Buck Fever

Easy Reading

I have read the first two titles in the series. Well written, characters come to life. Plots well done and carefully thought out. This is funny light easy reading that keeps your attention and entertains well. Looking forward to next in the series.

Fast moving adventure story.

The author brings the various elements of his story together with great skill. I couldn't put it down once started. Each sub-plot is carefully linked to the other and it all comes out with a great ending. Behind the story is a subtle dig at the game farms that are replacing traditional wild range deer hunting. A great story.

Enjoyable Game Warden police procedural

Usually the opening week of dear hunting season in Blanco County, Texas is a bit wild but this year things get really crazy the week before the season opens. Red O¿Brien and Billy Don Craddock are poaching on the tail end of the Circle S Ranch when they spot some big dear. They shoot but one of the deer they are aiming at is a human in disguise and the other is jumping around like a kangaroo.

Game Warden John Marlin is called onto the scene and recognizes the bouncing deer as Buck who his best friend Phil Colby raised as an infant. John gives Buck back to Phil even though the deer technically belongs to the owner of the Circle S, retired but still powerful lobbyist Roy Swank. For some reason, Swank wants the deer back and will go to any length to achieve that goal no matter who gets hurt in the process.

This first installment in this new mystery series is both serious and funny, sometimes at the same time. The protagonist plays straight man to all the eccentric characters that make up the support cast, giving BUCK FEVER an almost slapstick feel at times. The story line is well developed with all the sub-plots tying seamlessly into the main tale. Ben Rehder has a distinctively refreshing and original voice, a bright new star in the mystery genre.

Harriet Klausner

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