Bill Crider...

The Internet and its ability for networking has changed our lives - without the Internet all the name Bill Crider would have meant to me -  just another of American writer of  the mysteries and westerns that I like so much. However, he became a good friend and although I never met him personally I did get to know him quite well via the world wide webbie thingie. When I first broke into publication, all the way back in 2009 with Tarnished Star, Bill was one of the first to offer a review - you can read that HERE.

There's a downside of course to  this ability to so easily connect with people - and when the news, not unexpected, that Bill recently passed after after a long and courageous battle against cancer arrived, I felt as if I'd lost a close friend, someone important to me and you know even although our relationship may have been conducted electronically, broad-banded across oceans, it was a real friendship. I may not have physically looked into his eyes, but through his words, our correspondence I felt his soul. Bill was a warm, kind, caring man with such a well developed sense of humour that I swear he had a little Welsh blood somewhere in his ancestry.

Bill was best known for the Sheriff Dan Rhodes mystery series, but in all he published more than fifty books, covered many genres from westerns to horror novels. Only a writer can fully appreciate the demands the craft puts on a person, the time it eats up and yet Bill always managed to find the time to offer advice to new and seasoned writers alike.

Bill led a full life, died a courageous death, and his memory will be cherished not only by those who knew him personally but the many many thousands of us to whom he offered the hand of digital friendship.

God Bless you Sir.

Book Review - A TIME FOR HANGING BY BILL CRIDER

The mystery aspect of this novel is very well developed, as is the Old West setting. The book is populated by likable characters who ring true - the double act of Sheriff Ward Vincent and his deputy are an excellent team - neither of them are heroic characters but both can be counted on, often unbeknownst to themselves, to do the right thing.

The book starts off with young Peco Morales stumbling across the dead body of a young girl. The girl is Lizzie Randall, the preacher's daughter, and when the men out looking for her find the young Mexican boy close to her body, they jump to the inevitable conclusion. The men first beat the young boy within an inch of his life and they then want to hang the boy, but Deputy Jack Simkins stands up to them and holds off the lynching so the sheriff can be brought.


Sheriff Vincent knows that all the evidence is circumstantial and, as he feels guilt at the death of the Mexican boy's father some years back, a case he never fully investigated, he is determined to discover the truth before the boys faces the rope. Author Bill Crider is best known for his work in the mystery genre, and he brings all the skills developed over the years to this tale which is basically a traditional mystery in a western setting. That the Wild West town is created so effectively that the reader can almost smell the dusty streets, makes for a compelling read with both devious twists and traditional western thrills.

A Time For Hanging was previously available in print and the first electronic edition is published by Crossroad Press & Macabre Ink Digital. It's priced fairly, around the price the mass market paperback would have been back in the day. The Archive recommends the book to all western fans - a thoroughly enjoyable Wild West mystery.


Find it HERE

THE JOHN WAYNE TRIBUTE WEEKEND - HANGING WITH THE DUKE: BILL CRIDER

Author Bill Crider's own little corner of the web can be found HERE

The first John Wayne movie I remember having seen is The Sands of Iwo Jima. This would have been around 1949 or 1950, probably about the time of its original release in theaters. I didn’t know who John Wayne was, and I don’t think any of the neighborhood kids did, either, but somehow several of us wound up in the theater together. What impressed every single one of us was the ending, which I’ll now have to reveal. If you haven’t see the movie, consider this a BIG SPOILER ALERT that continues to the end of this entire post. Wayne, Sgt. Stryker in the movie, having survived the hellish battles of Tarawa and Iwo Jima, is killed by sniper’s bullet as he prepares to light a cigarette. His men get the sniper and raise the flag as in the famous photo.



When I say we were impressed, I really mean it None of us, I’m sure, had ever seen a movie in which the main character died, but it seemed like a wonderful idea. For days afterward we reenacted the final scene, with fights breaking out over who was going to play Stryker. When we played cowboys, nobody ever wanted to die. You couldn’t make any of us fall down, no matter how many times someone claimed to have shot us. Wayne’s performance was so powerful that it changed us completely.



Twenty-something years later, I was living in Brownwood, a small Central Texas town where I was teaching at the time. My wife and I went to the local theater one Friday night to see another John Wayne movie: The Cowboys. By that time I knew who John Wayne was, and so did everybody else in town. At least half the audience wore cowboy hats that they didn’t bother to remove during the course of the film. The plot of The Cowboys, when you think about it, is amazingly similar to the plot of The Sands of Iwo Jima. Only the setting is different. This time, it’s a Old West cattle drive instead of WWII. Once again, John Wayne, playing Wil Andersen, is molding a motley group of youngsters with harsh methods that they’ll later realize are for their own good.



The big scene in the movie occurs when the head Bad Guy, Bruce Dern, has Wayne under the gun. All he as to do is pull the trigger, and Wayne dies. The half of the audience in cowboy hats began to cat-call and comment. “That sucker don’t know what he’s dealin’ with. Old John’ll blow him away!” “Damn right. Ain’t nobody ever gets the better of Big John.” And so on. It was getting a big rowdy. And then Bruce Dern pulled the trigger. The silence that fell over that theater was instant and amazing. It’s the only time in my life that I’ve actually experienced what could be called a “stunned silence.” Nobody said a word for the rest of the movie. People filed out afterward with scowls in their faces. It didn’t matter to them that the group of kids Wayne had been molding carried out the cattle drive, just as those others had raised the flag. The fact that Wayne’s character had been shot and killed struck them silent.



