors annually and ranks among the top ten of the most-visited parks in the Texas State Parks System. Camp sites are available with forty-six water and electrical sites and forty picnic areas. Dinosaur Highway is available through major book sellers and the TCU Press at http://www.tamu.edu/upress/TCU/tcugen.html.

For Kendall County history buffs, Tommy Titsworth’s Early Comfort, Texas Cabinet Makers: A History of Hill Country Furniture provides a wealth of historical information about the early cabinetmakers in Comfort. He spent five years photographing these hand crafted pieces of furniture in homes of Comfort residents and has included 154 color photos in his book, from large armoires, tables of every description, chairs, cradles, desks, and the even the tools used by these early craftsmen. The book is organized by artisan and includes photos of furniture made by Edward Steves, Emil Serger, The Brinkmans, Christian Lindemann, Andres Voigt, Charles De Ney’s, Max Lange, Paul Dryden, Paul Karger, Herman Wille, and William Wiedenfeld. Titsworth also included some of the pieces that he has created from old long-leaf pine. You can obtain a copy of Early Comfort, Texas Cabinet Makers: A History of Hill Country Furniture, by emailing Titsworth at mailto:hsiltom@hctc.net.

No matter what happens in our economy, no matter which electronic book-reading gadgets flood the market, books are irreplaceable. Roy Blount, President of the Authors’ Guild, said it best in his holiday message.

“I've been talking to booksellers lately who report that times are hard. And local booksellers aren't known for vast reserves of capital, so a serious dip in sales can be devastating. Booksellers don't lose enough money, however, to receive congressional attention. A government bailout isn't in the cards. We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods. So let's mount a book-buying splurge. Get your friends together, go to your local bookstore and have a book-buying party. Clear out the mysteries, wrap up the histories, beam up the science fiction! Round up the westerns, go crazy for self-help, say yes to the university press books! Get a load of those coffee-table books, fatten up on slim volumes of verse, and take a chance on romance!

There will be birthdays in the next twelve months; books keep well; they're easy to wrap: buy those books now. Buy replacements for any books looking raggedy on your shelves. Stockpile children's books as gifts for friends who look like they may eventually give birth. Hold off on the flat-screen TV and the GPS (they'll be cheaper after Christmas) and buy many, many books. Then tell the grateful booksellers, who by this time will be hanging onto your legs begging you to stay and live with their cat in the stockroom: Got to move on, folks. Got some books to write now. You see...we're the Authors Guild."

Prosperity Gospel falls on hard times

Note: Ben Rehder's much awaited novel, Holy Moly was released this week. My review was published in both the San Antonio Express News and the Boerne Star.

* * *

Texas Hill Country author Ben Rehder is well-recognized for his satirical and irreverent approach to social issues. Holy Moly, Rehder’s sixth installment of his Blanco County murder mysteries, takes on prosperity theology with a vengeance. His confluence of motley characters in this comedy of errors manages to disassemble an entire Dallas mega-church, strewing chunks of theological waste, murder, and mayhem in its wake.

“Four days before he died, a thirty-year-old backhoe operator named Hollis Farley drove thirty miles to the Wal-Mart Supercenter in Marble Falls, Texas, and purchased a four-thousand-dollar sixty-inch plasma television,” writes Rehder in his opening paragraph.

Thus begins a tale of lust, power, avarice and greed that unravels at breakneck speed, littering the Texas Hill Country with remnants of false doctrine.

When Dallas “Pastorpreneur” Peter Boothe begins construction of a massive religious complex on a 16 acre ranch in Blanco County, Hollis Farley signs on as operator of a large backhoe to clear the parcel of land for construction. Unbeknownst to the major players at the time, Farley unearths a valuable sauropod dinosaur fossil. With the realization that his find could be very valuable, he takes pictures of the extinct reptile, drives to the University of Texas in Austin, and seeks out the opinion of a Professor of Paleontology. After determining that the fossil could be worth as much as one million dollars, Farley makes use of the internet on the public library’s computer to find a buyer.

In short order the Hill Country yokel is discovered crushed underneath his eight ton wrecked back hoe. When Blanco County Sheriff Bobby Garza spots something suspicious about the corpse he calls in his buddy Game Warden John Marlin to examine the photos of the body. Garza and Marlin agree that this was no accidental death. Entry and exit wounds were clearly visible in the pictures. But Farley’s mortal wounds were not the result of a fatal gunshot. The shapes of the wounds were distinctly carved by an arrow.

So what righteous Texas citizen would stoop to murder a bumpkin backhoe operator for a dinosaur fossil? Could it be the eccentric geology professor? A rich, outlandish multi-millionaire fossil collector with a peculiar dinosaur fetish? What about the good Reverend Peter Boothe, his greedy assistant Alex Pringle, or maybe even Vanessa, the Reverend’s statuesque trophy wife? The rabid geriatric environmentalist also had motive to kill. Or perhaps it was the avaricious trophy buck breeder, Perry Grange. All of these misguided misfits race through the pages of this hilarious whodunit until the puzzle is solved.

Rehder’s characters are always memorable, as are his satirical plots. His Hiasenesque style is entertaining and fun to read. With Holy Moly, however, the author has tightened up his dialogue and has woven his multiple sub-plots into even more readable scenarios. Rehder successfully entwines greed, avarice, and lust for power with love, romance, and human beneficence. Holy Moly is a story with which the reader can easily identify. The characters are real and recognizable. The plot, no matter how outrageous is, nonetheless, believable. And under the surface of theological cupidity flows redemption and an assurance that no matter how irascible a situation may be, ultimately all will undoubtedly end well.