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Small-town sheriff Bill Gastner faces a crisis when an anonymous letter accuses one of his trusted deputies of corruption, a crisis complicated further by the death of one half of a troubled couple that looks increasingly like murder. Reprint.

Elderly Undersherrif Bill Gastner, in Posadas County, New Mexico, is about to lose his vaulable deputy when she goes to Minnesota with her doctor husband. But his life becomes far more complicated than the loss of Estelle when his boss, the sheriff, dies in a private plane crash piloted by his brother-in-law. Questions about why the men were flying (the sheriff hated to fly) in bad weather are overshadowed when the coroner finds that the pilot was killed by gun shots from the ground through the bottom of the plane, and the sheriff could not pilot it down safely.

Steven F. Havill has been delighting readers with Undersheriff Bill Gastner for years. In this eighth book in a series full of authentic New Mexico flavor, 69 year-old Bill Gastner takes on the job of sheriff of Posadas County. It's a relatively rural area near the Mexican border and is sparsely populated, but crime, as Gastner well knows, can grow and flourish anywhere. The first problem he faces is the appearance an anonymous letter. The letter alleges that Gastner's deputy, Thomas Pasquale is stopping Mexican nationals and demanding money before they can go back over the border. Then other people come forward, saying that they also received the letter. It's a dilemma for the sheriff. He doesn't want to accuse the young deputy and find he's innocent; he doesn't want to let him go unpunished if he's guilty. Gastner decides to investigate the matter for himself. Before he can get to it, however, Gastner is called to the scene of a bizarre accident. A man had been fixing a tired on his backhoe when the chain holding the tire must have slipped. The tire dropped and crushed the man to death. The victim was Jim Sisson and he and his wife Grace were notorious for their marital spats-- the police had even been called to their home 3 times that same day. Grace refuses to say what the arguments were about saying that it was between her and Jim. As the investigation continues, it becomes clear that it wasn't an accident after all and Gastner tries to solve the case before another innocent life is lost.

"Gastner's capabilities are plausible for a septuagenarian, and Havill peoples the book with believable characters." ―Publishers Weekly STARRED reviewWhat do you do when you inherit $330 million after taxes? If you're New Mexico rancher Miles Waddell, you build a dream. Waddell's dream is NightZone, an astronomy-based theme park complete with giant radio telescope, a bank of smaller scopes linked to a theater, five-star dining in a restaurant with retracting dome ceiling, a hotel/resort, tram car access, and a narrow gauge steam locomotive to carry tourists to the mesa top.But the dream becomes a nightmare when two eco-terrorists chain-saw down power lines that feed the development. One of them is killed by a bucking power pole; the other escapes by car. From 20 miles away, retired Posadas Sheriff William K. Gastner spots a pair of headlights as the dead man's companion speeds from the scene.Soon charges include murder when the fleeing conspirator is stopped by a cop and guns the lawman down. Hours later Gastner stops to assist Sgt. Jackie Taber during an unrelated traffic stop, and 74-year-old Gastner becomes the focus of a second investigation by the District Attorney and Sheriff's Department.

A well seasoned sixty-nine, Sheriff Bill Gastner knows his Posadas, New Mexico, territory as well as he understands the foibles of the human condition. So when a backhoe crushes a man to death, it's more instinct than fact that leaves him feeling there's more to this "accident" than meets the eye. Adding to his problems, anonymous letters charging his best deputy, Tom Pasquale, with hustling Mexican nationals for cash are being dispatched around town. Gastner takes this one personally; he's fond of his deputy, but he does want the truth. He also knows it's an election year and dirty politics can happen anywhere. So can murder. Soon he's got not just one, but two dead bodies. And a strong desire to make sure that when he does retire . . . It's not by way of a well-aimed bullet.

Posadas County, New Mexico, has very few mean streets and no city-slick cop shop. But it has an earnest, elected Sheriff and his aging Undersheriff - William C. Gastner. Pushing sixty, widower Bill has no other life than in law enforcement - and doesn't want one, even if he's being nudged gently toward retirement. Then big time trouble strikes. A car full of teens, running from a stop by Deputy Torrez, goes air-borne into a rocky outcrop, killing all five kids and revealing a package of cocaine under the seat. Has someone brought big-time crime to the county? Bill is now dealing with grieving parents - one of whom starts packing a gun. Then a second explosion of violence fells an undercover cop. Under pressure, the sheriff's department pulls together to make a formidable team. Its weak spot may be Bill whose mind is too tough to crumble but whose body, long mistreated, gradually succumbs to stress. Ignoring all advice - and sense - he pilots the case to a final dramatic, midair confrontation where the fate of the killer - and the cop - will be decided....

