What is Bill Crider reading?

This weekend's featured contributor at Writers Read: Bill Crider, author of more than fifty novels, including the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series. The new Dan Rhodes novel is Murder in the Air.

Crider's entry begins:

Every time I’m asked to write about what I’m reading, I’m tempted to begin by saying something like, “I’ve been re-reading Shakespeare’s comedies, as I do every third year. Ask me next year, and I’ll be reading the histories. And the tragedies the year after that.”

But that would be wrong. That would be A Lie. So I might as well admit that what I’ve been reading lately is Go, Mutants by Larry Doyle. It’s a tender coming-of-age story about a mutant teenager living on an alternate Earth where the ‘50s monster movies from our world are documentaries, not fiction. There’s a tip of the hat to just about every monster that ever stalked across the screen, with so many in-jokes that I’m sure I missed half of them. But...[read on]

Among the early praise for Murder in the Air:

"Crider’s use of subtle humor and Sheriff Dan Rhodes’s unassuming competence make this 17th series entry a laid-back delight."
--Library Journal

"Few will be able to resist Crider's brand of broad humor, eccentric characters, and murder."
--Publishers Weekly

"[Crider] continues his mastery of the series that remains as popular as ever."
--Joseph Scarpato, Jr., Mystery Scene Magazine

Read the Page 69 Test entries for Crider's A Mammoth Murder, Murder Among the OWLS, Of All Sad Words, and Murder in Four Parts, as well as an excellent write-up about Dan Rhodes on the big screen at "My Book, The Movie."

Also see Steve Hockensmith's Q & A with Bill Crider.

Visit Bill Crider's website and blog.

Writers Read: Bill Crider.

--Marshal Zeringue