Scavengers

Posadas County Mystery #11

by Steven F. Havill

With Scavengers, Steven Havill begins his new series featuring former Gastner deputy Estelle Reyes-Guzman. Estelle played a supporting role in the Gastner books, then left New Mexico to follow her surgeon husband to cold, cold Minnesota. Now she is back, welcomed by the whole department and already swamped in her role of Undersheriff under the new sheriff, Bobby Torrez. But Gastner's readers have the best of both worlds. The setting is still Posadas County, and Gastner, having taken on the presumably less stressful job of State Livestock Inspector ("What are those? Burros?" "Miniature donkeys." "Oh.") is prominently in the background, even though that seems like an oxymoron.

Bobby Torrez is at a law enforcement conference, and Estelle, and early after her return Estelle is landed with the case of a body is found in the desert - that of a man who has been badly beaten and then shot. Estelle and her deputies begin the forensic process -- photographing, sending the body to autopsy, looking for identification and clues as to why the man was so badly beaten and then killed. Not long afterward, the discovery of another body yields more evidence of what happened and why. But Estelle is still a long way from finding answers to all the questions involved; meanwhile she is coping with an aging mother and a case of flu that has most of her family on their aching backs. Gastner, who is in the area tracking down a rumor of animals being illegally brought over the border, can help and does, but the horrifying and breathtaking climax is Estelle's burden alone, and she carries it off with honors.

In the smoothest of segues Havill skillfully retains the well-loved familiar characters and setting while craftily turning the responsibility of carrying his compelling stories to a new and engaging star.

Genres: Mystery, Procedural, Crime, Westerns, Audiobook, Fiction, Mystery Thriller

352 pages, Hardcover

First published September 7, 2002

About the author

Steven F. Havill is an American author of mysteries and westerns.

Havill lives in Raton, New Mexico, with his wife Kathleen. He has written two series of police procedurals set in the fictional Posadas County, New Mexico; along with other works.

Reviews

[PamG · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this is the 11th book in the series, it is the first one that I have read and the first one with Estelle as the main character. The story lines were interesting and the writing was good.

There are Spanish sentences interspersed in the book and not all of them are translated to English. This may annoy those that either don't know Spanish, can't get the gist of it from the context of the paragraph, or don't want to go to the effort to translate it. I generally understood the meaning without having to translate it.

I liked the main character and there are a large number of strong supporting characters. While I was able to determine who the culprits were in the main murder/mystery plot line, I was surprised by a couple of things in the secondary story line. This was a compelling read that was set in New Mexico near the border with Mexico.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read all these books up to this one at least twice now. I love them. He's a really good writer! And I love the maps too!

[Deb W · Rating 1 out of 5]

It might have been an interesting story, had the author or his editor taken the time to clean up his writing. I made it to page 42 before I just could not stumble through one more paragraph. The writing is of such poor quality that I am angry about it.

[Dlmrose · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm quite happy to have discovered this series featuring Estelle Reyes-Guzman as Under Sheriff of Posadas County, NM. Even though it's not a new series; it is new to me and I can't wait to read the next in the series. A definite plus is the setting in the desert and small towns in southern New Mexico near the border with Mexico and the use of Spanish sentences and dialogue dispersed throughout the book.

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

Havill tells a good tale...

[Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It looked to Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman like someone had beaten the guy to death and shot him for good measure. A young woman taking flying lessons discovered the body as she flew over it and disturbed a flock of ravens enjoying an early Thanksgiving feast on the body. Estelle doesn’t even know who the guy is, and neither do her colleagues. It isn’t long before they find a body in a grave not far from where the original body turned up. Now they have two unidentified dead guys on their hands. Someone had murdered them both.

While they investigate the murders a local citizen deliberately blows up his mother’s mobile home, killing himself in the process. Estelle must figure out what his motive was.

If you’ve followed the series, you know that Bill Gastner, the previous undersheriff, has retired and taken a job as a livestock inspector. I thought I’d miss him, but he’s part of this installment in the series, and it’s wonderful to see him and Estelle continue to work together.

If you need a human face or two in your mystery, this one has it. Estelle’s family gets the flu, her 82-year-old mom wants to take one last trip to Mexico to the old homestead before she dies, and, like her predecessor on the job, Estelle isn’t getting nearly enough sleep. Her problem is the demands of the job, not insomnia.

This has been a consistently solid series, and I look forward to visiting these characters again as early as January.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first in a new series featuring Estelle Reyes-Guzman but using characters from his other New Mexico series.

I like the female touch as the focus narrator. We see a gentle home life that contrasts with the evil that exists in Posadas County. Even Tres Santos in Mexico is milder than Maria NM.

Two bodies are found, one barely buried, in the desert. While the Sheriff is out at a training session, as Undersheriff Estelle takes control of the investigation. Neither body has identification, but are ultimately identified as being workers who had passed through town months prior. It soon seems like they have been robbed for their currency. Very few clues are found to identify the killer/s.

In addition there is a house explosion and killing with suspicious circumstances. Estelle's staff use the resources at their disposal to determine whether this was an insurance arson gone wrong or just an inept propane adjustment.

This is a short novel but well investigated and nicely written. I loved the map that is included.

I hope to read further in this series.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another good book in the series where setting and characters shine. Given how much I have enjoyed Rusty Nelson's audio narration of the Bill Gastner series up to this point in the novels set in Posadas County, I was shocked and rather unnerved when I started listening to this book to hear a female voice. Since the series takes a turn at this point to start focusing on Estelle's point of view rather than Bill's, I suppose it makes some sense to use a female voice for the audio version, even though it is technically unnecessary with the third-person narration. But after I got about halfway through the book, I started enjoying Stephanie Brush's audio narrative style. She is particularly good with scratchy voices of the elderly (though the voices she uses with male characters seem to be overly gruff). But I do really miss Nelson's twangy voice and style, which added a layer of authenticity and humor to the stories.

