Deputy Dan sets out to foil Shootin' Sam's dastardly plan to rob a train.

Deputy Dan sets out to foil Shootin' Sam's dastardly plan to rob a train.

It was the cat who "told" Sheriff Dan Rhodes that something was wrong. It ran into the house when he opened the door. His wife, Ivy, recognized the cat as belonging to their neighbor and told Dan to go check on the widow—Helen Harris never let the cat out of the house. When Dan finds Helen's body on her kitchen floor, there is nothing to indicate that her death wasn't an accident. But Ivy's words ring in his head. Why was the cat out? Helen had been active in a number of women's groups, one of which was the OWLS, the Older Women's Literary Society. She and some other women would also venture out with digging tools to look for ancient booty in the lands around the town. They didn't usually find much, but every now and then someone would dig up a coin or a piece of jewelry with potential. Could this have been the reason for Helen's death? The investigation becomes more complicated as Rhodes learns that she actually had a number of suitors. Also, a news-hungry reporter who smells a juicy story gives Rhodes more trouble. This is the fourteenth book in which Bill Crider has wowed readers with the extraordinary adventures of his Sheriff Dan Rhodes. Add a cast of vibrant characters, including wise-cracking deputies and the slightly wacky local citizens in Rhodes's bailiwick, and every book in this series is a wonderful treat.

In this tenth installment of the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series, the Blacklin County Texas law enforcer is back to solve even more mysteries. Some of the most amusing sequences in Crider's Blacklin county mysteries are set in the jailhouse, and star the ongoing word battles between its two septuagarian denizens, Hack the dispatcher and Lawton, the jailer. This time no one at the jailhouse is laughing and Rhodes has a new problem. Not only is the jailhouse itself rumored to be haunted, but a mysterious corpse is found in an open grave in the neighboring town. Rhodes uses his laid back sleuthing skills to find the answers to these puzzling events, which Crider depicts with his usual humor, suspense and small town ambience.

While storytelling is a great favorite of preschoolers, many elementary age children are more drawn to crafts and other activities. StoryCraft is an award-winning library program that combines storytelling with crafts in an exciting and engaging activity for children in first through third grades. Each one-hour program includes storytelling, a craft, movement, activities, music, and discussion. This collection of StoryCraft programs presents 50 fun and educational theme-based sessions. Each includes suggestions for promotion, music, crafts, activities, and stories. The sessions also include bibliographies to help direct young readers toward additional reading, as well as diagrams, detailed instructions, and supply lists for the crafts. The themes range from a Jungle Safari to Math Mayhem to a Western Roundup, all encouraging children to enjoy reading in a variety of ways. Each session has plenty of suggestions, so that the program can be customized. Helpful Hints for implementing the program can help any librarian, volunteer, or parent turn a ho-hum storytime into a dazzling StoryCraft time.

Law enforcement officers have the toughest job in America-keeping the public safe in a crime-ridden society. For nineteen years, Dan Hintz was one of those officers. Hintz always wanted to work in law enforcement. Police cars with their sirens and flashing lights caught his attention as a young boy each time they drove down the streets of his hometown, Shantytown, Wisconsin. Seeing local billboards of police officers leaning over to extend their hands to the children of his community made an indelible impression on him. The fact that officers could carry guns didn't hurt either. Gathering with his friends to play cops and robbers, he envisioned himself as a real police officer chasing down the bad guys, making sure they paid the price for their crimes. Law enforcement officers were his heroes and he wanted to be one of them. "In Pursuit of Justice" is a recollection of Hintz's childhood and adolescence, as well as experiences associated with a nineteen-year law enforcement career in central Wisconsin from the late 1960s until the first day of 1987. It depicts not only youthful discomfiture, but also family tragedies, accidents, and characters that are criminal in nature: miscreants, druggies, drunks, or just plain thugs. It also features individuals that are loveable and misguided, including those that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hintz is Wisconsin's Andy Taylor-his book of short stories is chock full of small-town eccentrics. What he presented in those stories is emotional, humorous, frightening, tragic, and, above all, revealing. It confirmed the harsh reality that crime and misfortune exist everywhere regardless of whether you live in a big city or a small county with charming towns, rustic farms, and little white churches. Growing up poor on a small farm in central Wisconsin, Hintz depicts not only his often-tragic life from a previous generation but his time in the U.S. Army including a stint in South Korea as a communications specialist. Hintz's law enforcement career ran the gamut of tragic, dangerous, and bizarre circumstances: farm and auto accidents, murder, suicide, bar brawls, medical emergencies, dismembered bodies, creative drug trafficking, illicit liaisons, smart-mouthed citizens, a small-town bully, racial tensions, masturbation gone wrong, and a drug-fueled rock festival from a bygone era just to name a few. But the pinnacle of Dan Hintz's law enforcement career was his involvement in the removal of one of America's most investigated domestic terrorist groups-the Posse Comitatus. Described by the FBI as "one of the first organized manifestations" of a strain of extremism "espousing racial supremacy, but primarily focused on opposition to the federal government," Hintz helped direct the removal of the racist, militia-style group from its Tigerton Dells compound in central Wisconsin.

