Just learned that Publishers Weekly was kind enough to give Holy Moly a starred review. Here's what they had to say:

"Edgar-finalist Rehder’s sixth Blanco County (Tex.) mystery (after 2007’s Gun Shy) may be the best to date in this rollicking crime series. Soon after Hollis Farley, a backhoe operator clearing land for televangelist Peter “Pastor Pete” Boothe’s controversial new religious complex, discovers an Alamosaurus skull, an arrow hits Farley in the back, and the fossil skull disappears. Whodunit and whotookit? Series regular Red O’Brien persuades his best friend and housemate, 300-pound Billy Don Craddock, to whom Farley had mentioned the valuable discovery, to court Farley’s sister, Betty Jean, to see if she has the missing fossil. Other suspects include Vanessa, Pastor Pete’s unfaithful wife; debt-ridden Alex Pringle, Pete’s right-hand man; and Snake Sawyer, a convicted burglar who works for Darwin Parker, a dino-loving millionaire. Rehder’s satirical take on greed, faith and foolishness moves at a swift clip, punctuated with dizzy twists and even bittersweet turns, like a good toe-tapping, country and western tune."

When I was a senior in high school, a bunch of my friends and I were all in the same chemistry class. We didn't really like the teacher all that much, and I guess we gave him some attitude. He gave it right back. All year long, we had a sort of ongoing battle with this guy. In hindsight, he was a pretty good teacher, and I'm glad we didn't give him too much grief, but just the right amount. In the end, we outsmarted him, and it's one of my funniest memories from high school.

We took five or six multiple-choice tests throughout the year. Multiple-choice tests are generally easier than other types, in my opinion, but these weren't. You had to know the material pretty well, and in general, we did. Most of my friends were making A's or B's.

Then came time for the final exam. The teacher told us that all of the questions would be pulled from the earlier tests, so we should study all of that material and know it well. Then he said that each of us could bring one 3x5 index card of notes with us.

At first, the idea of notes on a 3x5 index card seemed fairly useless. Even if you write small, how much info can you cram onto one of those cards? Then one of us had an epiphany...

If the teacher was going to pull all the exam questions from previous exam questions, couldn't we simply jot down the first few words from each question, followed by the correct letter that represented the answer?

For example, let's say one of the questions was this:

What is the speed of light in free space (a vacuum)?
A. A billion miles per hour.
B. Faster than a Buick.
C. Approximately 186,000 miles per second.
D. Pi

All we had to do was jot down:
"What is the speed (C)"

We did that for every question, and we managed to fit every single question from previous exams onto our index cards. Now, the only thing that would screw us up would be if the teacher juggled the answers around a little. But we knew the material well enough that we'd be able to tell if he did that.

So, the day of the final exam came, and we all got our tests, and it took just seconds for us all to know that he had lifted the questions exactly as they appeared in the earlier exams. Which meant we were all going to ace the test.

The best part came when the teacher was slowly strolling around the room, keeping an eye out for cheaters. He came up next to me at one point and looked down at my index card. He picked it up and appeared puzzled at first, the he realized what we had done. His face completely blanched. I'm sure he felt pretty foolish. But there wasn't anything he could do except give me the card back. We had followed all of his rules.

There was even an extra credit question, so we all scored 104 on the final.

Is that inspirational or what?

I forgot to mention: At the Lone Star Sleuths party a few weeks ago, David Lindsey and I got into a staring contest.

After three hours and twelve minutes, he finally broke.

This is a shot from my signing a few weeks ago in Georgetown. If I could get a crowd like this at every signing, I'd have it made.

Had another good signing today in Bulverde. Don't have any photos yet.

There are thousands of venues for book reviews, but none are as important, within the industry, as these four: Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist. Positive reviews in those pubs can convince booksellers and librarians to order your book.

So, of course, authors wait anxiously to see what those people have to say. The problem is, you can't access their web sites without a paid subscription, and the subscriptions are pretty damn pricey. I don't subscribe to any of them, though I have in the past.

The first review for Holy Moly that I'm aware of will appear in the March 15 issue of Kirkus. The review is already posted on the site. I know this because they give you a little snippet to entice you. Here's the snippet:

"A sauropod's skull could go for as much as a million dollars, according to Dr. Underwood, a paleontologist who adds that its value is considerably enhanced because dinosaur fossils have never before been found in Central Texas. That's precisely the..."

That's all I know at this point. Could be decent, could be horrible. Kirkus is notoriously hardnosed in their reviews. I know it's not a starred review, but they don't give many of those.

If it's good, you'll hear from me. If it's not, let us never speak of this again.