Customer Reviews

Buck Fever: A Blanco County Texas Novel

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A drug ring disguised as a game farm? What a great plot!
I couldn't put it down once started. The multiple sub-plots
all come together in a well crafted ending. Each character
was developed so completely that I could identify with their
motives (no matter how evil). The author pokes a little fun at the commercial game farms now replacing traditional open range deer hunting in some regions.

See book description above.

YeeeeHawwww! This was a fun one.
The writing was fast and furious. The story line original and outrageous. As a first novel, Ben Rehder has started out on the right foot. Keep up the good work.
If you're looking for something fun, yet not to serious, to read, be sure you give Rehder a shot.

Recommended.

This is a great light fun read! If you loved this book also check out the author C.J. Box and his Joe Pickett adventures which also follow a game warden based near a hunting culture small town filled with eccentric red necks, corrupt officials and other fun characters, his books are set in Wyoming. Both even have similar author photos complete with dogs and bucket hats or whatever they're called inside the back covers. Open Season is the first novel in that great series, check it out!

Buck Fever is actually only book one in a series of adventures set in Blanco County Texas. Being the author's debut novel you'd expect it to have a few flaws but pleasantly surprised you will be that although may not be as funny as his more recent stuff, it's still a very good and enjoyable read. Like any great series it's always good to read the books in order to fully appreciate the characters.

Buck Fever follows the daily life of game warden John Marlin starting off a week or so before hunting season commences. He gets a call over the radio that a deer has been shot with some weird developments and arrives to find the deer is actually someone he knows in a deer costume. He also sees his best friend's long time but recently lost to him companion Buck, a very agitated large male deer at gun point and immediately tries to convince the sheriff not to shoot him and to let him tranquilize Buck instead. The sheriff only has wall trophy on his mind but luckily a call from rich lobbyist Roy Swank whose ranch these incidents are on stops him as he values kickbacks and bribes from Swank a lot more than a new trophy. It soon becomes apparent Buck is a lot more valuable than just as a game animal when Swank hires local dim witted rednecks Red and Billy, who started this whole debacle in the first place, to get the animal back for ten grand. What follows is an hilarious tale, throw in a man locals believe to be Antonio Banderas who isn't too thrilled to be working with Texan amateurs and certainly isn't going to let anyone take his picture, some other Columbians, a veterinarian who likes to self subscribe and ignore the only for animals warning on the labels, red neck bar locals as well as other eccentric characters and you've got one entertaining read!

Hey-I live in Blanco County, Texas and had great fun with this! As hunting season approaches, all kinds of interesting things happen. Well written, an easy read, and I can't wait until the next book. Ben Rehder is a real find. Ya'll out there-come see us!

Having been impressed by the comic genius in Flat Crazy, Mr. Rehder's latest book, I decided to go back to the beginning of the series to read this book. While Flat Crazy is clearly the better book, I found this book to be a rewarding story to read. The humor isn't quite so sharp and the story develops a little more ponderously, but Buck Fever clearly works. I suggest that you read Buck Fever in the firm knowledge that you have at least one better story ahead in the series.

This story will appeal most to those who like Elmore Leonard's books about goofy criminals. But don't expect the book to be an exact parallel to Leonard. In this book, the outrageous humor alternates with depictions of straight-edged evil.

If you like to read about deer hunting, you will enjoy this book much more than if you don't care for deer hunting.

The main appeal of the story is in learning about game warden, John Marlin, as he gets ready for his busiest few days of the year -- the opening of deer season. Naturally, the locals are all out poaching in advance of the event. The tension in the story comes from Marlin's desire to help his friend save a pet stag from the hunters. To do that, Marlin has to fight his way through complications involving a crooked former lobbyist, drug dealers, assorted local criminals, the ex-husband of a woman he sleeps with, a new love and a crooked sheriff.

The best sources of humor are Red O'Brien and Billy Don Craddock, two good old boys who like to drink, poach, party and avoid any honest labor. Several scenes involving them (including the book's opening) are the best writing in the book.

Blanco County has its share of original characters. Enjoy the loving sketches of them in this book. They remind me of people I knew when I was growing up in the West.

Never been on a hunt in my life of any kind. Bought this book out of curiosity.
LOVED it. Absolutely hysterical. If you do not like this book you need to lighten up. Most of the characters are exactly that, characters. Read the book in one long afternoon.
Not inclined to discuss the plot or the players. Just read it and enjoy.
Looking forward to reading others.

If ever there was an opening line to give a clear indication of the tone of the story that follows, Ben Rehder delivers it in BUCK FEVER with this little gem:
"By the time Red O'Brien finished his thirteenth beer, he could hardly see through his rifle scope."

From this opening, which I found particularly amusing, Rehder introduces us to the local inhabitants of Blanco County in all their colourful glory while a seemingly innocuous deer sighting turns the county on its head with the all-important opening day of hunting season fast approaching.

