Rehder and Wortham, a bonaza for Texas fiction fans

Fans of Texas mystery writers will hit a bonanza in May. Ben Rehder will speak in Burnet Thursday, May 11, and Reavis Z. Wortham will be in Marble Falls Friday, May 12.

Rehder will be at the final Coffee Talks program of the season at Herman Brown Free Library, 100 East Washington Street, in Burnet at 1:30 p.m. Wortham will be part of the Lunch at the Library at 11:30 a.m. at the Marble Falls Public Library, 101 Main Street. Both programs are free, but reservations are requested especially in Marble Falls where space it limited.

Each author is firmly rooted in Texas and its ineffable brand of humor and sensibilities. Each has a new book to share.

Rehder's latest book, “Now You See Him,” published in February, is the fourth Roy Ballard mystery, a series that has carried him a bit east of the Blanco County mysteries surrounding a rural game warden. This time, Austin insurance investigator Roy Ballard and his partner Mia Madison look into the disappearance of a man off a party boat on Lake Travis-an accident or murder?

Wortham, author of the Red River mystery series, will share his latest book, “Unraveled.” Darker than Rehder's take on Texas, Wortham is on-key with his Texas characters in the Red River mystery series.

In “Unraveled,” fourteen-year-old Top Parker, who lives with his grandparents Constable Ned Parker and Miss Becky in a farmhouse near the Northeast Texas river, is caught up in another adult situation sparked by a mysterious fatal single car accident involving the white mayor of Chisum and his black female assistant. Questions and accusations arise about their relationship as the families wreak vengeance on each other.

A finalist for the Edgar, Shamus, and Barry awards, Rehder has written 16 books and has made best-of-the-year lists in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Field and Stream, for which he has written often.

A former teacher, Wortham came to his writing career but has produced seven books and been a finalist for the Will Rogers Medallion Award. His first novel in the Red River series made Kirkus Reviews' Top 12 Mysteries of 2011. True West Magazine included the 5th novel in the series in its 2015’s Top 12 Modern Westerns.

His outdoor humor columns and articles run in The Paris News, Texas Fish and Game Magazine and other publications.