Out of Season - Bill Gastner, Bk 7 Author:Steven F. Havill The already small Posadas County Police Department is about the take a big hit. Undersheriff Bill Gastner knows that four members of their force are about to quit. Then the plane with Sheriff Martin Holman and a companion aboard crashes in a nearby prairie, killing both men on board. Questions arise concerning the crash: why were the Sheriff and... more » his brother-in-law, the pilot, flying at night -- in bad weather, no less -- when the Sheriff himself hated to fly?
There are several indications that the Sheriff might have been checking out a lead on a case, the most important of which is the bullet found embedded in the chest of the pilot that seems to have been shot from the ground. One witness to the troubled plane's demise and a roll of undeveloped film used in the plane before it went down are the few clues that might allow Bill to solve the case.« less
I'm not certain if Havill is a darned good writer of if perhaps my love of New Mexico clouds my judgment but, I can't get enough of this series. Undersheriff Bill Gastner is shrewd and curmudgeonly and he always solves the case. There is nothing flashy or showy about this book or this series. It is a straight up police procedural and one that takes place in a large and sparsely populated county in a large and sparsely populated western state. Good stuff!