Edgar-finalist Rehder’s sixth Blanco County (Tex.) mystery (after 2007’s Gun Shy
) may be the best to date in this rollicking crime series. Soon after Hollis Farley, a backhoe operator clearing land for televangelist Peter “Pastor Pete” Boothe’s controversial new religious complex, discovers an Alamosaurus
skull, an arrow hits Farley in the back, and the fossil skull disappears. Whodunit and whotookit? Series regular Red O’Brien persuades his best friend and housemate, 300-pound Billy Don Craddock, to whom Farley had mentioned the valuable discovery, to court Farley’s sister, Betty Jean, to see if she has the missing fossil. Other suspects include Vanessa, Pastor Pete’s unfaithful wife; debt-ridden Alex Pringle, Pete’s right-hand man; and Snake Sawyer, a convicted burglar who works for Darwin Parker, a dino-loving millionaire. Rehder’s satirical take on greed, faith and foolishness moves at a swift clip, punctuated with dizzy twists and even bittersweet turns, like a good toe-tapping, country and western tune. (May)
