Dead on the Island [Hardcover]

Bill Crider (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1991

Galveston private investigator Truman Smith is asked to find a friend's missing daughter. 2 cassettes.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Anthony Award winner Crider introduces private investigator Truman (Tru) Smith in this promising start of a series. Having returned to his native Galveston, Tex., to try--unsuccessfully--to find his missing sister, Tru spends his days reading Faulkner and running. His old friend Dino disrupts his solitude when he asks Tru to locate Sharon Matthews, whose mother had worked in one of the string of whorehouses run by Dino's uncles when they controlled Galveston in the days of wide-open morality. At first Tru thinks the girl ran away after she discovered her mother's past. But when he finds Sharon's boyfriend murdered and then is beaten up outside a Houston nightclub, Tru begins to fear for Sharon's safety. The disclosure of a vital secret by Dino leads Tru to dig into his own and Dino's pasts to find the answers for several crucial questions. Crider ( Too Late to Die ) has created another well-drawn protagonist, this time a moody, introspective PI in the finest tradition, who works in a seamy city smoldering with old and dangerous secrets.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Ex-p.i. Truman Smith of Galveston, Texas, is painting houses, trying to forget the disappearance of his sister Jan a year ago and his all-out, failed efforts to find her. Tru's high-school football teammates Dino and Ray live in Galveston too. Dino is rich--retired from the prostitution rackets his uncles had begun decades before. Ray, who's black, is Dino's live-in gofer. Dino wants Tru to find his vanished daughter Sharon--unacknowledged until now--by ex- prostitute Evelyn Matthews. Tru soon learns that Sharon had just discovered the truth about her mother's background and that she had a boyfriend--Terry Shelton. Shelton turns out to be the first in a string of corpses discovered or created by our hero before the object of his search comes to light. Even the violence seems lifeless here, along with the mostly unappealing characters and the laconic narrative. Only the Galveston backdrop and history shed some warmth in a story far short of the author's best (Too Late to Die, etc.). -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Co; 1St Edition edition (May 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802757871
• ISBN-13: 978-0802757876
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #728,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born and brought up in Mexia (that's pronounced Muh-HAY-uh by the natives), Texas, went to college at The University of Texas and North Texas State University, and taught high school and college classes for many years. In 1992 I retired as Chair of the Division of English and Fine Arts at Alvin Community College, in Alvin, Texas. I'm married to the lovely Judy, and we have two grown children, Angela, who's an attorney in San Francisco, and Allen, who's in the music business in Austin. Other than that, I'm a pretty boring guy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sleuthing on Galveston Island, March 18, 2008

By 

Karen Potts (Lake Jackson, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead on the Island (Hardcover)

PI Truman Smith has become a loner after failing to find his sister Jan during a recent search of Galveston Island. He jogs on the Seawall, plays with his cat, and reads lots of Faulkner books. He is pulled from his self-imposed retirement when his old high school football buddy Dino asks him to find a young girl named Sharon. As Tru begins his investigation, dead bodies begin to appear and Tru himself is attacked. His search for Sharon takes him to all sorts of interesting places on and near the Island. I read this book because Galveston is one of my favorite places and I was not disappointed as Bill Crider spins a good mystery tale in a wonderful setting with interesting characters and enough plot twists to keep readers guessing until the last few chapters.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Opener for Series, February 10, 2012

By 

Mel Odom (Moore, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dead on the Island (Truman Smith Private Eye) (Kindle Edition)

Bill Crider is a friend of mine, so I read a lot of his books because they hit my radar more often. However, the friendship isn't why I read the books. He a really good writer and he writes horror, suspense, Westerns, and mysteries. He's a natural storyteller and understands the conventions of the genre he's working in.

Truman Smith is a Galveston, Texas, private eye and stars in five of Crider's books. I picked up the first couple Smith books back when they first came out, but had trouble finding the last three. The ebook hadn't been invented back then and getting hold of some books could prove difficult unless you haunted bookstores. Unfortunately, I was busy coaching little league baseball and basketball teams, so I didn't get to do the haunting.

Now, though, the entire series is being reprinted in ebooks on the Kindle and the Nook. The fifth book is due out next month and The Prairie Chicken Kill was just released. Sadly, at the moment, that is the last Truman Smith book.

I love Truman Smith. He drinks Big Red, has a bum leg, and reads constantly. What's not to love? He's an everyday hero who's easy to understand and get to know. Also, he's got a big mystery in his life that he hasn't solved. His younger sister Jan went missing a year ago and he hasn't been able to find her. Smith's whole private eye business had been based on him being able to find people that couldn't be found.

Broken, Smith returned home to Galveston and started painting houses, shutting himself out of the detective business. But he's around his past and it doesn't take long to come calling in the form of Dino and Ray, guys he played football with and against when he was younger.

Dino is the son of criminal royalty but really isn't involved in his father and uncles' business these days because he's pretty much gone legit. However, he presents a missing girl case to Smith and asks Smith to look into it as a favor for the old days.

Smith reluctantly agrees, but soon finds that he's missed the detecting work. He steps back into the traces and gets underway. The path quickly turns deadly and bodies start piling up, some of them dropped by Smith himself, which is something he'd never had to do before.

I really enjoyed this book as much the second time around as I did the first. Of course, I knew who did it the second time and what was truly going on, but Crider brings Galveston to life and I love the small-town feel of the city. Crider is an easy to read writer. You just sink into a chair and start, and within minutes you're plugged into another world and someone else's problems and mysteries.

4.0 out of 5 stars Likeable Hero, Distinctive Voice, February 5, 2012

By 

Jaden Terrell "Jaden Terrell" (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dead on the Island (Truman Smith Private Eye) (Kindle Edition)

Bill Crider's DEAD ON THE ISLAND introduces private detective Truman Smith. I knew I would like Truman in the book's opening scene, which showed Tru's compassion toward a wild rat who lives near the beach where Truman goes for his morning run. Tru has been working as a house painter and trying to recover from the loss of his sister, Jan, whose disappearance has not only left him grieving but doubting his abilities as an investigator. When an old friend, Dino, asks for help to find a missing girl, Truman must overcome his own demons, as well as some dangerous and unsavory characters with an interest in keeping things hidden. Crider's writing is polished, and his humorous, often self-deprecating voice makes Truman seem both likeable and real. I have already bought the next two books in the series and look forward to Crider's next adventure.