Plains Crazy: A Mad Dog & Englishman Mystery

By J.M. Hayes

Book Overview

Spring bursts into bloom-and a whole lot more-as murder-by-arrow rattles Benteen County, Kansas. Nothing ever happens in Benteen County, Kansas. Then, on a perfect spring morning, a member of the reality TV program filming in a local pasture dies with a Cheyenne arrow in his back. Sheriff English's brother, Mad Dog, the county oddball whose Amerind heritage has produced a born-again Cheyenne, is a prime suspect. Murder is a bad way to start the day. Explosive action follows. Notes left for authorities hint at a terrorist assault on the heartland. If the sheriff, known as Englishman, doesn't have enough to worry about, his wife has begun acting strangely. She insists he fly off on a Paris holiday with her before sunset - or else. As Mad Dog swings between suspect and target, he encounters his long-lost high school sweetheart, and a secret that just may explain the unlikely mix of arrows and bombs. It's Murphy's Law squared, as Mad Dog and his pet wolf, Hailey, test a shaman's powers, and Englishman struggles to balance his duties to family and community-enough to drive anyone Plains Crazy.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590581326
• ISBN13: 9781590581322
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Length: 242 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Plains Crazy Is Great

What do you get when you mix Mad Dog, bombs, reality tv, crooked land dealers, and Sheriff English? A thoroughly enjoyable and very funny addition to the Mad Dog and Englishman series.

A Fun, Frantic Adventure!

Plains Crazy is a fantastic book about a day when all hell breaks loose in a small town in Kansas. Sheriff English starts off the day with the death of a young man who has been shot in the back with an authentic Cheyenne arrow. But the sheriff is called away from that scene to an apparent bank robbery and then to various locations around town where pipe bombs have exploded or been found unexploded. Add in a mad motorcyclist, two girls named Heather, a lost love, a wolf, a fast car, a loose grenade, and a make-or-break deadline, and you have a tremendous story. Plains Crazy is funny, well plotted, and well written. As I was reading this book, I was reminded of the great old movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. The characters in Plains Crazy aren't on a treasure hunt, but they are working at a frantic pace to figure out what is going on and find those responsible. Hayes has the reader follow different characters around town (many of whom have been pressed into service by the seriously understaffed Sheriff) to see the unusual and sometimes outlandish events from different perspectives - and they all have their own interpretations of what is going on in their little burg. But this book isn't all a light-hearted adventure. Hayes expertly mixes in serious, and even tragic, elements that sneak up on the reader and wrench you in a new direction. But he doesn't belabor these moments. Instead, he expresses them in the most concise and meaningful way and then moves on. My only criticism of this book is the impossibly neat bundle the ending was tied up into. I don't buy it, but it didn't diminish my love for the book by much. Favorite character? Tough choice between Mrs. Kraus and Deputy Wynn. Did I guess it? This is more of an unraveling than a guessing book. I'll go with no. Will I read another? Absolutely! I may read this one again before it goes back to the library. [...]

plain great!

This book is a hoot! The minor characters are a scream, especially Deputy Win Some who mistakens plastique for cookie dough. A bit more editing and this author will steal the heart and soul of the fans of Janet Evanovich (Stepanie Plum series). Several scenes are laugh-out-loud (with a few more that were mightly close). For a good read, give as a gift , take on the airplane, or bring to the beach, run, do not walk, to buy Plains Crazy.

wild whimsical yet complicated conspiracy thriller

Benteen, Kansas is a quiet serene place where nothing much happens so when a PBS reality show arrives in town this is a big deal. The show deals with modern day Indians adapting to living like their ancestors did. The first inkling of trouble starts when Michael Spotted Elk leaves the family teepee to make out with Daphne Alights on the Cloud; someone kills him using a Cheyenne arrow. Daphne reports that Mad Dog and Wolf Hailey went past the; Mad Dog becomes the prime suspect until Daphne remembers he was not carrying a bow. The sheriff's wife Judy English tells him they are going to Paris, but if he fails to come with her, she probably will not return to him. He does not believe that he can get away now because bombs and other explosives are going off all over town. A motorcycle rider tries to kill Mad Dog using a bow and arrow. Judy is mistaken for a bank robber because the teller fails to recognize her with her new hair-do. Someone placed something in the night deposit box that turns out to be a bomb with a $10,000 demand note attached which Judy gave the teller which made her think Judy was a bank robber. Nothing seems linked yet since PBS arrived hell has come to drive the PLAINS CRAZY. This is a whacky dazzling ride into lunacy in which the sheriff, unused to bombs exploding, must find a way to defuse the mess. Complicating his professional life is his wife who gives him an ultimatum at a time when he cannot even ponder what to do for her for there is so much craziness overwhelming him. J.M. Hayes has written a wild whimsical yet complicated conspiracy thriller. Harriet Klausner