Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

More whacky characters and bizarre circumstances in Blanco County Texas. These books are great fun to read.

I read this one first, and will certainly go back and read the previous 2, and then on to the rest by Ben Rehder. If you are debating about reading "Flat Crazy" - I say you should buy it this moment. You won't regret it.

Another great one by Ben Rehder. It's another one with a fun mix of serious (bad guys who get worse during the course of the story), funny (I laughed out loud many times while reading this book), and crazy characters (Chinese dwarf porn stars, just for example).

The good guys get shot up fairly badly in this one, but the bad guy gets his come-uppance as well. Blanco County has everybody and their brother searching for the legendary, infamous Mexican 'chupacabra', with even a (somewhat) big-time TV crew coming to town to cover the story. Game warden John Marlin assists in a big way again, but pays a bit of a price. Good ol' boys Red & Billy Don are trying harder than most to catch the chupacabra, but end up catching something much bigger & better, and playing a surprising role.

For fun, entertaining and escapist entertainment, at least for me, this book fit the bill in a big way. I'm looking forward to reading the few Rehder books left on my unread shelf!

If Ben Rehder's writings about Texas characters don't make you laugh out loud, you've got a hole in your soul. The kinda sad thing is these characters acutally exist in some incarnation or another. Some might call it fantasy, but, well, have you ever been to rural Texas?

This is a great light fun read. If you loved and have read all this series 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. Open Seasonis the first novel in that great series, check it out!

Back to this series, it is important to note that you do not need to have read the first novel in the series Buck Fever or the second Bone Dry to enjoy or get the most out of this novel, which is the third in the series. Other than a reoccurring main character, game warden John Marlin, as well as other eccentric county residents who appear in each novel such as local redneck Billy Don and his friend Red, this series of fun adventures set in Blanco County Texas can be read in any order.

In Flat Crazy, Billy and Red are offered a lot of money to tear down and rebuild the stone entrance to the ranch of Owen Pierce who also owns the chain of most popular BBQ joints in Texas, as his wife thought it wasn't quite up to par for those attending a party at the ranch in a few days. To save money and maximise profit Red decides to hire to do all the hard work, one of the illegal immigrants who always hang out on a well know corner looking for work to feed their families back home. Problem is the Mexican selected named Jorge, is a bit too hung over and what he ate on his binge the night before is also catching up with him. When Jorge runs off into the woods at the site to empty himself Red isn't too impressed. When he runs back out at a sprint screaming his head off and is hit by a truck, Red can see his easy money going down the drain. Jorge tells the police that he witnessed a Chupacabra (a mythical beast part reptile with the head of a lion and face of the devil) ripping apart a goat. Since this creature is believed in by those from Central and South American cultures who make up quite a bit of the population so John Marlin is sent to investigate.

It's not long before hunters from all over Texas and elsewhere are coming to Blanco County to shoot the Chupacabra, the situation flamed by the discovery of a hunter's body with neck wounds that resemble those told in the Chupacabra legend which are left by its fangs. Of course local low life Duke Waldrip and guide for rich idiots who want to come and shoot something big knows the Chupacabra didn't kill the hunter but is happy to let it take the blame. Throw in the midget Chinese adult film industry which is taking off in that part of Texas, a young boy who doesn't want to see the Chupacabra shot, a hot disillusioned with her industry female reporter sent to cover the story and you've got another great Rehder tale.

Blanco County, Texas has had it shares of BUCK FEVER and BONE DRY lunacy as game warden John Marlin can testify, but the latest craziness makes Texas tall tales seem small. The locals believe that the vampiric chupacabra has killed an outsider due to a fang bite wound in his neck. John assumes a human killer committed the homicide and plans to prove that before hysteria turns everyone FLAT CRAZY.

The chupacabra tale leads the tabloid reporters to overrun Blanco County and interfere with John's inquiries because a fang related unsolved killing makes provocative headlines through innuendos. Seeing an opportunity to get rich, good ole boys Red O'Brien and Billy Don Craddock take advantage of the local fears, but wind up only messing up the investigative trail that John tracks involving phony buck trophies. Adding to the confusion is the invasion of the Chinese dwarfs from Hollywood as Wang, Hung, Lo, etc. are making a film and wrecking clues. To John, all this is another "normal" investigation unlike those CSI types working pristine crime shows.

This third wacky Blanco County mystery is as crazy and fun as its predecessors are (kind of like moving those Southern Florida wild tales to Texas). Once again John plays straight man to a cast of eccentrics and wacko opportunists, who are over the edge into slapstick at times. Though readers know who the killer is and why from almost the start, the fun is observing John work through the lunacy, trampled evidence, and the unintended red herrings caused by nutty secondary characters to try to solve the case. Ben Rehder continues to display a unique freshness with his marvelous mirthful Marlin mysteries.

Harriet Klausner

I actually live in Blanco county and Ben's whole Blanco County series is a riot and very true to form. Keep up the good work.