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.