Flat Crazy: A Blanco County, Texas, Novel (Blanco County Mysteries) [Hardcover]

Ben Rehder (Author)

Book Description

Series: Blanco County Mysteries | Publication Date: August 12, 2004

From the Edgar, Lefty, and Barry award-nominated author Ben Rehder comes the funniest entry yet in his hilarious Blanco County mystery series. Some kind of unidentified wild creature is on the loose in Blanco, and, over the protests of sensible game warden John Marlin, the locals have convinced themselves they're dealing with a mythical vampirish beast called a chupacabra. Of course it doesn't help Marlin's cause when a dead body turns up with a suspicious fang-like wound in its neck...

Then things really get out of hand: tabloid news programs invade Blanco, good ol' boys Red O'Brien and Billy Don Craddock develop a cockamamie get-rich-quick scheme involving the animal, and everyone is a little surprised at the booming population of voluptuous Chinese dwarves who've turned up in town. If anyone can make sense of the eerie events in Blanco County, it's John Marlin, who's well-versed in the intricacies of small-town life, Texas style. But can he do it before another body turns up?

Only a first-rate humorist and ingenious plotter like Ben Rehder could possibly summon from his imagination the kind of laugh-out-loud mysteries his fans have come to count on, and Flat Crazy is further evidence that this talented writer has hit his comic stride.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Edgar-finalist Rehder's improbable and outlandish third mystery to feature game warden John Marlin (after Buck Fever and Bone Dry) finds the Blanco County, Tex., area in a sweat over presumed sightings of a mysterious wild animal called a chupacabra. No one knows what one looks like, but various lurid descriptions have stirred up local interest as well as attracted some unwelcome outside media attention. A corpse with a neck wound that looks like the work of fangs helps fuel the frenzy. Meanwhile, bumbling bubbas Billy Don Craddock and Red O'Brien come up with a superbly grandiose plan that entails capturing the mythical beast. Ex-con Duke Waldrip hasn't exactly reformed; he has a nice scam going involving phony trophy heads and exotic (and illegal) animals for staged hunts. But Duke's day starts badly when he's confronted by a wised-up hunter and it gets progressively worse as he tries to cover his tracks. Throw in an opportunistic car thief, a young boy with a taste for adventure, a few escaped exotics and a wealthy wastrel with a rebuilt trophy wife, and Rehder has a stable of characters and critters guaranteed to create havoc. Marlin's quiet competency adds to the enjoyment, as he puzzles out this confounding mystery only to have to rely on assistance from a most unlikely source.
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Review

"One of the genre's rising talents."
-- South Florida Sun-Sentinel

"Outrageous fun."
-- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on Flat Crazy

"Intriguing and entertaining. Rehder's characters may be outrageous, but they are never boring."
-- Dallas Morning News on Flat Crazy

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

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (August 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031232135X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312321352
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,592,572 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ben Rehder wanted to become a writer ever since he was dropped on his head as a toddler. As he grew into a young adult and the vertigo gradually dissipated, his passion for literature grew. Ben longed to craft the type of soul-stirring prose that would touch people's lives and help them explore new emotional horizons. But he went to work at an ad agency instead.

Throughout his rewarding and fruitful career in the ad business, Ben has been known to write such imaginative and compelling phrases as "Act now!," "Limited-time offer," and "Compatible with today's rapidly changing network environment."

However, there eventually came a time when, as unbelievable as it sounds, writing brochures and spec sheets simply wasn't enough to satisfy Ben's creative urges. Ben knew: It was time to write a novel.

"But what kind of novel?" Ben asked himself, drawing stares from passersby.

A mystery? A thriller? A work of suspense? Ben had read hundreds of books in these genres and loved them all. But nothing had sparked his creative juices enough to try it himself.

Fate played a hand one day when Ben's father-in-law tossed him a copy of a Carl Hiaasen novel. And then it hit him. It literally hit him, right in the forehead. When the swelling went down and Ben had a chance to read the book, he discovered a type of fiction he had never experienced before--the comic crime novel! He loved the wacky characters, the zany plots, the interesting writing that threw a good deal of humor into the mix.

So Ben set out to write his own novel. After many grueling minutes in front of a computer, Ben was proud to present Buck Fever. Like many best-selling classics, Buck Fever has lots and lots of verbs, prepositions, adjectives, and the occasional gerund. It was even nominated for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel!

Next came Bone Dry, Flat Crazy, Guilt Trip, Gun Shy, and Holy Moly. Ben's next novel--The Chicken Hanger--will be published in March of 2012. This news is certain to send chills of anticipation up your spine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Third time charm, September 26, 2005

By 

R. Howell "boriskhan" (Medford, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flat Crazy: A Blanco County, Texas, Novel (Blanco County Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Ben Rehder brings us back to Blanco County, Texas in this third book featuring Texas F&W Game Warden John Marlin in a fun and fast paced romp through deer country. This time we run afoul of fake trophy deer mounts, exotic animal hunting, the chupacabra, tabloid tv reporters, deaths by screwdrivers & toasters, Chinese midget porn, and our favorite redneck poachers-come-heroes Red Obrien and Billy Don Craddock.

