January Reading Round-Up

 

Today (Monday) is one of those days when it would seem everyone is beating a path to our door. While I'm waiting on various people to show up, what better time to share some of the books I've read?  Once again, these are shorter reviews. I've included links to Amazon US in the titles in case you'd like to learn more. 

 

Let's get started!

 

 

Against the Grain by Peter Lovesey

Review copy courtesy of Net Galley.

384 pages

Rating: A

 

My Thoughts: This finale of Lovesey's long-running series was a satisfying conclusion. Faced with a holiday in the country that he doesn't want, Peter Diamond tries everything in the book (including his elderly cat) to avoid going. Resistance is futile. Once there, he finds himself experiencing all sorts of country life as well as using a bit of what he calls the "Columbo Method of Detection" to help out a former colleague.

 

I was in just the right mood for this humorous excursion in the country to solve a nicely twisted mystery.

 
 

Tooth and Claw by Craig Johnson

208 pages

Rating: A+

 

My Thoughts: A prequel to the Walt Longmire series, this was one of my Best Reads of 2024. Walt and his best friend, Henry Standing Bear, have returned from military service in Vietnam. Working for an oil company in the bitter cold of an Alaskan winter, they find themselves facing a ferocious polar bear, and the creature seems hell-bent on their destruction.

 

Tooth and Claw is a rip-roaring pageturner. Although Johnson has often thought of "thrillers as mysteries with lobotomies," he sure knows how to write one (minus the surgical procedure)! There's a feeling of dislocation for both Walt and Henry now that they're back in the U.S.  Johnson has his usual solid cast of characters as well as a blizzard where they and other members of the oil company crew have to take shelter on a ghost ship. If that's not enough to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, there's that polar bear. The creature would make anyone's blood run cold. It's terrifying, it's supernatural... and while it scared the pudding out of me, I still felt sorry for it. Now that's a combination of emotions that's almost impossible to pull off, but Johnson does it with aplomb.

A Flower in the Desert by Walter Satterthwait

336 pages

Rating: B+

My Thoughts: I first came to Walter Satterthwait's writing through Miss Lizzie, his historical mystery featuring Lizzie Borden. Soon thereafter, I found his Joshua Croft private investigator series set in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A Flower in the Desert is the third book.

The mystery about a movie star wanting to hire Croft to find his missing wife and daughter is solid. Joshua Croft reminds me of Todd Borg's Owen McKenna in that he, too, is willing to be in a relationship on the woman's terms, even if those terms are contrary to his own desires. Croft has an irreverent sense of humor that often gets him into difficulty (asking an extremely difficult motel clerk, "Were you ever in the Wehrmacht?")

The mysteries are good, the characters are good, and Satterthwait's poetic descriptions of Santa Fe and the surrounding area bring the landscape to life. The next book in the series is waiting for me patiently.

Red, Green or Murder by Steven F. Havill

283 pages

Rating: B+

 

My Thoughts: Steven Havill's long-running Posadas County series never disappoints. He brings a fictional county in southwestern New Mexico to life with a phenomenal cast headed by former Sheriff Bill Gastner. 

 

Gastner is now a livestock inspector. On the Torrance Ranch, he's counting a small herd of cattle and thinking ahead to lunch in town with an old friend. But a breeze kicks up, a horse spooks, and he's taking a badly injured cowboy in the back of his SUV to meet an ambulance. He's barely back in town when Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman asks for his help in investigating an unattended death. Gastner's friend had gone ahead and eaten lunch... and died of an apparent heart attack. But something's not right.

 

To make matters even worse, the herd of cattle Gastner counted is wandering down the highway with no sign of the cowpuncher or his boss's $40,000 truck and livestock trailer. 

The mysteries concerning the theft of the vehicles and the death of Gastner's friend are fast-paced and absorbing. That's nothing new for this series. And neither is the fact that Havill is a master at creating and nurturing a cast of characters that grows and changes. Insomniac Gastner is older, has health problems, and his role in the series has changed, but he's gathered around him people like Estelle Reyes-Guzman who have become his extended family. Their lives have been woven seamlessly into this series that deserves to be much better known than it is.

