Dead Weight (Bill Gastner #8) (Posadas County #8) by Steven Havill


Wonderful

Published in 2000.

I absolutely love the Bill Gastner series. I have read a few unsatisfying novels lately and Dead Weight was a real joy.

Gastner is the nearly 70-year-old insomniac sheriff of a small town in New Mexico. He consumes great quantities of coffee and very spicy Mexican food (even for breakfast!) while he juggles a homicide investigation, a mysterious accusation against one of his officers and a landlord/renter dispute. Small town politics and good police work don't necessarily go hand-in-hand, but Gastner makes it work anyway.

Havill's characters remind me very much of those of fellow New Mexican author Tony Hillerman. For me, this is very high praise since I absolutely love the Leaphorn/Chee novels. If Havill and Hillerman are par for the course in the world of New Mexican authors than I am going to looking for more of them. Truly a delightful read.

 I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

 This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Dead Weight by Steven Havill

 Reviewed on October 18, 2006.

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