Christmas in Texas: Secret Santa

Cursed to Death by Bill Crider

 published 1988

[excerpt] [In the sheriff’s office]

Rhodes looked round the office for the first time. “Ho Ho Ho,” he said. Under the gunrack was a short but shapely Christmas tree, hung with blue ornaments and strung with blue lights. The lights were not plugged in.

[Later: Ruth, Rhodes’ deputy, comes into the office]

“Look at the pretty tree,” she said, noticing it for the first time.

“Might be some presents under it later.”

“What kind of presents,” Ruth asked.

“All kinds,” Hack said. “I ain’t sure.”

“I think it’s a good idea,” Ruth said. “Should we draw names?”

Rhodes felt as if things were getting out of hand in some way. “Draw names?”

“So we can get a gift for the one whose name we draw,” Ruth said. “It might be fun.”…

“I’m not sure we’ll have time for that,” he said.

“Sure we will,” Hack said. “We don’t have any crime on Christmas Day, ‘cept maybe a drunk or two. We got plenty of time.”

comments: This is just like the Golden Age detective fans online group, arranging their Secret Santa.

Cursed to Death is a Christmas delight. It follows series character Sheriff Dan Rhodes round a few days in his life just before Christmas, where a number of crimes and potential crimes come his way, up to and including murder.

The setting is Blacklin County in the Texas Panhandle, and its biggest (but still not very big) town Clearview. Bill Crider wrote a long series of these books – there’s one on the blog here in a post marking his death in 2018. Crider was a much-loved and admired character, and plainly a very nice man. And so is Sheriff Dan Rhodes.

The books are full of charm, which is so much the right word in one way, but doesn’t quite fit. This one starts with a witch cursing a dentist whom she is angry with. There is trouble in an old people’s home, and a child assaults Santa Claus, who hits back. “Lots of little kids standin’ round cryin’ and takin’ on for a while, but Ruth got things straight. They was all afraid Santy was goin’ to slide down the chimbly this year and kick their butts. Do ‘em a world of good, you ask me.”

There’s much discussion in the sheriff’s office as to how best to celebrate Christmas. Dan Rhodes’ personal life, and his relationship with Ivy, also feature. It is a very funny book in the nicest possible way: the regular characters are a reliable source of jokes.

There is plenty of action  - including a food fight at the old people’s home, and a shootout around the life-sized crib figures at the Presbyterian church: “There was a thudding sound, and one of the wise men’s heads fell off”.

You never quite know where the plots are going, the stories are far from predictable, and thery are proper crime books with excellent characters. Highly recommended.

Christmas Tree in a US Army office in Texas from Wikimedia Commons.

Firemen decorating a tree in their station at San Antonio, Texas, same, showing a bit more enthusiasm than Sheriff Rhodes.

Nativity scene at a courthouse in Athens Texas, same source.