NightZone: A Posadas County Mystery

As Havill’s stellar 19th Posadas County mystery (after 2012’s One Perfect Shot) shows, retired sheriff Bill Gastner can’t resist getting involved in law enforcement business. One quiet night, while Gastner, an insomniac, is stargazing on a mesa, he spots a distant fire, a pair of headlights driving away from the area, and an apparent power outage. After calling in the authorities, Gastner heads to the scene, where he finds a corpse and some wooden power-line supports chopped down. The subsequent murder of a cop, who may have been trying to stop a man responsible for the damage, could be connected with plans for the construction of a new theme park centered on a huge radio telescope that’s being shipped to New Mexico from California. Some extremists view the project as a cover for intrusive government surveillance. Gastner’s capabilities are plausible for a septuagenarian, and Havill peoples the book with believable characters. (Oct.)