If there were any kids there, I’m sure they didn’t go home and play the Wayne role with their pals, but once again John Wayne proved that he had the power and the screen presence to impress and shock an audience. He wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award this time, as he was for The Sands of Iwo Jima, but he showed what a real movie star can do. It’s no wonder he’s been a favorite of mine for nearly 60 years.

This is so great

Click the image to enlarge

I love this - get the dirt from Evan Lewis

TARNISHED STAR NEW REVIEW

Reviewed by Bill Crider HERE


"This is a fast-moving debut that would have been right at home as half of an Ace Double back in the old days. If you're looking for an action-packed western of the kind they supposedly don't write anymore, you'll be surprised to find that they do write 'em like that, after all. Pick up The Tarnished Star and see for yourself."


THE TARNISHED STAR GET IT HERE

BILL CRIDER

Is interviewed over on Rafe McGregor's corner of the web. HERE

WILD WEST MONDAY GUEST BLOGGER - Bill Crider

Our first guest blogger is Mr. Bill Crider and he shares his thoughts here on Rio Bravo (one of The Archive's favourite oaters) and Brian Garfield's Western Films: A Complete Guide.

Please check out the links below the post leading to Bill's own books and his wonderful Blog. And thanks to Bill for taking part in The Archive's month long series of western posts, leading upto Wild West Monday the third.

OK- I hand you over to Mr. Bill Crider:

In his otherwise excellent book entitled WESTERN FILMS: A COMPLETE GUIDE, Brian Garfield has this to say about one of my favorite westerns, RIO BRAVO: "I remain mystified by the way Howard Hawks's apologists hold this juvenile and predictable movie up as an example of auteuriste genius." He also says, "It's overrated, overripe, and overlong." And, "Nelson is wooden. Brennan overplays." There's more, but that will give you the idea.

I've been reading Brian Garfield's novels for years. I've enjoyed his crime novels as much as his westerns, though I think WILD TIMES is his masterpiece and a fine novel no matter what your reading tastes. But I don't agree with his opinion about RIO BRAVO. Well, not entirely. I'm willing to agree that it's 'not "an example of auteuriste genius," whatever that means. However, I think it's a wonderfully entertaining movie, especially for guys.

Let me just repeat my often-quoted (by me and James Reasoner) opinion that RIO BRAVO has something for a guy of any age to identify with. When I first saw the movie as a teenager, I identified with Ricky Nelson (who's not wooden, just cool). As I got older, I identified with Dean Martin, the self-pitying loser who finds himself. Later on, I thought I was more like John Wayne, getting along in years, maybe, but still appealing to hot babes like Angie Dickinson. Now, I identify with Walter Brennan.

RIO BRAVO is one of those movies I can watch any time at all, even though I know it pretty much by heart now. Call it childish if you will (and Garfield does), it still thrills and entertains me as much as it ever did even though I'm in the Brennan years. (A sad fact is that when he made the movie, Brennan was younger than I am now. By several years. Well, maybe that's not sad to you, but it's sad to me.)

Garfield doesn't like the near-remake, RIO LOBO, either. He says it's "virtually an amateur movie." I don't think it's in the same league with RIO BRAVO, and it would have been better with Ricky Nelson.

All that being said, if you like western films and you don't have a copy of Garfield's book, you really should get one. It makes for great reading whether you agree with him or not.


ABOUT BILL

Bill Crider writes mysteries. Check him out HERE
His most well known series is the Sheriff Dan Rhodes books - The Sheriff Dan Rhodes series features the adventures of a sheriff in a s mall Texas county where there are no serial killers, where a naked man hiding in a dumpster is big news, and wh ere the sheriff still has time to investigate the theft of a set of false teeth. The first book in this series won an Anthony Award for "best first mystery novel" in 1986. The latest book in the series is Red, White, and Blue Murder.

Bill also publishes the widely read blog on popular culture HERE

Bill also writes Blog Bytes which is my favourite non-fiction bit of The Ellery Queen Magazine

I was thrilled to see The Tainted Archive mentioned in the current issue.



Pictured - Back Row: Bill and Judy Crider, Marion Reasoner. Front Row: James Reasoner, Doug Grad. WWA convention, Jackson Hole, 1993.

Bill Crider's Crimewav

Head on over to the CRIMEWAV the crime fiction podcast where Bill Crider is reading his Edgar nominated story, Cranked. If you've never tried Crimewav before now is the time to do so. The podcast run by writer, Seth Harwood is of professional quality and is essential listening for any crime fiction fan.

I love podcasts and subscribe to dozens so I feel qualified to say that Crimewav is among the big boys in internet broadcasting. The last episode featured a lost Dashiell Hammett story which was read by Mr Harwood himself. It's quite incredible that content of this quality can be offered free but then perhaps that's it's biggest strength - the creators produce it for love rather than financial gain.

Excellent stuff.