Statute of Limitations

January 30, 2006
Things go from bad to worse in Posadas, N.Mex., at the start of Havill's appealing fourth Posadas County mystery (after 2004's Convenient Disposal
). First, Chief of Police Eduardo Martinez suffers a heart attack while confronting car thieves on Christmas eve; Sheriff Robert Torrez has a pulmonary embolism Christmas morning; a deputy's fiancée is murdered that afternoon; and former sheriff Bill Gastner is brutally attacked that night. It's enough for under-sheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman to keep up with the medical reports, never mind track down the perps. As Estelle races from crime scene to hospital to home and back again, she's keenly aware of time slipping away and with it the criminals. The initial flood of characters and Estelle having to deal with her musically gifted son, Fernando, may make newcomers feel as if they've walked into the middle of a movie. But once Havill gets into the police work, the story becomes more focused. Descriptions are as spare as the Southwest desert, and the action gallops along to a satisfyingly thrilling ending.

September 15, 2008
A rich sense of character and place invigorates Havill’s sixth Posadas County, N.Mex., police procedural (after 2007’s Final Payment
). Anomalies that surface in the investigation of a fatal traffic accident concern under-sheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman, who’s also bothered by the feeling that someone, somehow is scamming her friends in a little village just north of the border. Meanwhile, a crowd of drunken teenagers provokes a young cop into carelessly discharging his pistol, and the presence of illegal immigrants flowing through the community is a constant distraction. If all this weren’t enough to frazzle Estelle, a journalist is arriving in town to do a story for A Woman’s World
magazine about how she balances professional and personal demands. Havill is especially good at showing how connecting facts depends on recognizing relationships within a family or a neighborhood. Arid, harshly beautiful Posadas County turns out to be full of captivating stories.