From his Q & A with Ben Boulden at Gravetapping:Too Late to Die (1986), which introduced Sheriff Dan Rhodes, was the first book you published under your own name. There are now 22 entries in the series. When you devised Sheriff Rhodes did you intend it to be a series, or was it an “accidental” series?Learn more about the book and author at Bill Crider's website and blog.
When Ruth Cavin, then an editor at Walker, bought the first Dan Rhodes novel, I received a letter (some of your younger readers might have to google that term) from her saying how much she liked the book and that she was buying it. She concluded with, “You are working on a sequel, aren’t you?” While I hadn’t planned on doing a series because I didn’t know that anyone would ever buy the first book, I wrote her back and told her that of course I was working on a sequel and that I’d send it to her as soon as it was done. I never dreamed that I’d still be writing about the sheriff 30 years later, though.
Have you been surprised by the length and success of the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series?
Absolutely surprised. As I mentioned above, I had no expectation that there would be a second book, much less more than 20. I don’t know how much success the series has had. It sneaked into paperback a few times, but it never made any bestseller lists. Ebooks have given it a real boost, though, and now that Crossroad Press has made all the early books available, the series is doing very well, indeed.
Are there any specific rewards or pitfalls that come from writing a long term series?
There’s a considerable reward in being able to write about characters you enjoy. Writing about Blacklin County is like visiting a real place for me, and I enjoy every trip I take there. I suppose the pitfalls are....[read on]
Read the Page 69 Test entries for Crider's A Mammoth Murder, Murder Among the OWLS, Of All Sad Words, Murder in Four Parts, Murder in the Air, The Wild Hog Murders, Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen, Compound Murder, and Half in Love with Artful Death.
Learn about Crider's choice of actors to portray Dan Rhodes and Seepy Benton on the big screen.
--Marshal Zeringue