Showing results by author "Ben Rehder" in All Categories

Everyone thinks Boz Gentry died in a fiery traffic accident, but Roy Ballard and Mia Madison aren't convinced. As legal videographers, it's their job to provide evidence of insurance fraud - and the more they dig into the Gentry case, the more they realize this might be the most elaborate scheme they've ever encountered. Of course, when millions of dollars are at stake, con men will take drastic steps to protect their scam- including arson, assault, or even murder.

Meet Roy Ballard, freelance videographer with a knack for catching insurance cheats. He's working a routine case, complete with hours of tedious surveillance, when he sees something that shakes him to the core. There, with the subject, is a little blond girl wearing a pink top and denim shorts - the same outfit worn by Tracy Turner, a six-year-old abducted the day before. When the police are skeptical of Ballard's report - and with his history, who can blame them? - it's the beginning of the most important case of his life.

Safari Adventure is a small but popular zoo that entertains visitors from all over Texas - until one morning when most of the animals escape and a body is found on the premises. Game warden John Marlin works closely with the sheriff’s office, at first to capture the animals, and then to solve the mystery of the missing zookeeper. But local good old boys Red O’Brien and Billy Don Craddock just might figure it all out first, after they pick up a hitchhiker with a questionable past and some inside information that makes him a prime suspect.

Life can get a little wild from time to time for John Marlin, the game warden in Blanco County, Texas - but few incidents compare to the stories flying around town at the start of this new deer season. Hunters are reporting an incredible sight: A six-foot-tall, drop-dead gorgeous blonde is roaming the woods, searching out camouflage-clad men with guns and disarming them with powers of seduction the likes of which none of them have ever come across before. Everyone has a hearty laugh at the expense of a few embarrassed hunters, until one of their own turns up dead in the woods. Now Marlin has a real mystery to deal with.

Kendyl Jordan is a beautiful woman who drives an eye-catching classic car—until the car goes missing, possibly with something of great value hidden inside it. Can Roy Ballard help her find it? Despite Ballard’s budding reputation, Kendyl learns he’s not even a private investigator, he’s a legal videographer with very little experience. Still, he seems to have a knack for the job, and it doesn’t take him long to ID a couple of dangerous suspects. That’s when the case takes more twists and turns than a winding Texas Hill Country road.

Sean Hudson thought nothing of hopping a fence to dig illegally for Native American arrowheads, spear points, and other artifacts. Did his thieving, trespassing ways get him killed? How else to explain the small pickaxe that was found sunk deep into his skull? Blanco County game warden John Marlin has dealt with these kinds of looters before, so it's no surprise when the sheriff asks him to assist with the investigation. Marlin quickly learns that this case - like the soil at a dig site - has many layers.

When the manager of a fast-food restaurant is accused of bullying an employee to the point of attempted suicide, Roy Ballard and Mia Madison are hired to document his behavior. As they look deeper, they learn that another employee quit abruptly a few months earlier and hasn’t been seen since. Did she really leave the state, as the manager claims? Roy and Mia simply want to confirm that she’s okay, but even her family members back home don’t have any answers. But Roy and Mia won’t stop digging until justice is served.

This box set includes two mystery novels written by Edgar and Shamus Award finalist Ben Rehder. Included are Buck Fever (first novel in the Blanco County mystery series) and Gone the Next (first novel in the Roy Ballard mystery series).

The trouble at the Conlee’s lakeside estate begins when vandals topple and destroy an expensive Italian fountain. Then they slash the tires and damage the paint job on a Jaguar. That’s when Roy Ballard's client, the insurance company, asks him to catch the vandal in the act and prevent future claims. Surprisingly, the homeowner, Norman Conlee, opposes the idea. He intends to address the problem himself by fencing the property and keeping his revolver handy. Eventually, though, he gives in, and Roy goes to work.

When Blanco County rancher Phil Colby encounters a beautiful trespasser bathing in his creek, he has plenty of questions, but she isn’t offering any answers. Before long, Colby realizes she’s on the run. But from what? Over time, he earns her trust, and she begins to share her story.

On opening day of dove season in Blanco County, Jimmy Ray Gladstone is confronted, then shot, by an attractive stranger with an unusual physical characteristic. But who is she, and how did she know about the robbery Jimmy Ray and his brother Russell had been planning? Game Warden John Marlin will have to figure it out on his own, because the sheriff’s office is stretched thin, Jimmy Ray has a head injury and isn’t making much sense, and Russell is nowhere to be found.

Life in rural Blanco County, Texas, isn't what most folks would call exciting - and that suits game warden John Marlin just fine. He's happy to spend his days and nights protecting the local wildlife from poachers. But when the tequila-slamming, skirt-chasing treasurer of the local Rotary Club goes missing and his vehicle is found in the river the day after a flood, Marlin finds himself in charge of the search efforts.

The first three fun, fast-paced Roy Ballard mysteries, now in a single box set. This audiobook includes: Gone the Next, Get Busy Dying, and If I Had a Nickel.

Jeremy Sawyer was having a great time on a party barge on Lake Travis, and then he was suddenly nowhere to be found. Had he jumped? Fallen off? Been pushed? Roy Ballard - an expert in catching insurance cheats - intends to find out. After all, Jeremy Sawyer was the nephew of one of his biggest clients, and she can't shake the suspicion that it wasn't an accident. It isn't long before Roy and his partner Mia Madison begin to draw the same conclusion.

When a Blanco County hog hunter goes missing after a fight with his girlfriend, it's not a laughing matter - even when one of today's hottest blue-collar comedians is a suspect. Game warden John Marlin joins forces with the sheriff's department once again to root through the clues and discover the truth. Meanwhile, two of the county's most notorious poachers - Red O'Brien and Billy Don Craddock - decide to launch an investigation of their own, and the cops are not amused.

Does Caleb Dimmick really work at his father’s motorcycle dealership, or does he simply ride the payroll, thereby giving his dad a nice tax break? Roy Ballard, a legal videographer specializing in insurance fraud, is hired to find out. After just a few days, Roy is convinced everything is legit - until a dealership employee is gunned down in his own backyard, possibly by an assassin on an orange sport bike.

Lonnie Blair was sitting comfortably in a deer blind on a crisp January afternoon when his life came to a sudden, violent end. Was it an accident, or had Blair’s long history of womanizing finally caught up to him? Blanco County Game Warden John Marlin joins the investigation and quickly identifies a prime suspect - a neighboring ranch foreman with several questionable incidents in his past. But is the answer really that simple?

It's the week before deer hunting season, as close to a statewide holiday as you get in Texas, and the locals are getting restless. Game Warden John Marlin has his hands full with poaching complaints coming in faster than he can write out-of-season tickets. Then a call of a different sort comes in. A man dressed up in some sort of deer costume has been shot at the Circle S ranch, and witnesses are reporting a massive wild-eyed buck prancing about the pasture in a lovesick frenzy.

Lennox Armbruster was struck by a speeding vehicle - but was it an accident or an insurance scam gone wrong? Roy Ballard is hired to find out, and he soon learns there’s a third possibility: attempted murder. Joe Jankowski, the man who hit Armbruster, is a tough-talking player in the construction industry, and a feud with one of his former employees has shown that he has a temper to match his brash personality. When Roy and his partner Mia Madison attempt to dig deeper, they learn just how far Jankowski will go to shut down their investigation.

An unidentified wild creature is on the loose in Blanco County, and, over the protests of game warden John Marlin, the locals have convinced themselves they're dealing with a mythical vampirish beast called a chupacabra. It doesn't help Marlin's cause when a dead body turns up with a fang-like wound in its neck.