What do you think?
Rate this book
Bill Gastner Mystery #7
Out of Season
Elderly Undersherrif Bill Gastner, in Posadas County, New Mexico, is about to lose his vaulable deputy when she goes to Minnesota with her doctor husband. But his life becomes far more complicated than the loss of Estelle when his boss, the sheriff, dies in a private plane crash piloted by his brother-in-law. Questions about why the men were flying (the sheriff hated to fly) in bad weather are overshadowed when the coroner finds that the pilot was killed by gun shots from the ground through the bottom of the plane, and the sheriff could not pilot it down safely.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published October 13, 1999
125 people are currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
Steven F. Havill
37 books255 followersSteven 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
July 11, 2017
This is another sterling entry in Steven F. Havill's Posadas County mystery series. The author has put so much life into this fictional county in southwestern New Mexico that you'd swear it was real-- and if it were, I'd want to go for a visit.
Out of Season covers a lot of ground. It shows us ranchers trying to survive when money is every bit as scarce as water but those bills still have to be paid. It shows us a tiny sheriff's department trying to subsist on a shoestring budget at a time when employees are getting good job offers from law enforcement agencies with a lot more money-- and now the death of the sheriff is going to have a profound impact on everyone there. Of course, life would not be complete without a bit of meddling from members of the City Council.
The setting isn't the only strength to this series. The cast of characters is superb. If characterization means a lot to you when you read mysteries then you have to get your hands on this Posadas County series. These characters are most definitely not static. They grow, they change, they have health problems, they get married, they move... everything you and I do, well, they do it, too. When you read these books, you're making friends. (So what if they're fictional?)
The only quibble I have with Out of Season is that the story relied too much on the technical aspects and not enough on the characters, but that's not about to stop me from reading the next installment. Bring it on!
Out of Season covers a lot of ground. It shows us ranchers trying to survive when money is every bit as scarce as water but those bills still have to be paid. It shows us a tiny sheriff's department trying to subsist on a shoestring budget at a time when employees are getting good job offers from law enforcement agencies with a lot more money-- and now the death of the sheriff is going to have a profound impact on everyone there. Of course, life would not be complete without a bit of meddling from members of the City Council.
The setting isn't the only strength to this series. The cast of characters is superb. If characterization means a lot to you when you read mysteries then you have to get your hands on this Posadas County series. These characters are most definitely not static. They grow, they change, they have health problems, they get married, they move... everything you and I do, well, they do it, too. When you read these books, you're making friends. (So what if they're fictional?)
The only quibble I have with Out of Season is that the story relied too much on the technical aspects and not enough on the characters, but that's not about to stop me from reading the next installment. Bring it on!
February 2, 2021
This is another very well-written contribution to this series. Following the crash of a small plane that kills two men, Undersheriff Gastner and his department try to understand what caused the crash, and why the two men were circling over the two ranches in the northern part of Posadas County. Gastner continues to depend heavily on his detective Estelle, but she is soon to relocate to Minnesota with her husband. The author does an excellent job at describing the setting in southwest New Mexico, and at creating the feel of a small town near the border.
October 4, 2021
Well depicted characters make this one a winner!
The mystery is not all that mysterious. No international criminal ring threatens. National Security and the fate of the free world do not depend on what happens in Posadas County, New Mexico and its tired and ready to retire Undersheriff Bill Gastner. That, of course, is the charm and strength of Out of Season .
Posadas County, New Mexico's small sheriff''s department suffers the loss of its well-intentioned but inexperienced Sheriff in a plane accident - except it looks like it was not an accident after all - the pilot was shot before he crashed. Undersheriff Gastner looks into the private investigation that the Sheriff was looking into and finds that his inexperienced boss may have had good instincts after all.
First, let me praise what Havill does best in this book - character development. Gastner is a tired old horse who is ready to go out to pasture but when duty calls the value of his years of experience (more than anything else) move Federal, state and local authorities towards finding out who has killed Sheriff Martin Holmann. He is a restraining hand on the young pups, a prod to the confused and a sounding board to the others.
This is my first Havill book. You do not have to start the series at the beginning and I give this one 5 stars out of 5.
http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/
*******
Note: I found this book as an audiobook and forgot that I had already read it 8.5 years ago
Here is my new review:
A Review of the Audiobook
Published in 2008 by Books In Motion.
Originally published in 1999.
Read by Rusty Nelson.
Duration: 8 hours, 56 minutes.
Unabridged.
Things are not going well for Undersheriff Bill Gastner, the second in command of the Posadas County Sheriff Department in southern New Mexico. He is planning to retire in a few months and the person he had hoped he woudl succeed him is moving out of state. He found out another officer has applied to a much larger department where there are more opportunities.
