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Blanco County Mysteries #5
Gun Shy
It’s just days before the National Weapons Alliance rally in Blanco County, and things couldn’t be off to a worse start. First, an illegal immigrant is killed in a questionable hunting accident. Then, when local game warden John Marlin starts poking around for clues, he uncovers an astonishing secret—one that threatens to bring down the NWA. Turns out the host of this year’s rally, heartthrob country superstar Mitch Campbell, is not the Stetson-wearing, gun-toting, bull-riding man he appears to be…and someone’s planning to out him for the pill-popping, snowboarding, former rock-and-roller from Vermont he really is. Soon the entire town of Blanco finds itself in the dead center of a national scandal…and heading straight into the line of fire.
343 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2007
33 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
About the author
Ben Rehder
76 books276 followersBen Rehder wanted to become a writer ever since he was dropped on his head as a toddler. As he grew into a young adult and the vertigo gradually dissipated, his passion for literature grew. Ben longed to craft the type of soul-stirring prose that would touch people’s lives and help them explore new emotional horizons. But he went to work at an ad agency instead.
Throughout his rewarding and fruitful career in the ad business, Ben has been known to write such imaginative and compelling phrases as “Act now!,” “Limited-time offer,” and “Compatible with today’s rapidly changing network environment.”
However, there eventually came a time when, as unbelievable as it sounds, writing brochures and spec sheets simply wasn’t enough to satisfy Ben’s creative urges. Ben knew: It was time to write a novel.
“But what kind of novel?” Ben asked himself, drawing stares from passersby.
A mystery? A thriller? A work of suspense? Ben had read hundreds of books in these genres and loved them all. But nothing had sparked his creative juices enough to try it himself.
Fate played a hand one day when Ben’s father-in-law tossed him a copy of a Carl Hiaasen novel. And then it hit him. It literally hit him, right in the forehead. When the swelling went down and Ben had a chance to read the book, he discovered a type of fiction he had never experienced before—the comic crime novel! He loved the wacky characters, the zany plots, the interesting writing that threw a good deal of humor into the mix.
So Ben set out to write his own novel. After many grueling minutes in front of a computer, Ben was proud to present Buck Fever. Like many best-selling classics, Buck Fever has lots and lots of verbs, prepositions, adjectives, and the occasional gerund. It was even nominated for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel!
Next came Bone Dry, Flat Crazy, Guilt Trip, Gun Shy, and Holy Moly. Best of all, Ben is now releasing the earlier novels in ebook format at the low low price of just $2.99. What a deal!
Throughout his rewarding and fruitful career in the ad business, Ben has been known to write such imaginative and compelling phrases as “Act now!,” “Limited-time offer,” and “Compatible with today’s rapidly changing network environment.”
However, there eventually came a time when, as unbelievable as it sounds, writing brochures and spec sheets simply wasn’t enough to satisfy Ben’s creative urges. Ben knew: It was time to write a novel.
“But what kind of novel?” Ben asked himself, drawing stares from passersby.
A mystery? A thriller? A work of suspense? Ben had read hundreds of books in these genres and loved them all. But nothing had sparked his creative juices enough to try it himself.
Fate played a hand one day when Ben’s father-in-law tossed him a copy of a Carl Hiaasen novel. And then it hit him. It literally hit him, right in the forehead. When the swelling went down and Ben had a chance to read the book, he discovered a type of fiction he had never experienced before—the comic crime novel! He loved the wacky characters, the zany plots, the interesting writing that threw a good deal of humor into the mix.
So Ben set out to write his own novel. After many grueling minutes in front of a computer, Ben was proud to present Buck Fever. Like many best-selling classics, Buck Fever has lots and lots of verbs, prepositions, adjectives, and the occasional gerund. It was even nominated for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel!
Next came Bone Dry, Flat Crazy, Guilt Trip, Gun Shy, and Holy Moly. Best of all, Ben is now releasing the earlier novels in ebook format at the low low price of just $2.99. What a deal!