~

Have I caught up with my reviews? Nope. That just means that you'll be hearing from me again, doesn't it? Next week, I hope to tell you a bit about some of the books I'm looking forward to-- there's a bunch! I'd also like to put together a link round-up. We shall see. If everything goes to plan, Denis and I will be going to the Phoenix Zoo, so there will be photos from that to share as well. I just may have to blog more frequently, eh?

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.

Dead Weight by Steven F. Havill

First Lines: The air conditioning in car 310 worked so well that my knees ached from the arctic blast out of the vents. The rest of me simmered.

Acting Sheriff Bill Gastner is a well-seasoned sixty-nine and working through the end of the previous sheriff's term. He knows every inch of Posadas County, and he knows the people who live there. That's why, when a backhoe crushes a man to death, he has a pretty good idea that there's more to this "accident" than meets the eye. 

While Gastner is investigating this case, he begins receiving anonymous letters accusing one of his deputies of extortion. This one Gastner takes personally and he's determined to get at the truth. Could this have anything to do with this being an election year?

When a second dead body turns up, it makes the insomniac sheriff make a promise to himself: When he retires, it's not going to be by way of a well-aimed bullet.

I love this series for its southern New Mexico setting, its well-crafted mysteries, and its ensemble cast. (Character-driven readers, take note!) There's something about mystery series involving small-town sheriffs in the western United States that seems to highlight how these people become a family, and Havill certainly knows how to use this to strengthen his story.

In Dead Weight, there's also one-book wonder Carla Champlin, the landlady from hell. Whenever she makes an appearance, I was equal parts amused and appalled-- and I did like how her storyline ended.

If there was an off note in this book, it was the fact that Havill spent a bit too long on trying to explain how someone could kill himself with a backhoe. I don't mind some technical stuff in order to solve a mystery, but when my eyes started to roll, I knew that part of the story had gone a bit overboard.

Even if I do know more about backhoe-as-murder-weapon than I want, I still enjoyed this book. Any visit with Bill Gastner and his law enforcement family is to be looked forward to and savored. And I do!

Dead Weight by Steven F. Havill

ISBN: 9781590586624

Poisoned Pen Press © 2011

Originally published in 2000.

Paperback, 285 pages

Police Procedural, #8 Posadas County mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from The Poisoned Pen.


 

Out of Season by Steven F. Havill

First Line: My polished-mahogany desktop was almost the way I'd left it earlier that Friday afternoon-- unmarred except for the computer terminal and its ancillary junk: the old leather-edged desk blotter, one black felt-tip pen, and an empty wooden in-and-out letter tray.

Changes are coming to the Posadas County Sheriff's Office. Undersheriff Bill Gastner is planning his retirement. His Chief of Detectives is moving out of state. But the biggest and most shocking change of all comes when Gastner's boss, the sheriff, dies in the crash of a small private plane piloted by his brother-in-law.

The first question on everyone's mind is why the sheriff was flying in such windy conditions to begin with. The man hated to fly. But that question is completely overshadowed by the coroner's findings: the pilot was killed by gun shots from the ground. Gastner has his work cut out for him.

This is another sterling entry in Steven F. Havill's Posadas County mystery series. The author has put so much life into this fictional county in southwestern New Mexico that you'd swear it was real-- and if it were, I'd want to go for a visit.

Out of Season covers a lot of ground. It shows us ranchers trying to survive when money is every bit as scarce as water but those bills still have to be paid. It shows us a tiny sheriff's department trying to subsist on a shoestring budget at a time when employees are getting good job offers from law enforcement agencies with a lot more money-- and now the death of the sheriff is going to have a profound impact on everyone there. Of course, life would not be complete without a bit of meddling from members of the City Council.  

The setting isn't the only strength to this series. The cast of characters is superb. If characterization means a lot to you when you read mysteries then you have to get your hands on this Posadas County series. These characters are most definitely not static. They grow, they change, they have health problems, they get married, they move... everything you and I do, well, they do it, too. When you read these books, you're making friends. (So what if they're fictional?)

The only quibble I have with Out of Season is that the story relied too much on the technical aspects and not enough on the characters, but that's not about to stop me from reading the next installment. Bring it on!
 

Out of Season by Steven F. Havill

ISBN: 9781590586631

Poisoned Pen Press © 2009

Originally  published in 1999.

