Posadas County Series

Not one, but two dead bodies are found in the harsh New Mexico desert. The first man's face is smashed beyond identification, and the second one appears to have been forced to dig his own grave before being murdered...execution style. Soon new Sheriff Robert Torrez and Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman are knee deep in the midst of a brutal murder spree that spans both sides of the border. Retired Sheriff Bill Gastner is still on hand to offer his support and unerring street smarts, and to do a little investigating of his own in his new position as Game and Livestock Investigator for the state.

To most people, hat pins are vestiges of the past, used now only by elderly ladies who don't leave home without a hat. But recently the notion store in Posadas County has been doing a good business selling hat pins to teenage girls. Following a "cat fight" over a boy, one of the girls, Carmen Acosta, had been suspended from school. But Carmen's friends are still around. So, Deena, Carmen's rival, wants something with which to defend herself. Not long afterward Posadas County Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman is called to Carmen's home. When she arrives, Carmen's father, is in police custody and an unconscious Carmen is on the way to the hospital "beat to a pulp". It is of course, hard to believe that young Deena is responsible. Estelle has many other suspects to choose from, since the Acosta family holds the record for the number of domestic violence calls the police have received. The question is, which of the other four children or which parent is responsible? Or is it someone else entirely?

The rugged Cat Mesa country north of the village of Posadas is hosting the first annual Posadas 100, a cycle-cross bicycle race that promises to attract more than 140 competitors. Despite enough injuries during the pre-race practice to promise a spectacular and dangerous race. Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman has even more pressing concerns on her mind. Someone has been using Jerry Turner's big Cessna 206 and then returning it to its hangar at the Posadas airport. Did the airplane end up in Mexico? Estelle has worries at home as well. Facing his first public piano recital, her prodigiously talented seven-year-old son is stubbornly refusing to tell anyone what he plans to play, and it's making everyone, including his music teacher, very nervous. The day of the big race brings a tragedy that doesn't look like an accident, and as the investigation continues, puzzling connections surface deep in Mexico.

It's Christmas in Posadas County, and Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman is settling down to a quiet evening with her family and friend ex-Sheriff Bill Gastner, that is until her doctor husband gets a disturbing call. Retired chief-of-police Eduardo Martinez is calling from a nearby motel where he is having chest pains. Not nine minutes later Estelle gets a call that there has been an incident at the same motel. Estelle and ex-Sheriff Bill Gastner, arrive at the motel parking lot to find it has turned into a crime scene, and the body of the retired chief-of-police is at the center. It appears that Eduardo had an exchange with two men and then collapsed while the men took off in his car. An out-of-town couple are the only witnesses...but their story doesn't ring true.

In this sequel to Steven Havill’s Scavengers, Estelle Reyes-Guzman plunges into her new job as undersheriff of Posadas County and the action never stops. As Bill Gastner, recently retired sheriff lurks diplomatically in the background, Estelle must deal with the disappearance of a local insurance broker who was about to be indicted for fraud. A far worse challenge comes when one of her officers, on a wild chase through town, causes the death of a young single mother in a motorcycle crash. And if that wasn’t enough, now there is a dead body. It looks like suicide...or does it?

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 before he was killed...an astonishing discovery that takes deputies back to a five year-old killing. Estelle and the now retired Bill Gastner find themselves looking for a murderer altogether too close to home.

Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman is always busy, but more so now 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 family waits. She hears her cell phone ringing as she pulls into the driveway. A truck has gone off the road and the driver's body found near the wreck. Back on the job, Estelle drives to the scene, where she finds more questions than answers. Was the truck going over the hill really an accident? And why was there a single footprint on the man's body? An autopsy spurs further puzzles.

Gifted fifteen-year-old Francisco Guzman has become an internationally renowned concert pianist, touring the world under the auspices of his music conservatory. That gives his mother, Posadas County Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman, plenty of reason to worry--and that's magnified when she learns that he's in Mexico’s crime-ridden Mazatlan for a concert series where he may be the target for scam artists and kidnappers. Estelle’s worries go from bad to worse when her uncle?a man she didn't know existed?surfaces in an attempt to mend family ties and leaves a trail of corpses in his wake. Estelle’s attempts to glean family history?the story of her childhood in Tres Santos over the border?from her adopted mother, a woman now in her nineties, go nowhere. Meanwhile, escalating events put Sheriff Bobby Torrez in jeopardy, as they do newly wealthy rancher Miles Waddell and his pet project, the multi-million dollar theme park, NightZone, set high on a county mesa. Just when his sage advice might be most useful, former sheriff and family friend Bill Gastner takes a dive?in the shadows of his own garage. Now his far-flung family is added to the mix of people and events astir in the boot heel of New Mexico.

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 Fisher's arrest: a request arrives from the US Forest Service to locate a missing range tech and his unit last reported headed for nearby Stinkin' Springs, and the brutal murder of Constance Suarez in the border town of Regál, population 37. The Sheriff's Department is stretched to its limits as its dedicated personnel juggle working cases and caring for citizens with their own relationships and family celebrations. The irony of so much wickedness at the holidays is not lost on anyone. Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman, heading out her door to a crime scene, reflects: "It would be a glorious holiday evening for somebody."

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 Posadas High School girls' volleyball team is on a hot winning streak, exciting everyone. But more news, not good, breaks. Volleyball coach Clint Scott has been found gunned down in the girls' shower room, the victim of four bullets, one fired nearly point-blank into his heart. Dead for hours, killed soon after the end of last night's game. And, last night, a homegrown Banksy had tagged both one of the railway cars and a section of NightZone's giant radio telescope dish. Then, apparently, this young artist began work on a section of wall outside the girls' locker room at the high school - a project that was clearly dramatically interrupted. With morning come two strange incidents. Stacie Willis Stewart, a former Posadas volleyball star, locks up her baby and Jack Russell terrier in her Volvo, walks away to local superstore The Spree - and disappears. A former teacher spots the child and dog before the heat can kill them. Deputy Tom Pasquale, in The Spree's parking lot, where he's spotted a suspicious Illinois plate on a Ford Fusion, watched it all. He then leads a fruitless search for her inside the store. No luck - but he does score a man with an Elvis haircut and his wife when they return to the Ford with stories that don't add up. The lead on the murder is Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman, who's still able to call on the retired former sheriff, Bill Gastner - a good thing, for she is surprised by the arrival of her piano-prodigy son, Francisco, age 15, in a sleek Corvette driven some 1,000 miles by an 18-year-old beauty, a cellist. Their goal: to join the 100th birthday celebration for Estelle's mother.

When a county employee is found shot to death in sun-drenched 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 as inconsistencies surface. The fatal bullet shows no rifling marks, an 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 first 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.