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
June 28, 2013
Nice mystery story. I liked the escalation with unexpected characters and the general out-of-control flow of it. Didn't think the satire was too powerful, but it was funny in places. Remains strange reading for a non-American to hear pro-gun owning arguments. Didn't really know what to make of one line to the effect that 'they tried banning guns in the UK and it didn't work'. Would like to read more of this author, though. Liked the Blanco County atmosphere.
November 3, 2014
A quick, fun read. Rehder definitely can't match Carl Hiassen, but his writing is smarter than Tim Dorsey's and less one-note than Rick Gavin's.
March 23, 2020
Gun Shy continues the exploits of game warden John Marlin in Blanco County Texas. This one created wacky, memorable characters but possibly had too many story lines. It is good enough to continue the series. It is not quite on the level of Carl Hiassen but still fun reading.
April 23, 2012
I put this book aside after a couple of chapters because I thought it was too political. Then I read some reviews that said it was very funny, laugh out loud funny, so I read the darn thing. What a waste of time. I could have been washing windows and had just as much fun as reading this book gave me. It isn’t funny and it is political.
September 22, 2011
I am enjoying this series. I like the complexity of the multiple characters and the recurring characters. The sarcasm is great!
March 24, 2012
This time Red and Billy Don get wrapped up with a Country star from Vermont. The author takes on gun rights and the stereotypes for those fanatics and opponents. Another fun and outrageous read.
July 27, 2013
Another fine book in the series that continues to remind me of books by Carl Hiaasen, but not quite as good. Definitely fun though.
August 11, 2020
I wanted to like this book because I have enjoyed the previous books in the series but I must admit I struggled with his one. I like long stories because the author can really develop the story or the characters but this one was just to long for me and it took me while to get through it. There was too much going on, with to many characters and the story jumped around as it was told by different people and I just confused. I think I might have to listen to the story again to appreciate it and knowing the ending understand it better. I liked the recurring characters as you never know what they are going to get up to next, especially Billy Don and Red. The subject was different and living in the UK I am not use to gun clubs or rallies or with hunting for that matter so this series has been an entertaining eye opener for me and one I am quiet enjoying.
What happens when the right to bear arms goes horribly wrong? John Marlin and the rest of Blanco county is about to find out. Country superstar Mitch Campbell is the face of the NWA but he isn't what he seems. He has a past that if it cones to light could put the group on a precarious position. Someone is about to test how far the leaders will go to protect the organization. At the same time someone is killing off anyone connected to the selling of guns or people who defends people that used a gun in the commission of a crime. Are things about to come to a head at the rally? And if so who will be catch up in the cross fire.
The narrator was okay but a bit monotonous for me and he did not have a very big range of voices,so everybody ended up sounding the same. Maybe a different narrator would have made the story better.
What happens when the right to bear arms goes horribly wrong? John Marlin and the rest of Blanco county is about to find out. Country superstar Mitch Campbell is the face of the NWA but he isn't what he seems. He has a past that if it cones to light could put the group on a precarious position. Someone is about to test how far the leaders will go to protect the organization. At the same time someone is killing off anyone connected to the selling of guns or people who defends people that used a gun in the commission of a crime. Are things about to come to a head at the rally? And if so who will be catch up in the cross fire.
The narrator was okay but a bit monotonous for me and he did not have a very big range of voices,so everybody ended up sounding the same. Maybe a different narrator would have made the story better.
August 30, 2018
I always enjoy these book. Sometimes the number of new characters is overwhelming, but the reader learns that the they will all be leading to the conclusion which will be a whopper.
Speaking of characters, they are all unique and developed as much as they need to be. None are overdone in the quirkiness.
It's okay for a fellow Texan to poke fun at Texans.
Speaking of characters, they are all unique and developed as much as they need to be. None are overdone in the quirkiness.
It's okay for a fellow Texan to poke fun at Texans.