Paperback, 270 pages

Police Procedural, #7 Posadas County mystery

Rating: B+

Source: Purchased from The Poisoned Pen.

Prolonged Exposure by Steven F. Havill

First Line: The late-afternoon sun angled across the sweep of the bunchgrass prairie, casting harsh shadows around mesas and on the lowlands where arroyos cut the sand into fantastic patterns.

Bill Gastner is recuperating from heart surgery at his daughter's home in Michigan, and his dreams are filled with green chiles and the wide open spaces of New Mexico. A phone call gets father and daughter on a plane back to the land he loves. A young boy has vanished from Cat Mesa. Gastner's house has been burgled. An old man has borrowed a piece of the Undersheriff's land to bury his wife, and the dead woman's stepson wonders if the old lady died of natural causes. Cases to investigate, people to question, and a plate full of Mexican food is sure to put Gastner firmly on the road to complete recovery. Well... maybe not that plate of food if his daughter has any say in the matter!

Steven F. Havill has one of the best mystery series going. There's not an ounce of flab on any of them. The mysteries are intriguing and well-paced, and the cast of characters is marvelous-- growing and changing as time passes. Add genuine Western flair and the scenic landscape of New Mexico, and you've got it all... green chiles optional but definitely preferred.

Bill Gastner talks slow, thinks fast, doesn't sleep much, and knows Posadas County and its people like the back of his hand. I love watching him solve each case with a blend of good old-fashioned common sense and a bit of technical know-how. Havill's splendid cast includes Deputy Estelle Reyes-Guzman who couldn't be more different from Bill yet is just as talented and dedicated, Estelle's doctor husband and their young son, and other members of the Posadas County Sheriff's Office. These people are bound together by the job and by their real caring for each other. They may not be equally skilled, but that just makes the "family" dynamic more interesting.

Prolonged Exposure-- and all its siblings in this series-- is so good that I wish everyone would give it a try. It's probably all right to start wherever you like since Havill does provide necessary details, but since the characters' lives play such an important role in the books, it would probably be best to begin at the beginning with One Perfect Shot so you can savor each and every bit... like I've been doing. I doubt very much that you'll be disappointed... unless you're one of those city slickers I've heard tell about.
 

Prolonged Exposure by Steven F. Havill

ISBN: 9781890208738 

Poisoned Pen Press © 2001

Paperback, 265 pages

Police Procedural, #7 Posadas County mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased at The Poisoned Pen.  


  

Privileged to Kill by Steven F. Havill

First Line: I saw Wesley Crocker for the first time on a cold Thursday afternoon in October, three weeks before Election Day.

Posadas County Undersheriff Bill Gastner sees Wesley Crocker walking his flat-tired bike alongside the road and gives him a ride into town. No job, no car, no bath... Crocker is the first person all the townspeople suspect when the body of 15-year-old Maria Ibarra is found underneath the bleachers at the high school. Gastner feels the man is innocent, and thus begins a non-stop investigation for this old cop who eats too much Mexican food and gets too little sleep. The only thing standing between Bill Gastner and a murderer is the very real possibility of a heart attack.

I love this series, and it would be extremely easy for me to sit down and read each book one right after the other. But I don't. I make myself parcel them out one at a time-- almost like giving myself a gift every six months or so.

What makes this series so good? Just about everything. Fictional Posadas County, New Mexico, is right on the border with Mexico. Havill uses the landscape and the weather to paint in details of his setting, but he also uses situations that arise with our neighbor to the south. In the case of Privileged to Kill, it's the sad fate of Maria Ibarra, an illegal immigrant who's come from Mexico to get an education and a future only to die an ignoble death. It's details like this that make Havill's stories ring true.

Then there's always some sort of science/technical angle that's downright intriguing-- like the car wreck in this book. I know that not everyone is interested in such things, but not to worry. The author doesn't bog down the story with these facts. He uses them to add some spice to the investigation.

Hands down, the absolute best part of this book-- and the entire series-- is the cast of characters. Bill Gastner isn't in the best of health, but he's just the kind of tough old cuss who's going to die in harness. He doesn't know when to quit. He usually has his breakthrough flashes of inspiration when he's had the least sleep... and he's compassionate. Most people would drive right on by Wesley Crocker, but not Bill Gastner. He stops. He talks with Wesley for a minute or two, then he helps load the bike into the trunk of his patrol car and gives Wesley a ride into town as well as tips on places to eat and sleep. Bill's the type of man who's going to give everyone a fair break.

