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John Martin is the game warden of Blanco County, Texas. It is his job to protect the wildlife from poachers and the said poachers from themselves and the wildlife. A major flood changes his responsibilities for the short term. A local member of the Rotary Club has disappeared, as has a Corvette in his custody. His SUV is found in the floodwaters but his body has not been discovered. In addition, a local house explodes and drug paraphernalia is found in the rubble. On top of this, Martin has to deal with his crush on a new member of the sheriff's department, deputy Nicole Brooks. Luckily for Martin, all of the unusual activities mean that his is in daily contact with her. Somehow Martin must find the missing body, the car and determine whether or not the local town has a drug problem as well as monitor the wildlife and meet his other responsibilities. GUILT TRIP is a humorous book. The characters are unusual and seem to embrace their strangeness. At times John Martin and the sheriff's department appear to be the only sane characters in the book. The story moves along quickly even though the unexpected frequently happens. Although the unexpected does occur that does not imply that the story is incoherent or scattered. GUILT TRIP -- the fourth book to feature John Marlin and Blanco County -- is a funny book but Rehder does not sacrifice substance for irrelevance. This is a necessary trait for any author hoping to stay successfully in the humorous mystery sub-genre. Many reviewers compare Ben Rehder to authors such as Carl Hiaasen. While I do agree that they write in the same sub-genre and that some similarities exist in their stories; they are not comparable. Rehder needs to continue to hone his skills before his books are at the level of Hiaasen and others. Rehder is a talented enough author to accomplish this; it is just premature to compare these authors at this point in his career.
Reviewed by Sarah Dudley, October 2005
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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