October 3, 2020
Format: audiobook
Narrator: Robert King Ross
The National Weapons Alliance Rally is coming to Blanco County but I certainly didn’t expect what happened!
This is an enjoyable story and I liked the escalation of events as the story unfolds. Red and Billy Don are as usual their entertaining selves. A good fun series.
Narrator: Robert King Ross
The National Weapons Alliance Rally is coming to Blanco County but I certainly didn’t expect what happened!
This is an enjoyable story and I liked the escalation of events as the story unfolds. Red and Billy Don are as usual their entertaining selves. A good fun series.
April 5, 2021
Here’s another Ben Rehder it-ain’t-literature-but-it’s-a-heap-o’-fun gem. He writes about people I’m sure I’ve known, or at least had to deal with. I use Rehder’s series as well-earned relief from the serious reading I’m expected to consume. Rehder isn’t to everyone’s taste but he sure brightens my days. Soon, on to the next episode: Holy Moly .
May 6, 2020
I live in Austin area and love that Ben Rehder writes about the Austin area. I like how he uses the murder mystery to also involve a lot of characters that I feel I have met since I live in the area
October 5, 2020
Mitch Campbell is a country western star, but he is also a drug addict and alcoholic. When two murders occur, who is responsible? There are lots of laughs, action and some romance in this novel. This is a great series!
February 26, 2017
Funniest book I ever read.
September 8, 2019
Ben Rehder is the Carl Haissen of Texas with his tales of Blanco County. This is another fun installment. I look forward to more.
November 29, 2020
So many cases to solve in such a little time and how they all intertwined was so fun to listen to. So far I have enjoyed every book in this series and look forward to more.
October 1, 2021
Love the NWA.
March 15, 2023
good read
September 15, 2023
These are just fun books to read, but this one got really convoluted. I had to keep track of the characters on a piece of paper.
September 28, 2007
Ben Rehder's Gun Shy is a fun romp for the Ritalin-choking child in all of us, dancing around the topic of guns and gun control. It's the fifth novel in his Blanco County mystery series; and while I haven't read the previous books, so far as I could tell there's little or no thread weaving them together besides location and, perhaps, game warden John Marlin; so it's easy enough to pick up here and not worry about the others.
This comic crime novel revolves around one bad trip by country-western star Mitch Campbell, and his spokesmanship for the National Weapons Alliance. Still, I'd be hard pressed to say the book had any main character. We bounce through a dozen different points of view throughout the book: from a secretary-cum-spy to a former movie star, managers, politicians, officers, rednecks, guerrilla extremists, a cartoonist, and many more. Many of the threads are lightly touched, but we get at least a glimpse of a very interconnected world.
Rehder likes to introduce as much information as possible about a character up front—often more than I would have liked. The worst example of this, for me, was the first chapter's introduction of Dale Allen Stubbs, president of the Texas chapter of the National Weapons Alliance—I would have put the book down if I hadn't set myself the goal of reviewing it. I didn't care about Dale, and while Rehder began stretching the yarn early, I felt it was just too much telling. Even at the end of the book, I felt he could have done without the first chapter, regardless of how well it book-ended the arc. Still, overall, the info-dump does somewhat fit the fast pace, as characters are then immediately pitted in a situation that highlights key elements from their introduction.
It was a fun read, and I'm not sad I read it; I even shared a few choice lines with friends while I was reading. By the sixth chapter or so, I was happy to pick it up over getting actual work done. Rehder succeeded with his attempt at poking fun of "both" sides of gun control, and while most or all of the characters were caricatures, not deep by any stretch, none of them were flat. At worst, they were simply ethereal, like one fellow who only got a few pages in an airport. Once I found Rehder's pace, the rapid-fire scene and point of view changes rarely jarred, and I was eager to see how he was going to wrap everything up. The ending did not disappoint, though I could have done with more fleshing out of various backstory.
I heartily recommend it if you're looking for some light reading with a few laugh out loud moments. Maybe just skip the first chapter.