As hunting season's opening day approaches, game warden John Marlin's hands are full with over-eager hunters getting a head-start on proceedings. When Red O'Brien and Billy Don Craddock do a spot of illegal spotlighting while drunk one evening, they accidentally shoot a biologist who happened to be performing an experiment while impersonating a deer. (I know...it seems weirder than it actually is). When Marlin is called out along with the usual ambulance, sheriff and other assorted crime scene specialists, their attention is completely taken by the strange antics of a buck who is behaving in a very un-deer like manner.

Marlin's solution is to capture the buck and take it home so that he can keep it under observation, unaware of the fuss and anxiety this would cause with certain members of the community. The property from which the buck was taken was Roy Swank's Circle S Ranch. Now, Roy Swank is a rich businessman / ex-political head kicker and is your typical unscrupulous operator who doesn't care who he walks all over in order to get what he wants. He has turned the Circle S into a very successful deer farm, producing prime animals for each year's hunting season. It's Swank who is almost apoplectic when he learns that Marlin has taken the buck and goes to extreme measures to get it back.

The reaction from Swank, which was way over the top for the loss of a single deer, was enough to make John Marlin just a little suspicious. A couple of further incidents go a long way toward confirming those suspicions and suddenly, Marlin knows just enough to make life dangerous for himself. There is also the matter of a Colombian man who has just hit town. We know he's related to the Circle S Ranch, but the question is how. One thing's for sure, you wouldn't want to get on his bad side.

Where Ben Rehder excels in this book is in the portrayal of his characters and their small-town attitudes and idiosyncrasies. He really makes you care about his characters. For comic relief he gives us Red O'Brien and Billy Don Craddock, two bumbling rednecks who truly believe they are cunning go-getters riding on the edge. Although their every step is punctuated by a mistake, they turn out to play a couple of the most important roles in the book. Every small town seems to have a filthy rich, morally reprehensible bully-boy who has the local sheriff in his pocket making life difficult for everyone while he lives off his ill-gotten gains. Roy Swank plays this role to a tee, although it must be said, a few of his decisions makes it difficult to believe he ever rose to the position of power he now holds.

One of the characters who had a rather minor role here, but who has great potential to be developed in future books is Deputy Bobby Garza. Not only is he an insightful lawman, he is an honest and interesting character who moves the story along quickly and without fuss. Finally, there's game warden John Marlin, a hard-working, much admired single man who is just plain honest. He reminds me a lot of C.J. Box's Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett. Both men care more about doing the right thing rather than massaging egos or bowing to the rich and powerful, both make mistakes, usually with disastrous consequences and both have you rooting loudly for them.

BUCK FEVER ventures into dangerous waters with murderous outsiders who are prepared to do whatever it takes to keep their illegal plans secret skulking about. For all of this danger, though, there is a constant hint of humour to the tone of the narration that manages to keep the air light and breezy. To complement the light tone, the story moves along very briskly thanks to a narrow deadline set by Swank. This deadline provides the urgency to make it feel like there is always something important happening. It works very effectively here.

I found BUCK FEVER to be a very enjoyable humorous thriller that has introduced me to a place and to people with whom I would like to visit again. Fortunately there are two more books in the series that will allow me to do so - these being BONE DRY and FLAT CRAZY.

Since I live in Texas, I read just about anything taking place in Texas.
This one is funny with a plot unlike any other.
I live about thirty miles south of where this story happens. I know real people who match the characters in this story almost identicaly. Fun read. Hope to see more of the authors work soon.

Usually the opening week of dear hunting season in Blanco County, Texas is a bit wild but this year things get really crazy the week before the season opens. Red O'Brien and Billy Don Craddock are poaching on the tail end of the Circle S Ranch when they spot some big dear. They shoot but one of the deer they are aiming at is a human in disguise and the other is jumping around like a kangaroo.

Game Warden John Marlin is called onto the scene and recognizes the bouncing deer as Buck who his best friend Phil Colby raised as an infant. John gives Buck back to Phil even though the deer technically belongs to the owner of the Circle S, retired but still powerful lobbyist Roy Swank. For some reason, Swank wants the deer back and will go to any length to achieve that goal no matter who gets hurt in the process.

This first installment in this new mystery series is both serious and funny, sometimes at the same time. The protagonist plays straight man to all the eccentric characters that make up the support cast, giving BUCK FEVER an almost slapstick feel at times. The story line is well developed with all the sub-plots tying seamlessly into the main tale. Ben Rehder has a distinctively refreshing and original voice, a bright new star in the mystery genre.

Harriet Klausner

This was a fun read. Hiaasen/Dorsey-esque, and a most worthy effort. Great plot idea. Great characters. Setting is spot on. We'll see good things from this author.