"Gastner is an incisive investigator whose two most valuable qualities are compassion and insomnia. Unlike other fictional detectives who approach murder as a personal affront, Gastner sees himself as the victims' advocate, striving to even the scales of justice for those no longer able to do it themselves." --Booklist Bill Gastner, Undersheriff of Posadas County, knows ancient Anna Hocking didn't fall down her fruit cellar stairs by accident. He's also sure that elderly Reuben Fuentes knows nothing about the bodies scattered on his dusty, southern New Mexico ranch. No spring chicken himself, Bill summons his former deputy, Reuben's niece, from Mexico to help clear the old man of suspicion. Eventually this generation-spanning law enforcement team finds a thread tying all the crimes together - a killer with no conscience.

Another Posadas County mystery with Estelle Reyes-Guzman as the undersheriff, but with the ever more popular Bill Gastner peering out of the wings to which he dispatched himself upon retirement. Estelle's new job continues to be far from easy, and now she is faced the death of a young woman on a motorcycle - a death that could have been caused by improper driving from one of the county's traffic officers when he tried to stop her for speeding. But there is more than meets the eye, Gastner is there to help, but Estelle can go far to cope. This series continues to gain readers, thanks partly to the resurrection of the older books by Poison Penn Press.

With Scavengers, Steven Havill begins his new series featuring former Gastner deputy Estelle Reyes-Guzman. Estelle played a supporting role in the Gastner books, then left New Mexico to follow her surgeon husband to cold, cold Minnesota. Now she is back, welcomed by the whole department and already swamped in her role of Undersheriff under the new sheriff, Bobby Torrez. But Gastner's readers have the best of both worlds. The setting is still Posadas County, and Gastner, having taken on the presumably less stressful job of State Livestock Inspector ("What are those? Burros?" "Miniature donkeys." "Oh.") is prominently in the background, even though that seems like an oxymoron.Bobby Torrez is at a law enforcement conference, and Estelle, and early after her return Estelle is landed with the case of a body is found in the desert - that of a man who has been badly beaten and then shot. Estelle and her deputies begin the forensic process -- photographing, sending the body to autopsy, looking for identification and clues as to why the man was so badly beaten and then killed. Not long afterward, the discovery of another body yields more evidence of what happened and why. But Estelle is still a long way from finding answers to all the questions involved; meanwhile she is coping with an aging mother and a case of flu that has most of her family on their aching backs. Gastner, who is in the area tracking down a rumor of animals being illegally brought over the border, can help and does, but the horrifying and breathtaking climax is Estelle's burden alone, and she carries it off with honors. In the smoothest of segues Havill skillfully retains the well-loved familiar characters and setting while craftily turning the responsibility of carrying his compelling stories to a new and engaging star.

When a county employee is found shot to death in broad daylight while sitting in his county road grader, Undersheriff Bill Gastner is faced with puzzling questions. The simplest explanation - that an errant bullet from a careless target shooter's rifle blew out Larry Zipoli's brains - is soon discarded. The fatal bullet shows no rifling marks, and investigation reveals that the shooter walked directly toward the road grader, in full view of the victim - who did nothing to defend himself. In addition to the demands of the investigation, Gastner learns that Sheriff Eduardo Salcido has hired a new deputy without discussing the matter with his undersheriff. And Gastner learns that the new hire is destined to be the fi rst female road patrol deputy in the history of Posadas County. Thus begins Gastner's relationship with Estelle Reyes, whose shrewd observations shed important light on a crime that rattles all kinds of skeletons lurking in Posadas County closets.

Bill Gastner, Undersheriff of Posadas County, New Mexico, is about to lose his valuable deputy when she goes to Minnesota with her doctor husband. Then his life becomes even more complicated when his boss, the sheriff, dies in a private plane crash piloted by his brother-in-law. Questions about why the men were flying (the sheriff hated to fly), especially in bad weather are overshadowed when the coroner finds that the pilot was killed by gun shots originating from the ground....

Investigating a shooting that takes the life of a Posadas County deputy and wounds a young reporter, New Mexico Undersheriff Bill Gastner and his chief of detectives Estelle Reyes-Guzman have trouble finding clues

Recovering from a double bypass, undersheriff Bill Gastner of Posadas County, New Mexico, becomes a reluctant hero as he investigates a series of crimes that have plagued the town.

With his retirement just around the corner, Sheriff Bill Gastner finds his much anticipated peace and quiet threatened when his police vehicle is struck by a car full of intoxicated teenagers, the fleeing driver is killed by a passing car, and the boy's father turns up dead at home. Reprint.

