Customer Reviews

A Dangerous Thing: A Carl Burns Mystery

5 star:		(3)
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I love mysteries. I've been reading them for 30 years. I am especially fond of humorous and witty mysteries. When I read this book a couple of years ago, I got hooked on Bill Crider. I've read all the Dan Rhodes books and most of the Truman Smith books. But I like this one, about the Texas junior college professor Dr. Carl Burns, the best. It's more upbeat than the Truman and Dan books. It's full of Texas humor and wit (my favorite chapter is the one about the goat) but the professor doesn't get beaten up several times per book like poor Dan and Truman always do.

Bill Crider's main character is professor and department chair at a small college. He allows the reader to "hear" the monologue of the character's thoughts which are humorous, critical, snide, sarcastic,appreciative, and very personal as anyone's thoughts would be. All of this can point to the solution of the mystery for the reader. The reader sees the suspects for the murder through the main character's eyes. He describes the settings and records the action in the same manner giving the reader a humorous outlook of his situation.

This was my first Carl Burns book - My favorites are the Sheriff Dan Rhodes books. This one had the same laid back southern humor of the Rhodes books. I liked the protagonist a lot and would enjoy reading more of this series, if there are any. I was kept guessing up till the last minute, but I was having such a good time that I didn't care. With Crider's books this is not unusual :).