Steven F. Havill has 25 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 5 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 5 ratings. The most-rated is Easy Errors.
Easy Errors
Summary
When the first Posadas County Mystery, Heartshot, was published in 1991, Bill Gastner was the county undersheriff. Over time Bill became sheriff, then retired, and Robert Torrez took over the top spot. But what were Torrez's first days as a rookie officer like? Terrible! It's 1986. Undersheriff Bill Gastner is enjoying his usual insomnia alone inside his old adobe when jolted by a horrendous noise. Dreading what he will find, he hastens to the nearby interstate exit where a violent crash has occurred. Not only is the vehicle that struck the support pillars totaled and the driver and a passenger crushed inside, a dead boy has been ejected. As the appalled Gastner recognizes the youth and swings into action, the first deputy to join him at the scene is rookie Robert Torrez, the department's newest hire. Before Gastner can head him off, Torrez sees that the boy is his spirited younger brother. And the girl crushed inside the SUV is a younger sister. The driver of the Suburban, also dead, is the assistant district attorney's teenage son. Two local family tragedies. A shaken couple reports that when the Suburban, careening at nearly 100 miles an hour, passed them on the interstate, activity inside hinted at its occupants' panic. Were the three dead kids running from someone - or something - rather than speeding? Further investigation reveals that a fourth teen should have been in the vehicle but is now missing. Where had the four kids been? And why? It appears they'd lied to their parents. Following his usual meticulous procedure, Gastner traces the vehicle's path to a remote canyon with attractive caves. The discovery he makes there balloons the case and introduces possible murder. Yet with a lack of witnesses hampering Sheriff Salcido, Gastner, Torrez, and other deputies, errors working the case can too easily be made.
©2018 Books in Motion (P)2018 Books in Motion
Night Zone: Posadas County Mystery, Book 19
Summary
What do you do when you inherit $330 million after taxes? If you're New Mexico rancher Miles Waddell, you build a dream. A flat-topped mesa and a third of a billion dollars equals Nightzone Zone, an astronomy-based theme park, complete with giant radio telescope, a bank of smaller scopes linked to a theater, five-star dining in a restaurant with retracting dome ceiling, a hotel/resort, tram car access, and a narrow gauge steam locomotive to carry tourists to the mesa top. Glorious. And too ambitious for many residents of Posadas County. Waddell's dream begins to sour as one night two eco-terrorists make an opening statement by chain-sawing down power lines that feed the development. One of the terrorists is killed by a bucking power pole. From 20 miles away, former Posadas Sheriff William K. Gastner spots a pair of headlights as the dead man’s companion speeds from the scene. Charges quickly include murder when the fleeing conspirator is stopped by a cop and guns the lawman down. Hours later a second shooting occurs when Gastner stops to assist Sgt. Jackie Taber during an unrelated traffic stop. Always the last to pull a trigger, the now 74-year old Gastner becomes the focus of a second investigation by the over-stressed District Attorney and Sheriff’s Department. Meanwhile, Waddell's troubles with rumor-mongers and anti-government thugs continue. A tired Gastner is unwilling to work security for NIGHTZONE, but security has become essential. There is a bright spot: Gastner’s godson, 13 year-old Francisco Guzman. The musical prodigy’s conservatory has scheduled a double concert in Posadas, part of a national tour. Yet the timing of this stellar event could not be worse with the retired Gastner and the whole community tangling with lethal avengers and agendas.
©2014 Books In Motion (P)2014 Books In Motion
Heartshot
Summary
New Mexico Undersheriff Bill Gastner is presented with a case that appears to have brought big-time crime, including drug gangs, into Posadas County.
©1991 Steven F Havill (P)2002 Books in Motion
One Perfect Shot
Summary
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.
©2012 Steven F. Havill (P)2012 Books In Motion
Come Dark
Summary
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.
©2017 Books in Motion (P)2017 Books in Motion
Scavengers
Summary
Not one, but two dead bodies are found in the harsh New Mexico desert. The first man's face is smashed beyond recognition, 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.
©2002 Steven F. Havill (P)2005 Books in Motion
Bag Limit
Summary
Bill Gastner, the reluctant sheriff of Posadas County, New Mexico, anticipates his last few days in office will be uneventful. That is, until local teen Matt Baca drives drunkenly into the back of Gastner's cruiser and flees into the night. His eventual capture turns tragic when the boy becomes irrationally violent and takes a fatal tumble into oncoming traffic. Adding to the tragedy, Matt's father is found dead in his tiny kitchen. Is this all a terrible coincidence, or is something more sinister afoot? The dead teen's fake ID troubles Gastner. He suspects it's why Matt Baca was so intent on avoiding arrest for drunken driving. His theory leads him to the toughest, deadliest couple of days of his career. This is a case that proves small town life can deliver big trouble. Still, Sheriff Gastner proves his mettle, and resolves it by using the common sense of an old warhorse, and the soothing powers of a green chile burrito.
