New (to me) Authors, 1st Quarter 2015

At the end of every quarter, Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise hosts a meme for the best new-to-me crime fiction authors. Check out other posts for this quarter. 

In January, February, and March 2015, I read three authors that were new to me per month. All of the books by new authors that I read were entertaining. And there was a good variety in the settings.

These are the books by new authors that I read this quarter:

The 39 Steps by John Buchan
Villain by Shuichi Yoshida
The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe
Cookie's Case by Andy Siegel
Murder in the Raw by William Campbell Gault
Too Late to Die by Bill Crider
A Killing at Cotton Hill by Terry Shames
The Hanging Shed by Gordon Ferris
Death Was the Other Woman by Linda L. Richards

From this list, these two books made the most impression on me this quarter:

Murder in the Raw by William Campbell Gault was the first in a series of novels featuring Brock Callahan, an ex-LA Ram football player, who becomes a private detective in Beverly Hills, California. That novel was first published under the title Ring Around Rosa (which is more descriptive). The cover of my edition describes the book as a hard-boiled classic. This book seemed to have less sex and violence than I had expected in that genre.

Too Late to Die by Bill Crider is the first book in the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series, which now totals 21 books.  Dan Rhodes is up for reelection to the job of Sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas. His jurisdiction covers small towns and rural areas, where everyone knows everyone.

The pacing of the story is slow but steady, until towards the end when the action speeds up. Crider combines good characterization of the Sheriff, and his family, friends and enemies, with an interesting picture of rural Texas. The story is told with dry humor.