Privileged to Kill - Hardcover

More trouble has winged into New Mexico's Posadas County, this time on the heels of rolling stone Wesley Crocker, whom Undersheriff Bill Gastner gives a lift into town when he meets him on the road wheeling his crippled bicycle. But a flat tire is the least of Crocker's problems. After bedding down for the night under the stars on the school athletic field, he's in the lockup by morning for questioning about the death of shoplifting teenager Maria Elena Ibarra, whose body was dumped less than a hundred yards from his bedroll--all, he mildly insists, without disturbing him. And even though the autopsy reveals that Maria had accidentally choked to death on a slice of pizza, Crocker's troubles--and Bill's--are far from over. Maria's shiftless uncle knocks back a snootful of sherry fortified with enough extra alcohol to send him to sleep for good; a grisly road accident will leave another student dead; and Crocker will be turned loose in time to get into more trouble himself. What's behind this rash of untimely deaths, and what does it all have to do with the harmless drifter? Underneath the low-key, high-casualty plot, Havill's fifth (Before She Dies, p. 176, etc.) quietly continues a project virtually unique in detective fiction: anchoring his tales of crime and punishment as closely as possible in the rhythms of small-town friends, routines, and calamities. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Bill Gastner can't sleep, eats way too much Mexican food and seems headed for a stroke. But in his fifth adventure (after Before She Dies), the aging undersheriff of Posadas County, N.M., labors 'round the clock to solve the mysterious death of a 15-year-old girl. Maria Ibarra's body was found under the high-school football field bleachers. The first suspect is Wesley Crocker, an itinerant bicyclist whom Gastner, out of kindness, had treated to a meal the previous night. Gastner feels certain that Crocker is innocent, a notion confirmed when an unknown motorist tries to run down the cyclist. Vanessa Davila, a friend of Maria's, flees when police question her. Then a bright, popular student is killed in a suspicious car accident. Like Gastner, readers may feel stymied until the last evidence turns up, but there is a cleverly planted clue in the early pages. A strong sense of place and tough but compassionate characters distinguish this series. Gastner and his valued friend, deputy Estelle Reyes-Guzman, pull the case together, while Estelle and her doctor husband urge the undersheriff to start caring for himself.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.