©2001 Steven F Havill (P)2004 Books in Motion
Double Prey
Summary
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.
©2011 Steven F Havill (P)2010 Books In Motion
Before She Dies
Summary
A reporter for the Posadas Register barely survives a night-time patrol with one of Undersheriff Bill Gastner's deputies, and the investigation points to a young woman known for her thrill-seeking.
©1996 Steven F Havill (P)2002 Books in Motion
Less Than a Moment
Summary
In less than a moment, unexplained intentions, then murder, upend life in Posadas County, New Mexico. Posadas County, sitting along New Mexico's southern border, has enjoyed a surge in visitors, jobs, and prosperity since rancher Miles Waddell used much of his inherited half billion to create an internationally renowned astronomy complex atop Torrance Mesa. Passion, not profit, drives Waddell. Yet benefits include a narrow-gauge train linking the village of Posadas to NightZone. It's a boon to employees and for nature lovers, hikers, and birders as well as star gazers. A ripple of unease is felt across the county with the arrival of developer - no, speculator - Kyle Thompson. Why did he and his wife quietly purchase a large scrubby acreage to the north of NightZone? Any light pollution would jeopardize Waddell's success. Lights are like cancer cells. One comes, others follow. Unease grows with a drive-by shoot-up at the Posadas Register, its 25 shots wounding a reporter and the paper's editor. Sheriff Bob Torrez and Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman see a connection to NightZone...and worse, a connection with Torrez's own nephew. Why? And then murder strikes....
©2020 Steven F. Havill (P)2020 Books In Motion
Convenient Disposal
Summary
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". Of course, it's 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?
©2004 Steven F Havill (P)2005 Books in Motion
Dead Weight
Summary
A well-seasoned 69, Sheriff Bill Gastner knows his Posadas, New Mexico, territory as well as he understands the foibles of the human condition. So when a backhoe crushes a man to death, it's more instinct than fact that leaves him feeling there is more to this "accident" than meets the eye.
©2000 Steven F Havill (P)2004 Books in Motion
Out of Season
Summary
Sheriff Martin Holman of the Posadas County Sheriff's Department didn't like flying, much less at night, with bad weather. So why he took a plane ride over a nearby mesa under those dangerous conditions is a question as disturbing as why somebody shot the pilot dead from the ground - causing the plane to crash. Undersheriff Bill Gastner, a 60-something warhorse just months away from retirement, now has a murder on his hands. The only possible lead is a roll of film, and with it, Gastner is determined to find out what the late Sheriff Holman was up to. Following his sharp instincts and a tenacity born of long years as a cop, he uncovers a scheme of illegal doings and nasty buried secrets. Unfortunately, it could make his biggest case his last.
©1999 Steven F. Havill (P)2003 Books in Motion
Lies Come Easy
Summary
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."
©2019 Books In Motion (P)2019 Books In Motion
Statute of Limitations
Summary
It's Christmas in Posadas County, and Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman is settling down to a quiet evening with her family and her 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.
©2006 Steven F Havill (P)2006 Books in Motion
Blood Sweep
Summary
Gifted 15-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 90s, go nowhere. Meanwhile escalating events put Sheriff Bobby Torrez in jeopardy, as they do newly wealthy rancher Miles Waddell and his pet project, the multimillion-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 bootheel of New Mexico.
©2015 Books In Motion (P)2015 Books In Motion
One Perfect Shot
Summary
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, and investigation shows 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 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 reveals all kinds of skeletons lurking in Posadas County closets. Steven F. Havill is the author of more than twenty novels set in the American West. He taught in secondary schools for twenty-five years and recently earned an associate of applied science degree in gunsmithing. He lives with his wife, Kathleen, in New Mexico.
©2011 Steven F. Havill (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Privileged to Kill
Summary
Wesley Crocker is accused of the murder of young Maria Ibarra, who was found near the "camping place" of the drifter. Crocker's account of the previous night leads Undersheriff Bill Gastner to more troubling questions.
©1997 Steven F Havill (P)2003 Books in Motion
The Fourth Time Is Murder
Summary
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. Steven F. Havill paints a vivid portrait of this small New Mexico town in the sixth entry of this atmospheric, entertaining series.
©2009 Steven F. Havill (P)2009 Books In Motion
A Discount for Death
Summary
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?
©2003 Steven F Havill (P)2005 Books in Motion