Things get even worse, though. A woman that most would consider more than a little mentally off balance calls the department and says that she has seen a struggling small plane disappear behind a mesa near her home. She says that it must have crashed. When a deputy checks it out, he spots wreckage. When they finally get close they find two bodies - and one of them is the Sheriff, a man who notoriously hates to ride in planes.
When Gastner and the department start to dig into what happened, they find more than they ever bargained for...
Rusty Nelson has read most if not all of the audiobooks in this series. I have read or listened to most of them. His folksy tone of voice goes well with Bill Gastner. Since the book is told from Gastner's point of view, that works out well.
Gastner continues to be a lovable grump. His age-related physical limitations encourage him use his head rather than charge blindly into a situation. He continues his insomniac ways while he guzzles coffee and takes any chance to sit down at the Don Juan Restaurant and eat a plateful of spicy burritos.
My only problem with the book is the character of Estelle Reyes-Guzman. She is always perfect. She is pretty, married to a fantastic guy, has a great family, figures out the case before anyone else, drives better than anyone else and is unfailingly polite. Don't get me wrong - I'd love it if she were a cop in my town, but she is a boring character.
I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.
The mystery is not all that mysterious. No international criminal ring threatens. National Security and the fate of the free world do not depend on what happens in Posadas County, New Mexico and its tired and ready to retire Undersheriff Bill Gastner. That, of course, is the charm and strength of Out of Season .
Posadas County, New Mexico's small sheriff''s department suffers the loss of its well-intentioned but inexperienced Sheriff in a plane accident - except it looks like it was not an accident after all - the pilot was shot before he crashed. Undersheriff Gastner looks into the private investigation that the Sheriff was looking into and finds that his inexperienced boss may have had good instincts after all.
First, let me praise what Havill does best in this book - character development. Gastner is a tired old horse who is ready to go out to pasture but when duty calls the value of his years of experience (more than anything else) move Federal, state and local authorities towards finding out who has killed Sheriff Martin Holmann. He is a restraining hand on the young pups, a prod to the confused and a sounding board to the others.
This is my first Havill book. You do not have to start the series at the beginning and I give this one 5 stars out of 5.
http://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/
*******
Note: I found this book as an audiobook and forgot that I had already read it 8.5 years ago
Here is my new review:
A Review of the Audiobook
Published in 2008 by Books In Motion.
Originally published in 1999.
Read by Rusty Nelson.
Duration: 8 hours, 56 minutes.
Unabridged.
Things are not going well for Undersheriff Bill Gastner, the second in command of the Posadas County Sheriff Department in southern New Mexico. He is planning to retire in a few months and the person he had hoped he woudl succeed him is moving out of state. He found out another officer has applied to a much larger department where there are more opportunities.
Things get even worse, though. A woman that most would consider more than a little mentally off balance calls the department and says that she has seen a struggling small plane disappear behind a mesa near her home. She says that it must have crashed. When a deputy checks it out, he spots wreckage. When they finally get close they find two bodies - and one of them is the Sheriff, a man who notoriously hates to ride in planes.
When Gastner and the department start to dig into what happened, they find more than they ever bargained for...
Rusty Nelson has read most if not all of the audiobooks in this series. I have read or listened to most of them. His folksy tone of voice goes well with Bill Gastner. Since the book is told from Gastner's point of view, that works out well.
Gastner continues to be a lovable grump. His age-related physical limitations encourage him use his head rather than charge blindly into a situation. He continues his insomniac ways while he guzzles coffee and takes any chance to sit down at the Don Juan Restaurant and eat a plateful of spicy burritos.
My only problem with the book is the character of Estelle Reyes-Guzman. She is always perfect. She is pretty, married to a fantastic guy, has a great family, figures out the case before anyone else, drives better than anyone else and is unfailingly polite. Don't get me wrong - I'd love it if she were a cop in my town, but she is a boring character.
I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5.
May 9, 2018
This series is similar to CJ Box's only set in New Mexico instead of Wyoming. Both are great for sense of place and characters that fit the landscape.
January 29, 2021
Bill Gastner, rough around the edges but stellar in the work he does. This green chili burrito loving undersheriff once again kept me glued to the book until I finished
December 2, 2019
Sheriff Holman dies in a plane crash.
March 22, 2020
Set to retire in a few months, Bill Gastner has to take over when Sheriff Marty Holman dies in a small plane crash. The sheriff, who was a former used-car salesman, has never been much of a hands-on investigator. So, what is he doing flying over a remote area of Posadas County and taking photographs of what appears to be nothing but featureless prairie? Although there are quite a few firearms that figure in the story, the book is for lovers of excellently written procedurals rather than car chases and shoot-outs – especially effective in the audio version.
