Steven F Havill: 25 books

Savvy storytelling infused with a spicy Southwestern setting. ""Not only does Havill offer a melancholy reinterpretation of that grand western myth of the slow-talking, fast-thinking lawman, he also writes crisp, marvelously detailed police procedurals in which a mix of technical know-how...

Sheriff Estelle is called to teenager Carmen Acosta's home. When she arrives, Carmen's father, Freddie, is in police custody and an unconscious Carmen is on the way to the hospital "beat to a pulp." There has been a fight over a boy, but it is hard to believe that the also young Deena is...

One blizzardy New Mexico night, Posadas County Deputy Pasquale picks up a toddler scooting his Scamper along the shoulder of State 56. Yes, it's horrifying—a child apparently dumped out of a truck by his father. Nearly as horrifying is what unrolls while Christmas approaches after dad Darrell...

 It's Christmas in Posadas County. Undersheriff Estelle Reyes- Guzman is settling down to a quiet evening with her family, until her doctor husband gets a call from the retired chief-of-police: he's at a nearby motel, having pains. Then Estelle gets a call herself. She and ex-Sheriff Bill Gastner,...

"Havill delivers an evocative tale of hard lives on the edge of society. His portly detective is a genuine low-key pleasure." --Publishers Weekly Aging Posadas County Undersheriff Bill Gastner has weathered his quadruple bypass and is taking a rare vacation up in New Mexico's northern...

"Havill...quietly continues a project virtually unique in detective fiction: anchoring his tales of crime and punishment as closely as possible in the rhythms of small-town friends, routines, and calamities." --Kirkus Reviews Rolling stone Wesley Crocker seems a harmless enough free...

A man's body is found in the unforgiving New Mexico desert, his face so smashed that identification is impossible. It's the beginning of a brutal murder spree that will soon take Posadas County's new undersheriff, Estelle Reyes-Guzman, into a case that has roots on both sides of the border.   With...

When the first Posadas County Mystery, Heartshot, published in 1991, Bill Gastner was the county Undersheriff. Over time Bill became Sheriff, then retired, and Robert Torrez took over the top spot. But what were Torrez's first days as a rookie officer like? Terrible! It's 1986. Undersheriff...

Posadas County, New Mexico, is in the news. NightZone, a mammoth astronomy theme park, is bringing in jobs, media, and such new infrastructure as a slick narrow-gauge railway to transport tourists from the village of Posadas to the tramway running up the mesa to the project's site. And the...

1892: Busy stitching and bandaging lumberjacks' injuries, young Dr. Thomas Parks has no idea that his worst enemy is lurking in the sleepy village of Port McKinney. When one of the working girls at the Clarissa Hotel is brought to the Clinic desperately ill, Thomas' newly arrived associate...

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...

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....

A rattlesnake fang pegged in a teenager's eye is just the beginning of a spring day for Posadas Undersheriff Estelle Guzman. The injured lad's older brother goes missing, and is found dead in an arroyo, apparently killed by his cartwheeling ATV. But most puzzling is what the dead boy found moments...

Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman is always busy, but now more so than ever. The sheriff is still not completely recovered from his stay in the hospital, and she is recovering from a hospital stay herself. After a long day at work, Estelle is happy to clear off her desk and drive home where her beloved...