This comic crime novel revolves around one bad trip by country-western star Mitch Campbell, and his spokesmanship for the National Weapons Alliance. Still, I'd be hard pressed to say the book had any main character. We bounce through a dozen different points of view throughout the book: from a secretary-cum-spy to a former movie star, managers, politicians, officers, rednecks, guerrilla extremists, a cartoonist, and many more. Many of the threads are lightly touched, but we get at least a glimpse of a very interconnected world.
Rehder likes to introduce as much information as possible about a character up front—often more than I would have liked. The worst example of this, for me, was the first chapter's introduction of Dale Allen Stubbs, president of the Texas chapter of the National Weapons Alliance—I would have put the book down if I hadn't set myself the goal of reviewing it. I didn't care about Dale, and while Rehder began stretching the yarn early, I felt it was just too much telling. Even at the end of the book, I felt he could have done without the first chapter, regardless of how well it book-ended the arc. Still, overall, the info-dump does somewhat fit the fast pace, as characters are then immediately pitted in a situation that highlights key elements from their introduction.
It was a fun read, and I'm not sad I read it; I even shared a few choice lines with friends while I was reading. By the sixth chapter or so, I was happy to pick it up over getting actual work done. Rehder succeeded with his attempt at poking fun of "both" sides of gun control, and while most or all of the characters were caricatures, not deep by any stretch, none of them were flat. At worst, they were simply ethereal, like one fellow who only got a few pages in an airport. Once I found Rehder's pace, the rapid-fire scene and point of view changes rarely jarred, and I was eager to see how he was going to wrap everything up. The ending did not disappoint, though I could have done with more fleshing out of various backstory.
I heartily recommend it if you're looking for some light reading with a few laugh out loud moments. Maybe just skip the first chapter.
March 14, 2015
The fifth Blanco Country novel. Country star Mitch Campbell, a phony good-old-boy (real name Norman, a druggy Northeastern prep school bro), is slated to headline a rally for the National Weapons Alliance in Blanco County. Just before the event, Mitch shoots an illegal immigrant in a mushroom-induced paranoid fit. It falls to John Marlin, game warden and oft-reluctant murder-solver, starts an investigation which leads to Campbell’s ranch and threatens the NWA’s carefully managed reputation. Following the example of the previous volumes in the series, this is no straight mystery, but a surreal mass of mayhem, satire and tortuous subplots. Mitch is being blackmailed about his secret past; a former TV star tries to track her missing ex-husband, who has turned vigilante in light of the news that their son’s killer may be pardoned; and of course Billy Don and Red play their delightfully oafish part, trying to break into Nashville as songwriters.
Rehder satirizes hunters, the NRA, and those on the other side of the issue, but as with all good satire, he makes some serious points about touchy topics. All of Rehder’s writing quirks are on display here: his rapid-fire (ha!) scene and setting changes, his army of characters, and his over the topic manic silliness, especially in action sequences. There is suspense, drama, action, a great deal of humor, even romance (could Marlin have finally found a serious love interest?). It’s a great deal of fun, just like the rest of the series.
Rehder satirizes hunters, the NRA, and those on the other side of the issue, but as with all good satire, he makes some serious points about touchy topics. All of Rehder’s writing quirks are on display here: his rapid-fire (ha!) scene and setting changes, his army of characters, and his over the topic manic silliness, especially in action sequences. There is suspense, drama, action, a great deal of humor, even romance (could Marlin have finally found a serious love interest?). It’s a great deal of fun, just like the rest of the series.
August 3, 2008
Another in the Blanco County series of comic mysteries by Ben Rehder. The main character continues to be game warden, John Marlin. Now Marlin gets mixed up in a series of murders related to a gun rights group modeled on the NRA. Rehder handles the political stuff evenly, giving the pro and con sides of guns while weaving a very complex (maybe too complex) storyline. Lots of laughs and some excellent fast paced action at the climax. This is the 5th book in the series (i think), and Rehder's style seems to be getting in a rut, but the book was definitely entertaining. The action ranges from Johnson City to Austin to Dallas to Houston, so a lot of fun for a Texan to read. If you are interested in this series, make sure you start with the first book, "Buck Fever".
