Crider received a
Master of Arts degree at the
University of North Texas, in Denton. Later, he taught English at
Howard Payne University for twelve years, before earning a
Ph.D. degree at the
University of Texas at Austin, where he wrote a
dissertation on the
hardboiled detective novel. Crider then moved to
Alvin, Texas, with his wife, where he was the Chair of the Division of English and Fine Arts at
Alvin Community College. He retired in August 2002 to become a full-time writer. Crider was the author of the Professor Sally Good and the Carl Burns mysteries, the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series, the Truman Smith P.I. series, and wrote three books in the
Stone: M.I.A. Hunter series under the pseudonym "Jack Buchanan". He was also the writer of several westerns and horror novels. ==Personal life and death==