Former Posadas County Sheriff Bill Gastner, now a New Mexico Livestock Inspector, is enjoying a day on Herb Torrance's ranch - soaking in the sun, counting a small herd of cattle, and thinking about meeting an old friend back in town for lunch. But suddenly a light breeze stirs the dust, a horse spooks, and Bill finds himself ferrying a broken cowpuncher in the back of his SUV, headed out to meet an ambulance. Moments later, Bill's day goes from bad to worse. He is summoned by undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman to investigate an unattended death. Too impatient to wait for Bill, his friend George Payton decided to eat lunch on his own. A couple of bites later, he collapsed - dead of an apparent heart attack. But something isn't right. Then the small herd of cattle Bill had just counted is found wandering down a county highway. But there's no sign of cowpuncher Pat Gabaldon or his boss' $40,000 truck and livestock trailer. Forced into two tangled investigations, Bill faces one of the most complex cases in his 35-year career.

"If what you're hiding is motive, Gastner will ferret it out and do what needs to be done. An outstanding mystery." --Booklist starred review Posadas Register reporter Linda Real barely survives her nighttime patrol with one of Undersheriff Bill Gastner's deputies. He is killed by a more accurate shotgun blast than the one that ruins her face. Teamed with his intuitive, observant detective Estelle Reyes-Guzman and her usual sharp eye for physical evidence, Bill implicates Tammy Woodruff, the thrill-seeking daughter of the local Republican County Chairman, in the brutal assault. Before he can interrogate her, though, Tammy hightails it. Soon she is found crushed to death after her truck goes off the road while she's loaded with booze - in fact, far too much alcohol, for anyone to have consumed....

Another Posadas County mystery with Estelle Reyes-Guzman as the undersheriff, but with the ever more popular Bill Gastner peering out of the wings to which he dispatched himself upon retirement. Estelle's new job continues to be far from easy, and now she is faced the death of a young woman on a motorcycle-- a death that could have been caused by improper driving from one of the county's traffic officers when he tried to stop her for speeding. But there is more than meets the eye. Gastner is there to help, but Estelle can go far to cope.

Parked high on a side road on the flank of the second highest peak in the San Cristobal mountains, peacefully surveying what soon would no longer be his responsibility as a sheriff, almost-seventy Bill Gastner could think that the night would be without incident. He'd be wrong. He doesn't foresee that a car full of alcohol-inspired adolescents would run into his automobile. Nor that the driver would take off and disappear in the nearby woods. Far from uneventful, this night turns out to be one of the toughest in Bill Gastner's many years as undersheriff and then sheriff in this sparsely populated border area of New Mexico. Gastner knows the young driver and his family - including the soon-to-be-sheriff, Bobby Torrez. Taken into custody from his home, the prisoner seems far too upset about being arrested. During the trip to the jail he makes a desperate attempt to flee again, an attempt that ends in his being hit and killed by an oncoming truck. Gastner has to dig deep to learn what is behind this tragic overreaction to a serious but unfortunately common DWI arrest. With the imminent election, the visit of Gastner's former deputy with her surgeon husband and their two very active young ones and the near riot the dead youth's neighbors stage when his father dies suddenly, the sheriff's last few days in office are not as uneventful as he had hoped. But Gastner stoically retrieves the law-enforcement tools he has packed away, including his talent for detection, his diplomacy, and his just plain common sense. He has used them all successfully for many years, and it's a joy to watch him use them one more time.

After giving the stranger with the flat tire a ride into town, Undersheriff Bill Gastner decides that Wesley Crocker is a good man, but after a child's body is found, he must prove to the sheriff that his instincts are correct

Former Posadas County Sheriff Bill Gastner, now a New Mexico Livestock Inspector, is enjoying a day on Herb Torrance's ranch - soaking in the sun, counting a small herd of cattle, and thinking about meeting an old friend back in town for lunch. But suddenly a light breeze stirs the dust, a horse spooks, and Bill finds himself ferrying a broken cowpuncher in the back of his SUV, headed out to meet an ambulance. Moments later, Bill's day goes from bad to worse. He is summoned by undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman to investigate an unattended death. Too impatient to wait for Bill, his friend George Payton decided to eat lunch on his own. A couple of bites later, he collapsed - dead of an apparent heart attack. But something isn't right. Then the small herd of cattle Bill had just counted is found wandering down a county highway. But there's no sign of cowpuncher Pat Gabaldon or his boss' $40,000 truck and livestock trailer. Forced into two tangled investigations, Bill faces one of the most complex cases in his 35-year career.