Easy Errors: A Posadas County Mystery

Havill’s 22nd Posadas County mystery (after 2016’s Come Dark) keeps this long-running series fresh by taking a trip back in time to 1986, when laconic Bill Gastner was still undersheriff and working with Robert Torrez, then a rookie. The day after a horrific automobile accident kills three local teens on the interstate, the body of one of their friends, Darlene Spencer, is discovered in a canyon. Although the girl is miles from the scene of the accident and has a bullet hole in her head, Gastner and Torrez are convinced the two incidents are related. But how? And why? And how does all that tragedy tie in with firearm vandalism at a nearby farm? As their own crime scene investigators, Gastner and Torrez painstakingly plod through seemingly disconnected minutiae in pursuit of answers. Havill keeps his relentless hold on readers with bits of wisdom from veteran Gastner, creating a powerful sense of place in his portrayal of the bucolic southwestern New Mexico community. (Nov.)