A Ghost of a Chance by Bill Crider is a 2001 Worldwide publication.

Another delightful chapter in the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series!

Rhodes has his handful when a feud between Historical societies leads to murder. If that weren’t enough, meth dealers and a ghost are also stirring up trouble in Blacklin County- and as always, the Sheriff’s crew hilariously tries his patience at every turn…

The story is short- very fast-paced and busy, but also a bit complex. I was very invested in the historical society thread, and the ghost story.

The side story about the meth ring was an ‘also ran’ in the story, but was part of the landscape in rural Texas at the time this book as published-and Rhodes explains why it was so hard to weed out the drug dealers in such a sparsely populated area.

The folksy jargon is charming- and as the book was published twenty years ago, some of the nostalgia has a bittersweet quality to it now.

I got a late start on this series- having only read a handful of the newer releases before Crider became ill. I vowed to go back and read the earlier installments in the series and have tried to piece the series together for the past few years.

I found this book in a paperback swap store, and since the storyline involved ghosts, I decided to make it one of my ‘Halloween’ picks this year. I’m really glad I did.

I have missed Sheriff Rhodes and the gang and truly enjoyed the mysteries, and the wonderful humor sprinkled throughout. The ‘Murder, She Wrote’ mentions, the cats, and the Emus were especially fun, as were Rhodes’ addiction to Dr. Pepper- which brings back fond memories.

Overall, a nice trip down memory lane- a good solid mystery or two- and just some good, old-fashioned storytelling. Fun stuff!!

4 stars ( )

Light crime fiction from a popular American author. A confusing number of characters (though possibly some of them were introduced in earlier novels in this 'Dan Rhodes' series). Fast-paced, set in a context that felt very foreign to me, with people who were so far from my circle of acquaintances that it was hard to believe in them.

No real characterisation, and a complex plot which is solved by a burst of intuition rather than logical reasoning, so I don't suppose there's any way a reader could have worked out 'whodunit'.

Still, it's not a bad book, and if you like this kind of American 'cosy' crime fiction (there's no gratuitous violence or gore, although a lot of shooting happens) it may be worth picking up for a weekend or holiday read.

Longer review here: http://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2021/03/a-ghost-of-chance-by-bill-crider.htm... ( )

An amusing little mystery which kept me entertained on my commute to work for a few days (it was an audiobook), but not exceptional. ( )