KEEPING IT REAL
Mystery series draws on small-town NM life and rural law enforcement
Prolific New Mexico author Steven F. Havill has been writing two — yes, two — popular mystery series set in the fictional southwestern New Mexico county of Posadas.
The first series featured Bill Gastner as undersheriff and then sheriff. The subsequent series features Undersheriff Estelle ReyesGuzman after Gastner’s retirement.
All but one of these 21 mysteries are presented chronologically. The exception was “One Perfect Shot,” a prequel with Gastner as undersheriff.
Now comes another exception, Havill’s latest in the Gastner series, “Easy Errors.” The author calls it a “pre-prequel.”
Havill said he wrote “Easy Errors” at the request of a loyal Posadas County mystery reader who wanted to know how Sheriff Bob Torrez got his start in law enforcement. Hence, the new novel goes back in time when Torrez was known as Bobby and was a handsome 22-year-old rookie deputy sheriff.
The novel opens hard with the fatal crash of a speeding SUV on an interstate underpass. The driver, Chris Browning, and his two passengers, Orlando and Ellie Torrez — all Posadas teenagers — are killed. The passengers are Torrez’s younger brother Orlando and sister Ellie. Were the teens on a joyride? Or was the driver racing to get medical help for the asthmatic Orlando?
The next morning, the still-warm body of Chris’ girlfriend, Darlene Spencer, is discovered in a remote canyon. She was shot in the left eye, presumably with a bullet that ricocheted off the sail of a ranch windmill.
Undersheriff Bill Gastner,who mentors Torrez in sharpening police procedures, is the lead investigator in the case. The cops are trying to find out if the four teens were partying when Darlene left her companions to relieve herself.
Gastner zeroes in on three men who were apparently near the teens and who had a gun that may have been used on the windmill for target practice.
“Easy Errors” is a police procedural that shows off Havill’s ability to mesh how a rural police agency handles its business ––interview procedures, ballistics analysis, preservation of evidence ––and how officers deal with the locals they know by first name.
The novel introduces readers to a number of Posadas County residents, some of whom help the story line move along or just fill a scene or two.
For example, there’s Leo Bailey, editor/ reporter/owner of the Posadas Register. He’s the brother of Clifton Bailey, one of the trio of men Gastner wants to question.
“If you’re telling a story, there are a lot of ancillary characters that walk on stage. It’s not fair to have them as a cardboard cutout,” Havill said in a phone interview. “They have to be a real person. You never know when one of these real people gets in trouble with the law.”
Havill occasionally injects humor. Here he’s describing where Gastner and Torrez are taping a crime site dotted with trash. Gastner notes the durability of cigarette filters long after tobacco and paper had skipped off.
“No wonder Smokey Bear was always trying to beat tourists over the head with his shovel,” Gastner concludes.
The author and his wife Kathleen live outside Datil. They moved there in 2010 after living in Raton for about 10 years. Before that, they were Lincoln and before Lincoln, in Milan, near Grants. Why move around so much?
“I don’t know. It’s just something we do. It’s fun seeing new areas,” Havill said.
Havill’s editor messed up by permitting chile to be spelled as chilé in the finished copy of the book.
Steven Havill discusses, signs “Easy Errors” noon-2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18 at the Baldwin Cabin Public Library, three miles off U.S. 60 near Datil; at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 19 at Bookworks, 3022 Rio Grande NW; and noon2 p.m. Nov. 25 at Treasure House Books & Gifts, 2012 S. Plaza St. NW, Old Town.