Small-town Texas sheriff Dan Rhodes is in for another puzzling mystery in this next in the entertaining, award-winning series Before classes start one morning, the body of English instructor Earl Wellington is found outside the building of the community college. Wellington was clearly involved in a struggle with someone and has died as a result. Sheriff Dan Rhodes pursues and arrests Ike Terrell, a student who was fleeing the campus. Ike's father is Able Terrell, a survivalist who has withdrawn from society and lives in a gated compound. He's not happy that his son has chosen to attend the college, and he's even less happy with the arrest. Rhodes discovers that Wellington and Ike had had a confrontation over a paper that Wellington insisted Ike plagiarized. Wellington also had had a confrontation with the dean and was generally disliked by the students. As the number of suspects increases, it's up to Rhodes to solve the murder while also dealing with an amusing but frustrating staff, a professor who wants to be a cop, and all the other normal occurrences that can wreak havoc in a small town. Bill Crider's Compound Murder is an enjoyable police procedural filled with surprises, chuckles, and a quirky cast that will captivate mystery readers.

Demons. We all have them. They take various forms and affect us in different ways. Some are obvious like drugs and alcohol. Loneliness and depression and self-doubt are not so apparent if that is all you've known until college. In Holmes on the Range, Dan Holmes, Esquire wakes up one morning and realizes he is living his childhood dream. Wife, children, houses, cars, jewelry and cash flow from his legal practice are his. What he doesn't realize is that the demons that haunted him when he was growing up did not disappear as his career blossomed. Then life threw Dan a typical business-oriented speed-bump that he handled by building it into a mountain he could never scale. Those long silent core emotions led him, with eyes wide open, to risk his profession, his marriage, his community standing and his soul to keep things going. Lie built upon lie, larger thefts compounded smaller ones--time was purchased with ever bigger crimes against the community he served while he ignored his family life. Just live long enough for one more economic upturn and a few good deals to come along--everything will be fine. Or win the lottery. FBI agents came calling first. After pleading guilty, ex-attorney Dan Holmes entered the federal prison system for a ninety-six month stay not knowing if he could survive in a world he had seen only in the media. Penal rehabilitation turns out to be a life lived with four hundred other minimum security types in an open campus where any inmate can walk off the property. Accountants, lawyers, physicians, drug dealers, stock brokers, priests, the mentally retarded, the mentally ill, odd pranksters, clever scammers, and people more resembling barking dogs than human beings are all around him. The staff people are there in prison too, and everyone has mostly nothing to do, and a lot of time to do it in. Middle school without teachers--a way wicked wild world so few get to know close up. About the Authors: Sam Skinner was born and raised in Florida. He graduated from college and began a career in banking where he rose to Vice-President, Construction Loans. Then he changed career paths and worked as Chief Operating Officer for a real estate developer in Virginia. It was then that his life took a turn for the worse. He decided to be loyal to his employer when the employer committed bank fraud to try to secure takeout financing for his upside-down real estate portfolio. Sam did not call 911 and report the felonies as soon as he saw them, which is the letter of the law. His loyalty to an individual he liked and admired trumped his moral compass. When everything collapsed, Sam was indicted and pled guilty when the developer did not stand up and take responsibility for the frauds he alone had committed and authorized. Dan Holmes grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and went to law school after graduating college. He worked hard and became successful in his trade and was on his way to enjoying the fruits of his labor. Unfortunately, Dan wasn't prepared for the many trials that life makes you endure and, in his moment of testing, Dan failed miserably.

Longarm’s in for the fight of his life… In his years as a lawman, Longarm’s been pistol-whipped, punched-out, trampled, and shot more times than he can count—but his latest hangover may be the worst he’s ever felt. Until he runs afoul of Anton Gardner… Since he’s come to Fort Marion to extradite the prisoner Gardner—who robbed a military payroll and killed seven men—Longarm’s been attacked by cops with clubs, taken a blow to the head from Gardner’s lovely red-haired accomplice, been shot in the ribs, and tossed in jail. And the hardest blow of all: Gardner’s escaped with his badge and is impersonating the lawman. One thing’s for sure…Longarm is not down for the count.