The tenth book in Bill Crider’s Sheriff Dan Rhodes series, A Ghost of a Chance, is my favorite so far. As a fan of cemeteries (I don’t consider myself a true taphophile, though), I really enjoyed Rhodes’ adventures in the local cemeteries in Blacklin County, Texas. It all started with a “ghost” in the jail.
Lawton, the jailer, and Hack Jensen, the dispatcher, were quick to tell Rhodes he had to do something about the stories floating around the jail. The six prisoners in the jail claimed to have seen a ghost, “A big black shadow”. And, according to Hack, it doesn’t matter that Rhodes and Lawton don’t believe that. Rhodes has to deal with the fact that the men in jail do.
Then, Clyde Ballinger, the funeral director, calls to say he found a body in a grave. Ty Berry was shot, and he’s not supposed to be in the newly dug grave that’s ready for an eighty-year-old man’s funeral. Rhodes feels a little guilty because Berry had been complaining that someone was looting the local cemeteries, and he was going to patrol some of them since Blacklin County didn’t have enough law enforcement to do that job. Now, Berry is dead in one of the cemeteries.
Ghosts. Rhodes himself thinks he sees something moving through the cemetery, and four teenagers swear there were ghosts there one night. They all panicked and ran to the sheriff’s department. Now, Rhodes has a murder and ghosts on his hands.
Rhodes investigates in his usual style, asking questions and following his hunches. But, when his primary suspect is also murdered, he has to start over. It doesn’t help that motorcycle drug dealers are back in the county, stirring up trouble. As usual, Sheriff Dan Rhodes gets dragged into some risky adventures. And, this time, he takes Deputy Ruth Grady with him on one of them.
Cemeteries, ghosts, drug dealers, stolen statues from the cemeteries. It’s another delightful, sometimes madcap, adventure in Blacklin County with all the familiar characters. Despite the humor, though, Crider’s books always involve serious crimes, and Sheriff Dan Rhodes takes them all seriously. A Ghost of a Chance is an excellent example of Crider’s skills as a writer of small-town police procedurals.
A Ghost of a Chance by Bill Crider. St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2000. ISBN 9780312208899 (hardcover), 263p.
FTC Full Disclosure – Library book
Love the Sheriff books. In several of them, he discusses Ed McBain’s books with Clyde Ballinger at the funeral home. Those are the touches I really enjoy.
He and Clyde discuss “The Deaf Man” in this one, so you’d enjoy it again, Jeff.
This is a really good one. I thin this is about the time Dan started to figure out maybe he should call for backup every once in a while.
That was a relief, Glen, that Sheriff Rhodes realized he should call for backup. There are always surprises, and he and Ruth did get surprised, but they could work together to get out of their predicament.
True. Ruth was always so calm and levelheaded. Nothing rattled her.