Rehder continues to put forth enjoyable comic mysteries based in his fictional Blanco County. His witty writing and quick pace takes the readers through a speedy jaunt in the back country via a variety of interesting characters. Just when you begin to wonder why one of the side stories is even in the book, it all falls into place and ties it all together. Always a pleasure to read Rehder's books and hopefully we've still got an abundance yet to come.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Texas-Sized Tall Tale in the Vein of Elmore Leonard, February 13, 2005

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Flat Crazy: A Blanco County, Texas, Novel (Blanco County Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Comic crime novels are one of my delights. I look forward the latest goofiness from Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen with great excitement. You can imagine my joy when I found that I could add Ben Rehder ad his Blanco County mysteries to my must-read list for guffaws and laugh-until-I-cry amusement.

Flat Crazy combines an authentic Texas country voice with great satires of the local doings. Mr. Rehder has a powerful and original imagination for characters and plots that employs an intense wackiness that is just irresistible.

Some of the many satirical targets in this book include the superstitious, exotic game trophy hunters, hunting guides, pornographic entrepreneurs and actors, television news producers, and the idle rich. When one of these targets isn't cracking you up, another one is.

The plot is also quite delightful. It's not easy tying all of those elements together into something resembling a crime and detection story.

The story begins simply enough. A day-laborer needs to find a bush quickly in order to relieve himself. What he finds there launches a county-wide search for a mythical beast. Everyone has an angle, each one crazier than the next.

Elsewhere, a scamming hunting guide gets caught by his customer . . . and finds himself facing the wrong end of a revolver. A little accident makes matters worse. And so the fun begins!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hunt For the Chupacabra, May 30, 2005

By 

Untouchable (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flat Crazy: A Blanco County, Texas, Novel (Blanco County Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Put together a mythical beast hunt, an out of control hunt guide, a playboy millionaire, a Chinese dwarf porn star and a sexy out-of-town news reporter and you've got the making of a dangerous end to the hunting season. Life in Blanco County, Texas should be quiet, but for the 3rd book in succession proves that this is not so. Flat Crazy is a mixture of good humour and heart-stopping danger told at a cracking pace.

When a Mexican labourer witnesses a strange-looking animal devouring a goat in the woods his terrified conclusion is that he had just seen the dreaded chupacabra. The chupacabra is supposedly a mythical beast that wanders around feasting on the blood of its victims. The news sends something of a shiver through the citizens of Blanco County, to think that this ungodly creature should be roaming around out there.

Meanwhile, Duke Waldrip is having a few more pressing problems. Duke is a hunting guide who caters to the sorts of clients who are after the more extreme and less legal kind of game. If you're after a rare, high-scoring buck with a magnificent buck or if you want to hunt more exotic game imported from another continent, Duke's your man. The problem that has captured Duke's attention is that the latest exotic creatures have managed to escape and are roaming free in the countryside. If any of these animals are spotted he will surely find himself heading back to prison.

John Marlin is the game warden for Blanco County and the protagonist of the series, an all around nice guy who works closely with the sheriff's department, so he's drawn into some pretty interesting investigations. As Flat Crazy opens he is run off his feet with the end of hunting season nearing and the hunters doing a mad scramble to make the most of the last few days. The last thing he needs is the fear of an unknown animal, mythical or otherwise, roaming in the woods. Making things worse is the presence of a news team who have picked up the story and have caused a rush to the area of every half-baked would-be thrill-seeker who thinks it would be fun to capture a chupacabra.

In the course of searching for the animal that may or may not be real, the intrigue is kicked off in earnest when the first body is discovered on a vacant property. It's obvious that the death has been caused by a human, not a chupacabra so what is to become a perplexing and ultimately extremely dangerous investigation begins.

Flat Crazy is the kind of mystery where we the readers know all the details, who the murderer is, how and why the murder was committed. The satisfying aspect of the book is watching to see just how he is going to be caught, who else he might take out along the way and how the vast array of seemingly unrelated sub-stories are going to have an effect.

Ben Rehder has the admirable quality of keeping the story consistently paced throughout and shows a remarkable flair for displaying a wickedly dark humour. He drew me in with a definite light-hearted feel about the story and then, before I knew what was happening through some very serious moments into the mix. It has the effect of throwing you off balance and makes you hesitant as to what the tone is going to be next.

The off-beat characters that consistently make appearances in the Blanco County series are present again in Flat Crazy and adds another dimension of appeal to the book. The air of unexpectedness hangs over every scene thanks to the skewed thinking of the Blanco County regulars. It keeps the story very fresh and throws up some very enjoyable surprises.

Like the earlier books in the Blanco County series ( Buck Fever and Bone Dry ), Flat Crazy is an extremely satisfying read, recommended to mystery lovers who prefer their stories to be on the humorous side. That's not to say that there isn't a darker side to this story, it has an intensity that commands you to keep reading.

And as for the Chinese dwarf porn star? Well, if your curiosity as to how he comes into the story hasn't been aroused *ahem* then you're just not trying.