January 16, 2016
You're in for a wild and crazy ride!
Having read murder mysteries for over three decades, I've become quite adept at figuring out "whodunits." Until Ben Rehder came along. I'm hooked on these rollicking, convoluted, impossible to figure out books! I'll admit that there are times that I want to say, "Please, not another new character/plot line!" But Mr. Reader weaves all the seemingly unrelated threads together seamlessly and to a perfect conclusion. From the classy and uncorruptable game warden, John Marlin, to the bumpkin duo of Red and Billy Don, you're bound to fall in love with these characters and crave more.
Having read murder mysteries for over three decades, I've become quite adept at figuring out "whodunits." Until Ben Rehder came along. I'm hooked on these rollicking, convoluted, impossible to figure out books! I'll admit that there are times that I want to say, "Please, not another new character/plot line!" But Mr. Reader weaves all the seemingly unrelated threads together seamlessly and to a perfect conclusion. From the classy and uncorruptable game warden, John Marlin, to the bumpkin duo of Red and Billy Don, you're bound to fall in love with these characters and crave more.
October 3, 2016
I've got to admit, I read these for the humor and good characters well written. This volume to the series, while it added more great characters, fell further along the line of mystery. By that I mean I had a harder time than usual keeping up with all the story lines.
I'm guess I'm saying that it took a little more concentration than the previous titles in the series. I didn't drop a star for that as much as I did this meant less time with Red and Billy Don. Phil was barely mentioned and the biologist was entirely absent.
I'm guess I'm saying that it took a little more concentration than the previous titles in the series. I didn't drop a star for that as much as I did this meant less time with Red and Billy Don. Phil was barely mentioned and the biologist was entirely absent.
August 4, 2013
This is #5 in a series of small town comedy/crime stories set in Blanco County, Texas, just west of Austin. Rehder switches scenes between numerous story-lines like a fast-paced TV show. It makes for good suspense, and he always ties it together. In this one, it got a little convoluted I thought, with some characters rarely mentioned until late in the book. Other regular characters come off a tad too goofy. Least favorite of the 3 I've read.
November 16, 2015
This is not quite as good as others in the series, possibly because gun nuts are just not funny. Lots of characters to keep straight in your mind. Rehder is different from Hiassen, who he is often compared, in that his humor is a little bit dryer and not quite as over the top. I do like this series and would recommend this to individuals who also like it.
May 23, 2021
Rehder's satire misses the mark for the first third of the book. Usually, he's razor sharp, but it's too cheap and easy here.
A ways in, though, he turns more to the plot, and it's typical Blanco County. A large cast of screwballs and crooks, lots of twists and turns, and a strong dallop of silliness.
An enjoyable read, but not his best.
A ways in, though, he turns more to the plot, and it's typical Blanco County. A large cast of screwballs and crooks, lots of twists and turns, and a strong dallop of silliness.
An enjoyable read, but not his best.
February 24, 2013
Well, I enjoyed reading it. I did get confused over who was who, so I typed up a list of names mentioned in the text. It came to 148 names, counting one purse, two dogs, and not counting various blasphemies.
December 17, 2015
Ben Rehder wrote Gun Shy i liked the book. Mitch Campbell screwed up in life with murder, drugs and cheating on his future wife. So he when from being almost a superstar to a noting in about 3 months. Was it really worth it?
February 8, 2016
Ben dose not disappoint.
This is the fourth book in this series that I have read and enjoyed. The band of interesting characters always keeps you guessing. I look forward to the other five books about Blanco county.
This is the fourth book in this series that I have read and enjoyed. The band of interesting characters always keeps you guessing. I look forward to the other five books about Blanco county.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews