From Publishers Weekly
Responding late to a phone call to the Posados County's sheriff's office, laconic New Mexico Undersheriff Bill Gastner (last seen in Bitter Recoil ) finds Anna Hocking, an elderly retired teacher, dead at the bottom of her basement stairs. Gastner, who observes that there are broken cobwebs in the dusty basement too high to have been disturbed by the diminutive woman, is disinclined to write the death off to natural causes. But his attention is taken up by other matters as a real estate agent is found shot on the property of old-timer Reuben Fuentes, who was recently reported to have started wearing a gun. Although Sheriff Martin Holman thinks Gastner should arrest Fuentes and be done with the case, the perceptive undersheriff isn't convinced the old man shot the realtor. As he digs up more clues, Gastner calls Estelle Reyes-Guzman, his former deputy and Fuentes's grandniece, to ask for her help. Gastner finally links all these crimes and a few others as Havill sensitively explores the area's Mexican-American culture in this increasingly estimable regional series.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
An 86-year-old woman is found dead at the bottom of her basement stairs. Ancient recluse Reuben Fuentes starts carrying a gun after his three dogs are poisoned. A young delinquent is found dead on Fuentes' property, buried--apparently for the second time--underneath Fuentes' dogs. A local real-estate developer is shot and killed near the strange grave. Posadas County in New Mexico is rife with suspicious death, but county undersheriff Bill Gastner can't connect the cases, though the experience gained through six decades of living won't let him chalk them up to coincidence. The second Gastner mystery maintains the high standards set in 1991's
Heartshot. Gastner is an incisive investigator whose two most valuable qualities are compassion and insomnia. Unlike other fictional detectives who approach murder as a personal affront, Gastner sees himself as the victims' advocate, striving to even the scales of justice for those no longer able to do it themselves. This is definitely a series to watch.
Wes Lukowsky
