When a young cleaning woman is murdered in the Texas capitol building in Austin, Ranger Rayn Harnett must question the building's entire staff, legislators, anti-choice demonstrators, and the governor himself to get at the truth.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The neatly detailed setup, twisting plot and colorful cast of characters in Crider's latest mystery (after Blood Marks ) will keep readers riveted, so it's too bad that the ending reveals a rather pallid villain. A Mexican-American civil servant named Ramona Gonzalez, rumored to be promiscuous and talkative, is found strangled in an Austin, Tex., dumpster. It turns out that Gonzalez was pregnant and had ties to a powerful state senator, his bisexual chief aide and others. The capital city is thrown into turmoil when another body is found the next day. Assigned to the case by the dotty, paranoid governor, Texas Ranger Ray Hartnett must investigate a varied assortment of suspects, ranging from right-to-lifers to political time-servers, naive coed Capitol guides to powerful lobbyists. There's also a nice subplot of a budding affair between middle-aged Hartnett and a civil servant. Crider, who writes the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series and Professor Carl Burns series, demonstrates an insider's thoroughgoing knowledge of Texas politics.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
A lighthearted look behind the dignified facade of the state capitol in Austin, Texas, where the strangled body of pretty, promiscuous Ramona Gonzalez, one of the building's cleaners, has been found in a basement hamper. Texas Ranger Ray Hartnett has scarcely begun to investigate when there's a second killing--this time the victim is Ron Matson, chief aide to State Senator Samuel Wilkins, a married man whose fondness for young women is common gossip. Bisexual, closeted Ron was close to Todd Elton, one-time capitol tour-guide, now a small-time drug-dealer who meets his pet clients in the capitol's chapel. Hartnett is drawn to attractive Chief Administrator Jane Kettler, provoking the jealousy of besotted head tour-guide Stan Donald. All of this is further complicated by a straggle of homeless sleeping around the building, a blackmailing head janitor, and the ineptitude (to say the least) of the building's security police. A perilous chase up endless staircases to the capitol's dome brings a tension-filled climax to this wryly amusing, mildly raunchy, thoroughly entertaining novel by the versatile Crider (Blood Marks, p. 634, etc.). -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Different from his usual,
By Northeast Texas Reader (Northeast Texas, United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Texas Capitol Murders (Hardcover)
This is one of my favorite Bill Crider books. He autographed my copy with a nice message, but then he's a nice guy. This is so different from his Dan Rhodes (which I like, too), academia and other series. It is set in the Texas State Capitol Building. [Yes, capitol, not capital - after all, he was an English teacher!] Besides the mystery - two murders, you get a lot of funny satire about Texas Government, a paranoid Governor, the legislators, lobbyists, even a bit about Texas College football. If you're not a native Texan, you'll learn a little about Austin, our capitol city. It is set before the CSI era, so you get old fashioned crime investigation and reasoning, much like in the Dan Rhodes' books, but by a Texas Ranger. Buy one of these used copies, since it is long out of print.
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