Rusty Nelson
"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
...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
...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
...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 and informed common sense gets things done."—Booklist
Bill Gastner is going crazy recuperating from heart surgery. Dreaming of green
...5) Dead weight
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
...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
...8) Winter grass
When Matt Jorgensen learns that the man who helped him hone his deadly skills with a pistol is gunned down, he vows to bring the killer to justice. On the train to Abilene, Matt relives his early days in the Kansas territory when he found himself embroiled in the rising turmoil of a nation at odds over slavery. Free soilers and slavers fought against each other at the expense of the innocent farmers of the territory. Matt would have to learn to
...10) Sam Hook
11) Badlands
When Matt Jorgensen met plantation owner, Ginny McBride, he knew that she would be the love of his life. Together, they would forge a lasting body, but a Yankee musket ball would tear their lives asunder. Matt searches but cannot find Ginny. He joins the confederacy and continues his search for her. Years later, while clinging desperately to life one wintry Montana night, he would once again have to face the demons of his dark past and answer the
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