June 21, 2024
Sheriff Martin Holman was never much of a cop. Everybody who worked with him quietly knew that. He was more of a gladhander. He was the guy you went to when you needed to get a federal grant written for a piece of equipment or a vehicle. He was the one you approached when the city council was having difficulty finalizing a law-enforcement budget, and you needed someone who could put that over the top. But he would occasionally dip a finger or even a hand into the business of policing, and when he did, he was better at it than those around him might have realized.
On a summer day, the sheriff and his Canadian brother-in-law fly a small plane over a seemingly nondescript section of the county. Something terrible happens; the plane crashes, and both men die almost instantly. That terrible something turns out to have been a bullet that tore through the bottom of the plane and literally unzipped the pilot’s aorta. The sheriff, not versed in flight, had neither the time nor the experience necessary to save himself.
Naturally, investigators couldn't help but wonder why. What exactly was it about that piece of property that caused the two men to fly over it repeatedly? That's the question Undersheriff Bill Gastner faces as he and his crew dig into the crash site. It's not an easy investigation for the undersheriff. His favorite deputy of all time, the implacable Estelle, is moving to Minnesota for her husband's medical practice. Another officer is only a breath or two away from signing on to another law-enforcement agency that pays better. And now, the sheriff is dead. Gastner's long-hoped-for retirement seems more impossible than ever. Indeed, the city council wants him to take on the role of sheriff until the elections. As he continues his investigation, he encounters all manner of characters. There's the tragically demented woman who saw part of the plane crash. But she can't talk much about it. There's another rancher who has a deep-seated hatred for the federal government in all its iterations. It is he who helps create a rather entertaining ending for this book.
You don't need to read the early books in the series to enjoy this. It's a great way to introduce yourself to the series and then go back and fill in the backlist. I'm glad I read all of them up to now, and I'm looking forward to the next one. The author writes so well that he transports you vividly to a fictional county in southwest New Mexico. I have only driven through the state, but if that county were real, it would be a place where I'd love to stop. I'd try to show up at that local restaurant in time for lunch so I could buy Gastner one of his famous plates of Mexican food. He would be a most interesting lunch companion. It's not likely that he'd say much, but what he did say would have merit and would be worth listening to.
On a summer day, the sheriff and his Canadian brother-in-law fly a small plane over a seemingly nondescript section of the county. Something terrible happens; the plane crashes, and both men die almost instantly. That terrible something turns out to have been a bullet that tore through the bottom of the plane and literally unzipped the pilot’s aorta. The sheriff, not versed in flight, had neither the time nor the experience necessary to save himself.
Naturally, investigators couldn't help but wonder why. What exactly was it about that piece of property that caused the two men to fly over it repeatedly? That's the question Undersheriff Bill Gastner faces as he and his crew dig into the crash site. It's not an easy investigation for the undersheriff. His favorite deputy of all time, the implacable Estelle, is moving to Minnesota for her husband's medical practice. Another officer is only a breath or two away from signing on to another law-enforcement agency that pays better. And now, the sheriff is dead. Gastner's long-hoped-for retirement seems more impossible than ever. Indeed, the city council wants him to take on the role of sheriff until the elections. As he continues his investigation, he encounters all manner of characters. There's the tragically demented woman who saw part of the plane crash. But she can't talk much about it. There's another rancher who has a deep-seated hatred for the federal government in all its iterations. It is he who helps create a rather entertaining ending for this book.
You don't need to read the early books in the series to enjoy this. It's a great way to introduce yourself to the series and then go back and fill in the backlist. I'm glad I read all of them up to now, and I'm looking forward to the next one. The author writes so well that he transports you vividly to a fictional county in southwest New Mexico. I have only driven through the state, but if that county were real, it would be a place where I'd love to stop. I'd try to show up at that local restaurant in time for lunch so I could buy Gastner one of his famous plates of Mexican food. He would be a most interesting lunch companion. It's not likely that he'd say much, but what he did say would have merit and would be worth listening to.
January 15, 2023
A plane crashes in Posadas County, New Mexico - with the sheriff on board. The investigation is tragic but nothing special, until the autopsy discovered that the pilot, the sheriff's brother-in-law, died at the controls when a fragment of a bullet tore open his aorta. Suddenly it's not just a tragedy, it's murder, and Undersheriff Bill Gastner and his small department embark on a highly professional investigation.
But it's not just the clear depiction of procedure that makes this book so good. It's the characters. Gastner's narration is perfect, showing us an older man who knows criminal investigation up, down, and sideways, and is expert at using thin manpower to best advantage gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses. And Posadas County is also a character in the book, at least by my estimation. It comes across, though it's fictional, as more real than some actual locations do in other series. That's how good a writer Steven F. Havill is. His prose is nowhere flashy, but he makes good writing look easy. You see the landscape that he describes, and you feel like you're really there.
It's not just the mysteries that keep me coming back to these books. It's the county itself.
But it's not just the clear depiction of procedure that makes this book so good. It's the characters. Gastner's narration is perfect, showing us an older man who knows criminal investigation up, down, and sideways, and is expert at using thin manpower to best advantage gathering evidence and interviewing witnesses. And Posadas County is also a character in the book, at least by my estimation. It comes across, though it's fictional, as more real than some actual locations do in other series. That's how good a writer Steven F. Havill is. His prose is nowhere flashy, but he makes good writing look easy. You see the landscape that he describes, and you feel like you're really there.
It's not just the mysteries that keep me coming back to these books. It's the county itself.
March 15, 2025
Great Read
Out of Season is one of the best character driven mysteries that I have ever read. Havill takes the utmost care to develop even minor characters. This, along with the scenic descriptions give this book incredible depth. This is simply one of the best mysteries that I have ever read.
Out of Season is one of the best character driven mysteries that I have ever read. Havill takes the utmost care to develop even minor characters. This, along with the scenic descriptions give this book incredible depth. This is simply one of the best mysteries that I have ever read.
June 17, 2021
Sheriff Holman may have a little cop in him after all. While he has had some success on the political front with the city counsel, getting some much needed technical equipment and new patrol vehicles Bill Gastner never saw Holman as a cop.
May 6, 2019
Excellent!
May 13, 2019
May 2019 Quick page turning read.Could be movie!!!!
July 22, 2019
Mystifying situation. As always, a great read.
September 29, 2020
A nice pace with a continuation of the career of Bill Gastner. A little twist at the end, but not one that doesn't fit the plot.
November 25, 2020
An excellent book in one of my favorite series. I especially admire the way this one was resolved not so much by action as by understanding of the people Gastner serves.
January 8, 2021
I had no idea who or what until the end. I just kept reading until all was revealed. Sorry to see an old friend go.
October 6, 2021
Another good entry in the Bill Gastner series of mysteries. It's one of those stories in which the action stretches over several days, but time blurs for the characters and the reader.
April 7, 2022
If the author had not decided to kill off a character I liked, I would give it four stars.Killing the Sheriff just rubbed me the wrong way for some reason.
Read
September 29, 2022An outstanding story. I think this book has been more intense than any of the other so far. I am enjoying this series.
January 23, 2023
I did enjoy it but it kept dragging on for me. Probably my least favorite so far.
April 14, 2023
Unspoiled, curious
June 29, 2023
begins with a sad, but realistic ending for one character. fast- paced!
August 5, 2023
Always a good story and this is no different. A lot going with the characters and this one was a really twisted tale. Another well written story by Steven.
June 1, 2024
So interesting with so many twists. I loved it
August 24, 2024
Such an enjoyable series. Love the characters. Will be reading Book #8 soon.
June 29, 2025
Repetitive.
It seemed as if this book was never going to end. I plan to read the next book in the series.
Thanks for continuing the series.
It seemed as if this book was never going to end. I plan to read the next book in the series.
Thanks for continuing the series.
July 26, 2025
Bill Gastner is always a fun read. However, this mystery seems a bit tedious and with key information excluded. Since I plan on reading the whole series, this was my least favorite so far. However, I've so thoroughly enjoyed the others, I will keep reading.
April 27, 2013
#7 in the Posadas County mysteries. An outstanding entry in an outstanding series. Deputy Estelle Reyes-Guzman, extremely bright and talented, is leaving the Posadas Cty, New Mexico Sheriff's office to follow her doctor husband to his new position in Minnesota. Added to that plot line concerning a popular character, the Sheriff is killed, leaving Undersheriff Bill Gastner to solve the crime. Watching Gastner follow the clues and determine how the crime could have been committed is a pure joy.
Posadas County mystery - Bill Gastner is about to lose his deputy when she goes to MN with her husband. His life becomes more complicated when his boss, the sheriff, dies in a plane crash piloted by his brother-in-law. Questions of why the men were flying in bad weather are overshadowed when the coroner finds that the pilot was killed by gun shots from the ground.
Posadas County mystery - Bill Gastner is about to lose his deputy when she goes to MN with her husband. His life becomes more complicated when his boss, the sheriff, dies in a plane crash piloted by his brother-in-law. Questions of why the men were flying in bad weather are overshadowed when the coroner finds that the pilot was killed by gun shots from the ground.
February 14, 2010
I found this book in a used book shop in Marathon, Texas, (in the middle of nowhere) while on a trip to the Big Bend National Park. I mention it primarily to recommend it as the first in a must-read series for anyone who might like a southwestern police (er, county sheriff) procedural. Set in fictional Posadas County, Steven Havill has created a great set of characters who you want to hear more about. I prefer Havill to Hillerman, another superb Southwestern writer.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews