ALLEN 'BILL'Y CRIDER

Born and raised in Texas, Bill Crider says on his website that he has always lived in small towns, with the exception of Austin which was rather small when he lived there. He is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin. He went on to earn a Masters and then a Ph.D. using as his dissertation the hardboiled detective novel. Forced, he says, by his wife to get a real job, he turned to teaching and continued in that profession for many years eventually becoming the Chair of the Division of English and Fine Arts at the Alvin Community College. In addition to writing terrific detective novels, of which his Sheriff Dan Rhodes are his best known, Mr. Crider has become an expert in all things detective and criminal in modern fiction. He has written a monthly column for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine for years. I am sad that he only wrote one book that qualifies his inclusion in this collection, that of a Nick Carter adventure, but spy-fi's loss is detective fiction's gain.