[Ron Mac · Rating 5 out of 5]

~The Posadas saga continues on
~We, the readers, have traveled along with Bill Gastner as he solved crime after crime in his quiet little New Mexico town. How he has retired and one of his satellite characters, Deputy Estelle Guzman steps into the light as the Under Sheriff…that is number two in the chain of command.
~That is the biggest different between this current story and the earlier stories. We still have crimes to solve…bad guys to catch…mysteries to unwind. Only who is doing the solving has changed.
~I have enjoyed the writing style of author, Steven F. Havill. He weaves a well thought out and complex tale.
~If you have read other books in the series, I do believe you will enjoy the familiarity of this book. It could be read as a stand-alone…though I’d encourage all to get some of the earlier stories also.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two young men are found murdered in a remote location on the New Mexico prairie. Robert Torrez is in Virginia at an FBI school for new sheriffs, so it falls to Undersheriff Estelle Reyes Guzman to find out what happened. The crimes are not that complicated. However, because there are so few clues, the investigation is. Meanwhile retired sheriff, now livestock inspector, Bill Gastner, finds that a woman is running a “motel” for miniature donkeys that may or may not be legal. I wish the author had found a way to make more of the donkeys in the plot. The story is a well-written procedural. The audio version is a disappointment, with a reader that is not well matched to the characters or the language.

[Lois Baron · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a large ensemble of police officers, including a Mexican police captain, to keep track of. People who have been reading Havill's Gastner series might have a handle on the cast. Since I'm not one of those readers, I let some fo the names slide by. The main character--Estelle, now undersheriff--is a solid character, and it's nice that she's appreciated at home and at the office in this procedural.

Bill Gastner, formerly the sheriff and now is a state livestock inspector, makes an appearance, finding a hoard of miniature burros. Any mystery that involves tiny donkeys gets extra points.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first book by Mr. Havill, and it won't be my last. He painted the desert and the small towns in southern New Mexico so vividly I could feel the barren dirt and feel the dry air. Having been through some of those towns, he captured the feel of them perfectly. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, but it didn't take long to identify the groups they represented. I didn't care as much about Estelle's family, but that was easy enough to get through. Even when we knew the culprits, it was interesting to see how the case would be resolved.

[Viva · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very awkward writing. It was a chore to read. I'm thinking of how to describe this but it's like walking over a lava rock field, not smooth. And the writing wasn't to point, it seemed to like to talk about stuff which wasn't germane to what the topic was and veered off into some other direction. After only 6% into the book, I couldn't get into the writing at all I decided to dnf. I know it's only a small amount but I had to fight myself to keep reading on and that's not the way it's supposed to be.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good start to a new series. I really enjoyed this book.
"While new sheriff Bobby Torrez is at a law enforcement conference, former deputy Estelle Reyes-Guzman is landed with the case of a body found in the desert - that of a man who had been badly beaten and then shot.
These characters were established from another series by this author. I really liked Bill Gastner, the main person from the series, he brought the books to life. Estelle Reyes-Guzman was a deputy in that series.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was concerned I was not going to like this since the series has changed from Gastner’s POV, but this was really good (and G is still prominent here). There are some cases that started in this book that were not wrapped up. UPDATE: okay, the series is more like real-life, where all cases don’t necessarily get wrapped up at the same time. The answers are in the next book - without a cliffhanger feel, that works for me.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This title was sadly short in the editing department.
Conscious passing for conscience, reticule instead of reticle, and other problems show that editing was not particularly important here.
The story is good, however, but keeping track of all of the characters and their family members both north and south of the border is a task.

[Mhd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started with this one, Book 11 in the series, because it's the earliest one that my library system has either paper or ebook. 3.4 stars...good, but can't really round it up to 4 stars. I enjoyed the New Mexico milieu. Interesting main characters. Looking forward to seeing where this series goes.

[VP · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like these stories. Unfortunately, I have to get audiobooks when there is no book version.
The narration on the audiobook was amongst the worst I have ever heard. The worst. This woman is terrible. If I were not already invested in the series, I would not have progressed.
I am glad for Estelle the books are third person pov.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s good to see Estelle back. She and Bill Gastner still have the old chemistry and a knotty murder to solve. As usual, southern New Mexico is an important character and the human characters are well rounded and interesting. A real winner.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Start of new series that features most of the familiar characters from the first. Bill Gastner has retired and is now a State Livestock Investigator and he continues to be a part of the series. Outstanding storytelling!

[Mike Calabrese · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of details in this book

At first I was frustrated by all of the details. I thought it was just to fill up this book. But as I got into this story I realized that all of these small details led to the final outcome. This was a good read.

[Shell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have enjoyed every book in this series, which needs to be read in order as the private lives of the characters changes quite a lot in each book. I enjoy the crime stories, but really, I think it's the characters lives that I'm more interested in. Every book has been a treat so far.

[Kit Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Fire and a Cactus

Bingo night turns into a life changing event. Brothers are hopscotching back and forth across the border leaving bodies in their wake. Ever hear if a cactus whip? Well this story includes one. A good story in this artful series.

[Cassandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't quite get into this. The writing isn't bad. The book just didn't hold my attention.

[Corinne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This audiobook is the first for me from this author. It reminded me of the Hillerman mysteries. I look forward to reading more by this author.

[Nyssy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. It seem more like talking about what was going on at home then what the mystery was all about.

[Cyvil B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A okay start.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still trying to get used to the new narrator on this audiobook. Really enjoyed the previous narrator. Story was just as good though.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

June 2019 I noticed this story received many *** and few *****. For me, this was a *****. I thoroughly enjoyed the twist at the end.