Each stand-alone book in this multi-author crime novel series is set in the fictitious, beautiful little Texas Hill Country town of Magnolia Bluff. Each author writes in their preferred sub-genre to allow readers to experience humor, dark dilemmas, suspense, romance, thrills, and spills — told through good storytelling that will keep readers awake past their bedtime, trying to find out whodunit.
There’s a gray mossback man wandering the streets of Magnolia Bluff. Magnolia Nadine has seen him outside her window. Newspaper editor Graham Huston has seen him, too. Is he connected with the reappearance of Crystalline Flats? Why is he there? Huston aims to find out.
Caleb Pirtle gives us a story that builds, layer upon layer. His spare, direct writing style fits the personality of Graham Huston perfectly. Huston is a man who’s there in Magnolia Bluff because he’s got nowhere else to be. He’s got his routine, and he largely keeps to himself. When Sheriff Buck Blanton’s father is the first to turn up dead, it’s a story. But when another person dies, Huston knows he needs to get to the bottom of the mystery.
But just because Pirtle doesn’t use flowery turns of phrase, that doesn’t mean the story is boring. Far from is. His words are carefully chosen to effectively convey the setting and the people in it. The searing heat of the summer is palpable and makes you want to fan yourself while you read. The paranormal aspect of the mossback man is spine-tingling. And the mystery of his presence and what secrets are to be unearthed in Crystalline Flats is as intriguing a mystery as ever I’ve read.
Death in the Absence of Rain has me itching to start at the beginning and read the entire series. If you love a good mystery and a small-town setting populated with interesting folks, you need to make the acquaintance of Magnolia Bluff.
Caleb Pirtle III was the author of more than eighty books. Pirtle was a graduate of The University of Texas in Austin and became the first steep oudent at the university to win the National William Randolph Hearst Award for feature writing. Several of his books and his magazine writing have received national and regional awards.
Pirtle was a newspaper reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and served ten years as the travel editor for Southern Living Magazine. He was editorial director for a Dallas custom publisher for more than twenty-five years. Pirtle passed away in August, 2023.
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10 Million Ways to Die |
Review |
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11/27/23 |
Death Wears a Crimson Hat |
Review |
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11/27/23 |
Series Spotlight |
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11/28/23 |
Death in the Absence of Rain |
Review |
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11/28/23 |
Eulogy in Black and White |
Review |
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11/28/23 |
Series Spotlight |
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11/29/23 |
The Great Peanut Butter Conspiracy |
Review |
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11/29/23 |
Only the Good Die Young |
Review |
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11/29/23 |
When Bad Things Happen to Good Mice |
Review |
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11/30/23 |
You Won’t Know How…or When |
Review |
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12/01/23 |
The Flower Enigma |
Review |
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12/01/23 |
The Killer Enigma |
Review |
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12/02/23 |
Men Lying Dead in a Field |
Review |
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12/02/23 |
The Shine from a Girl in the Lake |
Review |
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12/03/23 |
The Dewey Decimal Dilemma |
Review |
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12/03/23 |
The Dog Gone Diamond Dilemma |
Review |
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12/04/23 |
Justice |
Review |
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12/04/23 |
Bye Baby Bye |
Review |
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12/05/23 |
Texas Summers are Murder |
Sneak Peek |
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12/05/23 |
Born and Bred Texan |
Review |
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12/06/23 |
Who Killed Lilly Paine? |
Review |
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12/07/23 |
Second Chances |
Review |
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12/08/23 |
A Chance of a Ghost |
Sneak Peek |
Super review! Caleb Pirtle III was truly a gifted writer. His unique take on Magnolia Bluff gave us a glimpse into the strangeness and quirkiness of some of the folks who could really live in any small southern town with shadows hanging over it. Death in the Absence of Rain is a wonderful final story from the hands of a master storyteller.
ooh. this sounds really good, and I love the spine-tingling element added in to this one. Thanks for sharing a wonderful review!
Caleb’s stories (this one and Eulogy in Black and White) are riveting and fast reads. His use of simple word choices let’s him deliver complex situations and emotions. Excellent reads.
He certainly packed a lot of emotional punch in his words! I look forward to Eulogy in Black and White and the others in the series.
What a wonderful review for Caleb’s book! Thank you for sharing.
I believe Death in the Absence of Rain may have been Caleb Pirtle’s last book before his passing. This is every reader’s loss, though this one in particular is one of his best. It is difficult to capture his unique and lyrical style, but this wonderful and eerie story will stick with you long after you have put it down.
The story will spark your imagination and curl your spine. Like all of Caleb’s books, it is delivered to perfection. Readers are always satisfied when they select something written by Caleb Pirtle III. He is missed, yet remembered by his words.
Thanks for your comment, Rox. I wish I’d have found his books sooner, but glad to have found them now.
Gripping book by a talented writer. The world lost a gem when it lost Caleb Pirtle.
Fabulous review of what has to be one of the best of Caleb’s books and of the best in the series. Caleb was a giant among men. A fabulous writer and human being.
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