Scavengers

by Steven F. Havill

Book Overview

A man's body is found in the unforgiving New Mexico desert, his face so smashed that identification is impossible. It's the beginning of a brutal murder spree that will soon take Posadas County's new... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0373264828
• ISBN13: 9780373264827
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Wwl Mystery
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.6"

Customer Reviews

A New Mexico county

Though I live in New Mexico, Havill was new to me. I have now read three and enjoyed them all. He does not take forever, as some do, to solve the mystery. Characters are interesting and well defined. Locale is invented but plausible.

Good Book, Great Series: Scavengers by Steven Havill

Billed on the front cover as "A Posadas County Mystery" this reader was immediately alerted that after nine Undersheriff Gastner novels, this was not the tenth. It has been a great run and while I was hoping for a tenth, I expected due to the way the character has developed that there would not be a tenth. Unfortunately, my expectation proved correct, but while different from the Gastner series, this book still retains the flavor and color of the previous novels. However, since it is not Gastner it does take some adjustment to get used to the new style and tone of the series.As the book opens, Gastner has been regulated to the sidelines in his role as Livestock Inspector. While he appears briefly a couple of times, the main action involves Estelle Reyes-Guzman. Long a fixture of the series she is now front and center and has her hands full. Along with her mother and her failing health, she has children who currently have the flu bug and her husband, a local doctor. Her boss, the newly elected Sheriff Bobby Torrez, is off at Quantico taking a course. As Undersheriff, she is in charge with all the usual problems that brings in running a department and then the bodies start showing up.The first is found out on the prairie and has had half of his head blown off. The lower part of his face is shattered and according to the corner, he thinks it happened after the man was killed by the headshot. While the body is clothed, there are no personal effects and thanks to the weather and the assorted wildlife, roughly three weeks after the person was killed, there is not much to identify. As they start to work the case, within a couple of days, a second body is found. Certain clues with that body lead Estelle to believe that the bodies were killed by the same killer or killers and the hunt begins.There are several secondary stories as well, but to explain them would violate the golden rule of a book review-don't reveal too much. Especially for those new to the series, the explanation of several of the secondary stories would render the reading of those books all but pointless.While this is not a Gastner book, it does come awfully close. The stark beauty of Posadas County comes through once again along with all the colorful characters that make this imaginary piece of New Mexico landscape home. Fortunately, while the author did move Gastner to the sidelines, he wisely did not change the other characters that populate his books. So, while somewhat different, there is enough of the earlier books in this one to make it work once again.

Still the best on the Border

It was with some trepidation that I started reading Steven Havill's latest book, SCAVENGERS, knowing that it was the start of a new direction in one of my favorite series. Bill Gastner has retired as Undersheriff of Posadas County, and Estelle Reyes-Guzman, his young protegee, is taking over. Havill is about as good at bringing the small world of a Southern New Mexico town to life as anyone could be. My fears were soon set to rest as I was reassured that he can also write well and convincingly from the point of view of a female, and a Latina at that. SCAVENGERS is just as sound in its police work, real in its evocation of the desert, and touching in its portrait of one busy woman in a small town. The U.S.-Mexico Border has many facets, but this series realistically portrays one of them, where the mixing of cultures is constant and taken for granted. A sound detective story in an endlessly fascinating setting.

excellent crime thriller

Posedas County is a wide-open range between New Mexico and the Mexican border and for the most part it is a quiet place. There are some areas that are patrolled rarely because there is nothing there. One day a pilot flies over the area and sees what she thinks is a body. She returns to base and the local authorities are on the scene almost immediately. A man is lying in the dirt, his faced so smashed in that they can't obtain dental plates.Now that Bill Gastner is retired and the newly elected sheriff Robert Torrez is in Virginia taking a law enforcement course, the case is headed up by Under Sheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman. Even with her ailing and aging mother and her son down with the flu, Estelle copes with the investigation just fine until they find a second body buried in a shallow grave located a few miles near the first. Estelle thinks the two deaths are tied to together and Eurelio Scener, a person who acts like he knows more than he is telling, might have some answers but he has disappeared, perhaps involuntarily.Anyone who likes to see an investigation played out from the beginning to the end will definitely like SCAVENGERS, a police procedural that has heart. Watching the Under Sheriff balance her home life with her work gives the audience an appreciation for the police performing duties that sometimes can be at the expense of their own families. Steven F. Havill continues to write excellent crime thrillers as his series keeps evolving with a true time line.Harriet Klausner