Monday, April 18, 2022

Bag Limit by Steven F. Havill

 
First Line: I should have been home sunken comfortably in my leather recliner with a fresh pot of coffee gradually turning to battery acid in the kitchen and my recently purchased copy of Dayne Mercer's  Storm Over Chicamauga open on my lap.
 
It's a peaceful night, and Sheriff Bill Gastner has his police car parked up in the San Cristobal Mountains, looking out over the valley at what soon would no longer be his responsibility as sheriff. He's looking forward to the election and handing over his sheriff's badge to his successor, but his quiet contemplation is shattered when his car is T-boned by a carload of drunken teenagers.

Without a thought to his friends, the driver of the car runs and disappears into the woods. But it doesn't matter; Gastner knows both the young driver and his family. For some reason, the boy seems much too upset about being arrested, and on the way to the jail, he makes a desperate attempt to escape which leads to his being hit and killed by an oncoming truck.

Gastner has his work cut out for him in learning what's behind this tragic overreaction. Not only is it just a couple of days away from the election and his retirement, but he's also got houseguests: his former deputy, her surgeon husband, and their two hyperactive little boys.

~

As much as I enjoy this series, you'd think I'd plow right through it, but I'm not. Instead, I'm ambling through it, taking my own sweet time, knowing that Havill's Posadas County series is one I can rely on to deliver the goods each and every time.

The mystery behind the teenager's crazy behavior that leads to his death is a strong one with some excellent misdirection, and I always enjoy visiting fictional Posadas County down in southern New Mexico. Havill has a way of describing the landscape that puts me right there.

Havill's series has one of the absolute best ensemble casts to be found in fiction. In uncertain health and a chronic insomniac, seventy-year-old Bill Gastner leads the way with his investigative skills, diplomacy, and plain old common sense. In Bag Limit, readers get to see him not only as the sheriff but as a father, grandfather, boss, friend, and godfather. One of the things that makes him such a good sheriff is that he knows every nook and cranny of Posadas County and all of the people who live there--which does remind me of another police officer named Bruno who lives in the Southwest, too. Well, the southwest of France.

Each cast member in this series has his or her part to play, and as time passes, their roles change, children grow, some move away... life happens. This verisimilitude makes Havill's series a joy, as does his catchy turns of phrase such as "... boss may have had the personality of a sunstruck rattlesnake..."

This series is one to be savored by reading the books in order. The first book is Heartshot. Get a copy and read it. You can thank me later.

Bag Limit by Steven F. Havill
eISBN: 9781615950737
Sourcebooks/Poisoned Pen Press © 2011
eBook, 250 pages
 
Police Procedural, #9 Posadas County mystery
Rating: A
Source: Purchased from Amazon.

17 comments:

  1. Oh, I do like the sound of this setting, Cathy. The West and Southwest are really good places to set a story, I think, especially a story like this. And just from that first sentence, I like the writing style and the main character.

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    1. This is an excellent series that I think you would enjoy a lot, Margot.

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  2. I agree with you, this is a wonderful series, and I think it gets better and better. I think I will have to reread this one.

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    1. I'm certainly looking forward to the next book in the series.

      Thanks for stopping by!

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  3. Some series are meant to be savored...not rushed! :)

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  4. This does sound like a series to be savored, as Lark says. I'm going to check it out.

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  5. That first line drew me right in. And your review didn't make me any less curious about the man sunken comfortably in his leather recliner. I'm putting it on my TBR.

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    1. Oh, good! I hope you get a chance to read it and that you enjoy it as much as I did.

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  6. OK. Even I am interested in this series. So I will check out this series. You just made it so worth looking at.

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    1. It may wind up not being your cup of tea, but you won't know if you don't give it a try.

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  7. Why not try it? Nothing gained, nothing lost.
    Since I vehemently oppose book banning, I let myself try a variety of books.

    I just read about the librarian in Llano County in Texas who was fired because she would not take books off the shelves that she was ordered to do. I know so many people who would support her and do the same.

    I read a book at 15 my father didn't want me to read as he said it was "trash." Since I was a teenager and that kind of kid, I borrowed it from a friendd the next day and read it. My opinion: It was trash, but I figured out why it was and I had thought of several reasons.

    People need to read books and then discuss them if they question the content. The more discussion about books, the better.

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  8. And I remember that I thought of reasons why I didn't like the book my father said was "trash." He gave it a one-word pan, but I thought through the reasons into a thoughtful review of the book. I later on told some friends what I thought of that book.
    But if I hadn't read it, I wouldn't have known how to explain what were the problems in the book.
    Years later a dentist I knew didn't want her children to read books because they weren't about their religion. I thought I've read all kinds of books that don't agree with my belief system. It didn't change my own beliefs, but I learned some things about other cultures and religiona.

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    1. Reading about others can help you understand yourself even better.

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  9. True. It helps to strengthen that ethical core.

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Thank you for taking the time to make a comment. I really appreciate it!