One Perfect Shot

October 31, 2011
Fans of Havill’s fine multicultural procedural series set in Posadas County, N.Mex., will welcome the unusual 17th entry (after 2011’s Double Prey), a prequel set in 1987. Undersheriff Bill Gastner, the series lead introduced in 1991’s Heartshot, first meets beautiful 19-year-old Estelle Reyes-Guzman, who took over the lead role in 2002’s Scavengers, when Sheriff Eduardo Salcido proposes hiring her as a deputy. Reyes’s initial ride-along with Gastner begins a mutually beneficial mentor relationship as they investigate the puzzling murder of road grader Larry Zipoli, who was shot dead while he sat in his vehicle. Gastner shows himself to be an excellent teacher as he explains how the department works, and the observant Reyes proves herself a quick study as they check out Zipoli’s wife, neighbors, boss, fellow workers, and the youngsters Zipoli liked to take boating. This solid installment is the perfect introduction for new readers.

April 9, 2012
An animal rescue mission kick starts Littlewood’s engaging third “zoo-dunit” starring spunky Vancouver, Wash., zookeeper Iris Oakley (after 2010’s Did Not Survive). At the behest of Iris’s boss at the Finley Memorial Zoo, Iris and co-worker Denny Stellar head to a desolate meth lab/pot farm recently busted by the DEA, where they find dozens of poorly cared-for exotic birds and endangered tortoises, what looks to be the inventory for a wildlife smuggling operation. Then Iris makes a truly shocking discovery: a murdered teenage girl. Though many single parents with full-time jobs would be happy to let the authorities hunt those responsible, Iris isn’t one of them—and her snooping quickly puts both her and her toddler son in jeopardy. Iris’s attempts to find romance lend some human interest, but Littlewood, herself a onetime zookeeper, remains most compelling when focusing on creatures of the furred and feathered variety.

November 1, 2011

Grab this prequel to Havill's winning New Mexico-set series (Double Prey) to learn how Undersheriff Bill Gastner first met his new deputy, Estelle Reyes.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2012
Undersheriff Bill Gastner of Posadas County, N.M., meets Estelle Reyes, the once-and-future undersheriff, in a welcome, well-wrought prequel. The 18th entry in this sturdy series (Double Prey, 2011, etc.) begins with Gastner keeping the lid on a volatile population prone to impropriety, mostly homicide--a task that passed to Reyes eight novels ago, leaving Gastner to materialize from time to time as counselor, comforter and loving godfather to Reyes' children. A 10-year trip to the past finds Gastner just as grizzled, potbellied, appreciative of a well-built burrito, and shrewd as a detective. Reyes, now 21, whom Gastner last saw when she was a tyke of 11, is the new department hire. Since she's not Gastner's choice, readers new to the franchise might well expect an outbreak of resentment. But Reyes proves irresistible: poised, respectful and extraordinarily pleasant to look at. She and Gastner click at once, a good thing indeed, since the freshly minted deputy has come on board just in time to help with a baffling murder case. Someone has fired a bullet into the middle of Larry Zipoli's forehead while he was at work grading a county road, and the ballistics simply don't add up. What unfolds is not so much a whodunit as a how-on-earth-did-it-get-done. Gastner and Reyes charm from the get-go.

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December 1, 2011
Larry Zipoli runs a road grader in Posadas County, New Mexico. He appears to have lived a straight-arrow life. So why, Posadas County undersheriff Bill Gastner asks himself, would someone blow Zipoli's brains out with a single bullet? Was it an incredible shot (fired at long distance) or an unlucky stray by someone target-shooting on the plain? The eighteenth Posadas County mystery is a prequel that introduces the formidable Estelle Reyes to county law enforcement. Longtime series fans know Reyes moved up the hierarchy until ascending to the sheriff's position after Gastner's retirement. Here, just a youngster fresh from college, she displays the quiet insight that will solve many a case in years to come. Zipoli, Reyes learns, wasn't quite the saint he seemed. He had a drinking problem and attracted a crew of underage kids, lured by free beer. Is there a motive in that? Gastner and Reyes complement each other well in an entertaining preview of a decades-long partnership. A welcome entry in an always satisfying series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)