We also get to see Gastner mentor his boss. Sheriff Holman has a lot to learn, and he's smart enough to pay attention to his undersheriff. Most of the time. The same can't always be said for Pasquale, the new deputy. Gung-ho Pasquale wants to make a name for himself, and that just might wind up getting him killed. Gastner knows this, and I liked watching how he worked with the younger man.

Gastner's wife is dead, and his four sons live far away, but he is not without family. Adopted family. Deputy Estelle Reyes-Guzman and her doctor husband are valuable additions to the town of Posadas, and they care about Gastner as much as he cares for them. It's a pleasure watching Estelle and Gastner work together. Also, the lives of these three main characters grow and change with each book. Can you read this book as a standalone? Yes, you can, but if you love excellent characterizations, start at the beginning and savor each one.

I could ramble on forever. I love Havill's characters. I love the way he brings New Mexico to life. I also love how his stories are so simple on the surface (like the one here in Privileged to Kill) yet have real depth. Steven F. Havill's Posadas County mysteries truly deserve to be bestsellers instead of the hidden gems they tend to be. I highly, highly recommend them.

 

Privileged to Kill by Steven F. Havill

ISBN: 9781890208653

Poisoned Pen Press © 2001

Paperback, 266 pages

Police Procedural, #5 Posadas County mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from The Poisoned Pen.


 

Before She Dies by Steven F. Havill

First Line: When Salvador "Sonny" Trujillo Jr. stuck my own gun in my face and pulled the trigger, it put the cap on an otherwise rotten evening.

It's a nighttime patrol that turns into everyone's worst nightmare. Newspaper reporter Linda Real barely survives a shotgun blast that ruins her face while the deputy she was riding with is killed. Deputy Paul Encinos's body is left lying on a Posadas County highway with Linda inside the patrol car. Undersheriff Bill Gastner and Detective Estelle Reyes-Guzman immediately begin working on the case.

The evidence is scanty and puzzling, but Gastner soon implicates hellraiser Tammy Woodruff, the daughter of the local Republican party county chairman. She manages to get out of town before he can question her; however, it seems she went a little too fast because she's found crushed to death after her truck goes off the road. Tammy's death turns into yet another puzzle because she had so much alcohol in her system that there's no way she could've driven her truck out of her driveway, let alone all the way out of town. Gastner and his detective certainly have their work cut out for them.

These Posadas County mysteries are little gems. All about family and friends and support and compassion, when something bad happens to one of them, everyone is galvanized to do something to help. The elements in this series that keep me coming back for more are the picture perfect setting of a small town in the Southwest with its entwined heritage of the Hispanic, Native American and Anglo residents; truly intriguing plots that usually keep me stumped; and a cast of characters with whom you feel right at home. Insomniac Bill Gastner is a tough old bird, filled with compassion and self-deprecating wit, he's capable of lulling suspects into a false sense of security before swooping in with the handcuffs. Or perhaps he'll send in someone else with the cuffs because this older man is all too aware of his physical and emotional limitations.

Before She Dies has yet another of those "stump me" plots that I've grown to love (and expect), and watching this cast of characters grow together warms my heart and makes me smile. Are you one of those people who loves the Western element in Craig Johnson's Sheriff Walt Longmire mysteries? Something tells me you'd enjoy a trip down New Mexico way. Walt and Bill are two lawmen who'd get along together just fine.

Before She Dies by Steven F. Havill

ISBN:  9781890208592

Poisoned Pen Press © 2001

Paperback, 253 pages

Police Procedural, #5 Posadas County mystery

Rating: A

Source: Paperback Swap 

Twice Buried by Steven F. Havill

First Line: Anna Hocking called the Posadas County sheriff's office at 9:14 P.M. on December 19.

Unfortunately, by the time Undersheriff Bill Gastner could get there, 86-year-old Anna Hocking was lying dead at the bottom of her cellar stairs. Gastner doesn't think her fall was an accident, just like he knows there's a good reason why elderly Reuben Fuentes has started carrying a gun after his three dogs were poisoned. When two more bodies turn up on Reuben's property and the local gossip mill goes into hyperdrive, Gastner knows he needs some help. Putting in a call to his former deputy (and Reuben's niece), Gastner will not rest until the real killer is found.

