Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Posadas County, New Mexico, can't be home to more than a few thousand souls, but Undersheriff Bill Gastner evidently knows them all and grieves like a father whenever trouble comes to any of them. This time murder strikes close to home when Posadas Register reporter Linda Real barely survives her nighttime patrol with Deputy Paul Enciņos, who's killed by a more accurate shotgun blast. With the help of his observant, intuitive on-call detective Estelle Reyes-Guzman's usual sharp eye for physical evidence, Bill implicates recent DWI alumna Tammy Woodruff, thrill-seeking daughter of the local Republican County Chairman, in the brutal assault. Before he can interrogate Tammy, though, she's vanished; then she's crushed to death after her truck goes off the road while she's full of more alcohol than any driver could have held. Bill's compassion is so generous that you'll end up grieving just as much for the killer, when Bill finally runs him to ground, as for his victim. The down side of Havill's affection for this pack of desert rats is that you meet an awful lot more of them than you can well keep straight. Maybe Bill's fifth case (Twice Buried, 1994, etc.) should include an appended map and phone directory.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

The danger of being a small-town cop, according to Posadas County, New Mexico, Undersheriff Bill Gastner, is that the daily humdrum will lull you to sleep, and then when all hell breaks loose, you're not ready. Young deputy Paul Encinos wasn't ready. He is found dead beside his squad car on a country road, the victim of three shotgun blasts. Seriously wounded in the attack but still clinging to life is Linda Real, a local reporter who was accompanying Encinos as background for a story. Gastner and his top officer, Estelle Reyes-Guzman, don't have much to go on: a shell casing, part of a wrench, and a partial tire print. Meanwhile, the town's bad girl, Tammy Woodruff, has disappeared, suggesting that she may have been a witness to the murders. The fourth Gastner case is easily the best, no small feat in a series as strong as this one. Gastner is compassionate, intelligent, bulldog tough, and painfully aware of all his limitations, both physical and emotional. The same inward eye that provides insight into his own soul can quickly swivel outward to discern others' hidden traits. And if what you're hiding is motive, Gastner will ferret it out and do what needs to be done. An outstanding mystery. --Wes Lukowsky