With a background as a cattleman, college professor and political consultant, Tyler resident Milton T. Burton is the perfect person to write the Bo Handel series of Texas-based thrillers. “My background has given me access to a lot of diverse people. So I know some things that other people don’t know from just having been around,” he says. “A lot of the cowboys and cattlemen that you see do some marijuana and get into pills. Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it, but you wouldn’t expect a 45-year-old cattleman to toke up, but a lot of them do.”

It’s that sort of insider information that Burton endows Sheriff Bo Handel with to build a three-dimensional character. Sheriff Handel has a rather unexpected background. A music prodigy, he had gone off to Rice University to study classical piano. Forced to quit school and come back home to run the family business when his father died, Handel managed to build a satisfying, if ordinary, life for himself. Years later, when the county sheriff, a close friend of Handel’s, is diagnosed with cancer, Handel is somehow pushed into becoming the county’s next top lawman. After a hard day at work chasing criminals, he comes home to the Victorian mansion where he was raised to play a few pieces on his baby grand piano.

One of the criminals Handel faces is an ex-pro bull rider who parlayed his fame into a small fortune, became a banker and started a dope-smuggling ring. “He uses shrimp boats to bring Colombian Red [marijuana] into the country,” says Burton. “If you think he sounds a lot like Rex Cauble, you might be right.”

Hear Burton read from his latest Bo Handel titles including Nights of the Red Moon, today at 3 p.m. Murder by the Book. 2342 Bissonnet. For information, call 713-524-8597 or visit www.murderbooks.com. Free.

Sat., Dec. 18, 3 p.m., 2010

This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2010.