Bill Crider

Rafe McGregor put a few questions to Bill Crider, author of the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series and other books. A sample from the Q & A:

Rafe: Which authors have had the strongest influence on your writing?

Bill: It’s probably impossible to answer this one. I’ve read too many books and admired too many writers to know who’s been my biggest influence. Certainly Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Ross MacDonald were writers I wanted to emulate, though most of my books are very little like theirs. Even my private-eye novels are different, for the most part. Harry Whittington is a paperback writer I admire for a lot of reasons, but my books aren’t like his, either, but he was certainly an influence. Mickey Spillane’s another one, and, you guessed it, my books are nothing at all like his.

Rafe: What are your five favourite novels that aren’t normally considered crime fiction?

Bill: These change from time to time, but here...[read on]

Read the Page 69 Test entries for Crider's A Mammoth Murder, Murder Among the OWLS, Of All Sad Words, and Murder in Four Parts, as well as an excellent write-up about Dan Rhodes on the big screen at "My Book, The Movie."

Also see Steve Hockensmith's Q & A with Bill Crider.

Visit Bill Crider's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue