Bill Crider and Sheriff Dan Rhodes examine relationships in the third in the Dan Rhodes mystery series, Cursed to Death. Although I’m reading the series in order, I’m looking at the books so I can discuss more than Crider’s great characters. If I was only to talk about Rhodes and his cronies in Blacklin County, these reviews might as well be plot summaries. And, granted, there are times I do plot summaries because it’s sometimes difficult to write more without spoiling the book.
Dr. Samuel Martin is a dentist, but he also owns property in the county. He’s a hard-nosed landlord who often has problems with some of his tenants. This time, one of his renters, Betsy Higgins, stormed into Martin’s dentist office, and laid a curse on him, claiming she’s a witch. The curse called on Lucifer, and said Martin would get sick and his teeth would fall out. It seems she hadn’t paid her rent in three months, and Martin confiscated her TV. He returned it after she cursed him. But, he was disappointed when Sheriff Rhodes told him he’d talk with Betsy, but he didn’t know of a law against cursing someone.
Then Dr. Martin disappears. His wife is insistent he wouldn’t have stayed out all night, and that he’s in trouble. Rhodes asks questions, talks with neighbors and Martin’s office staff. But, he has no answers by the time he discovers Mrs. Martin’s body, murdered in her home.
While Sheriff Rhodes investigates a murder and a missing man, he’s also examining his own relationship with Ivy Daniels. They’re “sort of” engaged, but Rhodes is having a hard time taking the next step. And, he doesn’t know why. His first marriage was so happy. Is he afraid the second won’t be as good as the first? He’s worried, and his jail staff, Hack Jensen and Lawton, don’t make it any easier. Since it’s December, they’re pushing him to buy a gift for Ivy. When she brings a tree and presents into the jail, and Deputy Ruth Grady sets up a gift exchange, Rhodes feels cornered.
There’s always humor in these books, from Rhodes’ awkward attempts to chase suspects, to Hack and Lawton. Some of the funny antics stem from the local citizens; the boy who attacks Santa because he didn’t get what he wanted last year to the seniors at a local retirement center.
Cursed to Death examines relationships in all of its forms. Crider always writes about people with humor and gentleness. Take the two seniors in their eighties at Sunny Dale retirement home. They’re stirring up trouble because they want to be together, and the manager insists they’re single and can’t be together in their rooms.. Rhodes encourages the manager to make changes, but to no avail. There’s even a food fight in support of the couple.
Relationships. There’s the witch, Betsy Higgins, and her boyfriend, Phil Swan. There are the seniors at Sunny Dale. Contrast that with Dan Rhodes and his uncertainty about his relationship with Ivy. Then there are the Martins, the dead woman and her missing husband. It’s Ivy who says, “You can’t even really know what goes on inside a house.”
As in Cursed to Death, Bill Crider combines humor, mystery, and wisdom in his Sheriff Dan Rhodes books. I’m moving on to Book 4.
Cursed to Death by Bill Crider. Walker and Company, 1988. ISBN 9780802756985 (hardcover), 193p.
FTC Full Disclosure – Library book
I was surprised by the nursing home’s reasoning, when I read this, as at the time, there were a lot of news stories about how VD was running rampant in some homes. Then I remembered it was in Texas.
Yes, Texas. I was surprised, too, Glen.
As always, it is easy to take a shot at Texas. There is a lot to take shots at us about. This is not one of those things.
The VD deal with seniors is a nationwide problem as has been reported in the media for two decades plus now. There is a nationwide problem caused by some folks consensually and by other people committing abuse.
It also happens in the rehab facilities nationwide.
Another thing that Medicaid and Medicare inspectors would screen for when they visited until the last administration decided to cut costs and eliminated these inspections and a lot of other things. Whether the Biden crowd has reintroduced them I do not know.
I do know it used to go on, inspection wise, as my elderly mother was in several rehab places the last couple of years of her life before she passed in January 2017. I was there when one such inspector started asking all sorts of questions about her sex life which had ended when my dad died a number of years earlier. At the last place in the fall of 2016, Mom laughed at him as he worked through his three page questionnaire that he was required to do for every patient in the facility.
He finally finished and left and Mom kept cracking up on the idea that anyone in there had time to do anything with anybody with all the schedule involved and the fact that to be in there meant thigs were kind of grim.
My parents were in Surprise, Arizona (a Del Web community) for the last 10 years of their lives. The next community over was Sun City West, and there was a big seniors VD scandal going on there .
However, Bill never mentioned disease of any sort in this book. The manager’s concern was that it just didn’t look right, having singles together. Nothing about VD or disease.
I like this a lot! I think because it pulls two major differences together has put more stories to work with at least I should think so.
I think so, too, Reen.
What a great series and what a great idea to re-read from the beginning. I have read them all but never in order. Enjoy
I hadn’t read them all, Jeannette, just scattered ones. This made sense to me.
Of course, I read them in order as they came out, but it’s been a long ti,e and I didn’t remember the details of this one at all. Sounds like plenty of humor, though,, and that is always a good thing in Bill’s books.
It is, Jeff. I always enjoy the humor. I’m waiting to see, though, if Sheriff Rhodes continues to get ambushed in every book in the series.
SPOILER ALERT: Major changes are coming soon when Dr. Pepper stops making their soft drink with REAL sugar! Will Dan survive or will this be a fatal blow to his not-so well-ordered world? I eagerly await more of your reviews, Tracy, as the series progresses.
As I remember it, the Sheriff has a machien in the courthouse that serves the real thing, i.e. Dr Pepper with real sugar.
But don’t tell Ivy.
No problem, Jerry. And, we’ll see what happens with that Dr. Pepper! I’ll watch for it.
Lesa, not Tracy. What am I thinking?
Lesa, not Tracy. What am I thinking? — J.
Terrific review – love this!
Thank you, Kaye!
There is a plant here that still makes Dr Pepper with real sugar. Every few months, we are warned that they are about to close. They survive.
There are also a number of plants just across the border with Mexico that still do the real sugar deal. Their US sales are way down thanks to Abbott’s border stunts and periodic shutdowns as deliveries can’t get through to US customers.
I was a Dr. Pepper addict in college. Now, I still drink it, but I’ve cut back. I don’t even know if I’ve ever had it with real sugar!
Bill really was a big fan of Dr. Pepper.