I know of readers who have a tendency to think that slender books can't possibly be as good as thick ones. Don't make that mistake with Steven F. Havill's Posadas County mystery series. Each book packs a big punch with a real feel for rural New Mexico, an engrossing mystery, and some of the best characters you'll find anywhere. Twice Buried can easily be read as a standalone. For that matter, the series itself doesn't necessarily need to be read in order, but I recommend that you do so-- especially if you're a reader who loves excellent characterization. The personal relationships between the characters grow and change as time passes, and too much of that would be lost if you read at random.

At first the plot of Twice Buried has such a wide focus that it's difficult to connect the dots, but Havill takes closer and closer aim until I realized that there was only one solution that made sense-- a bit like Undersheriff Bill Gastner himself. Speaking of Gastner, he's one lawman I'd want to have on my side. His strengths are compassion, tenacity, and insomnia, and in his hands they're unbeatable. When Gastner calls for help with the unattended death at Anna Hocking's house, he is faced with an eager young reporter wanting to make a name for herself. How he deals with her says a lot about Gastner as a person and Havill as a writer:

"But there's no foul play, no crime. It's just an unattended death. The only dignity she has remaining is what we preserve. The public has no rights in there. And we haven't notified any next of kin, so I'd rather no one was in that house who doesn't need to be."

There are many excellent mysteries out there that allow us to see places we've never been to and to solve crimes we'll never have to face. It takes a very special kind of crime fiction writer to do all that and create characters who treat others with true dignity and compassion. Steven F. Havill does just that with his beautifully crafted Posadas County mysteries. Each one is a pleasure to read and experience.

Twice Buried by Steven F. Havill

eISBN: 9781615950850

Poisoned Pen Press © 1994

eBook, 190 pages

Police Procedural, #4 Posadas County mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased as an eBook from Barnes & Noble.

Bitter Recoil by Steven F. Havill

Title: Bitter Recoil
Author: Steven F. Havill
ISBN: 9781890208400
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, 2000
Paperback, 192 pages
Genre: Police Procedural, #2 Posadas County mystery
Rating: A
Source: Purchased at the Poisoned Pen

First Line: I stopped at the top of the saddleback and looked down through the pines.

It's not often that Posadas County Undersheriff Bill Gastner takes a vacation, but he figures he's got one coming now. (Probably has something to do with his age and the quadruple bypass surgery he recently survived.) Gastner loads up his truck and heads for the mountains of northern New Mexico to visit his former detective, Estelle Reyes, who's upholding the law in San Estevan County.

Parked in a campground, Gastner's sleep is interrupted by sirens, and he suddenly finds himself reunited with Reyes and her new husband over the body of a young pregnant woman. At first she's thought to be a hit-and-run victim, but the autopsy reveals the truth: this young woman had been thrown from a moving vehicle after a rape attempt. Gastner tries his best to stay on vacation and off the case, but when four more deaths occur, there's no time for a vacation for this recuperating lawman.

Steven Havill has a deceptively smooth and easy style that had me hooked before I knew what was happening. His main character, Bill Gastner, is self-deprecating, funny, and absolutely relentless when it comes to hunting down the bad guys. Due to his age and that bypass surgery, he's also a very vulnerable character, which makes him a rare bird in the crime fiction world.

The other characters hold their own against him-- especially Estelle-- but it's Bill's show in the beautiful mountains of New Mexico. And those mountains remind me: Havill really pushed two of my buttons with this book. Mine shafts and forest fires are going to get my attention every time, and Bitter Recoil was no exception. Havill writes a lean, spare mystery filled with wonderful characters, a strong sense of place, and plenty of action.

This is a mystery series that my husband and I both enjoy, and it's not necessary to read the first book in the series to be able to follow what's going on in this second one. If you've caught up with Sheriff Walt Longmire and Joe Pickett of Wyoming, I suggest you head southwest to New Mexico and make Bill Gastner's acquaintance. He'll make sure you feel welcome!

Bitter Recoil at Amazon.

Bitter Recoil at The Book Depository.

Bitter Recoil at Your Favorite Indie Bookseller.