Lies Come Easy: A Posadas County Mystery

Havill’s irresistible 23rd mystery set in tiny Posadas County, N.Mex. (after 2017’s Easy Errors), combines a police procedural with a complex family saga. One snowy evening a few days before Christmas, Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman receives a report that two-year-old Derry Fisher has been found abandoned by the side of a road. The police pick up Derry’s father, Darrell, and jail him overnight. Later, while out on bail awaiting sentencing for reckless endangerment of a child, the hapless Darrell turns up dead in his truck in what appears to be a suicide. Meanwhile, Estelle goes looking for errant U.S. Forest Service range tech Myron Fitzwater, who some believe has simply eloped with his sweetheart. With two such easy cases, Estelle is looking forward to a quiet family Christmas, until the autopsy shows that Darrell was murdered, and Myron proves to be a much more complicated individual than expected. Havill’s inviting world welcomes newcomers and keeps fans happily coming back for more. (Nov.)