Bill Gastner Mystery

New Mexico Undersheriff Bill Gastner is presented with a case that appears to have brought big time crime, including drug gangs, into Posadas County.

Aging Undersheriff Bill Gastner's vacation is interrupted by the dead body of a young woman, apparently thrown from a moving car.  Other murders convince the Undersheriff to lend a hand.

Undersheriff Bill Gastner knows that the dead bodies on Reuben Fuentes' ranch cannot point to the old man.  Gastner summons former deputy Estelle Reyes for help.

When a reporter for the Posadas Register barely survives a night-time patrol with one of Undersheriff Bill Gastner's deputies, the investigation points to a young woman known for her thrill-seeking.

Wesley Crocker is accused of the murder of young Maria Ibarra, who was found near the "camping place" of the drifter. Crocker's account of the previous night leads Undersheriff Bill Gastner to more troubling questions.

The disappearance of a young camper atop Cat Mesa convinces Undersheriff Bill Gastner and Estelle Reyes-Guzman that the boy has been spirited away.

Sheriff Martin Holman of the Posadas County Sheriff's Department didn't like flying, much less at night, with bad weather. So why he took a plane ride over a nearby mesa under those dangerous conditions is a question as disturbing as why somebody shot the pilot dead from the ground - causing the plane to crash. Undersheriff Bill Gastner, a 60-something warhorse just months away from retirement, now has a murder on his hands. The only possible lead is a roll of film, and with it, Gastner is determined to find out what the late Sheriff Holman was up to. Following his sharp instincts and a tenacity born of long years as a cop, he uncovers a scheme of illegal doings and nasty buried secrets. Unfortunately, it could make his biggest case his last.

A well-seasoned 69, Sheriff Bill Gastner knows his Posadas, New Mexico, territory as well as he understands the foibles of the human condition. So when a backhoe crushes a man to death, it's more instinct than fact that leaves him feeling there is more to this "accident" than meets the eye.

Bill Gastner, the reluctant sheriff of Posadas County, New Mexico, anticipates his last few days in office will be uneventful. That is, until local teen Matt Baca drives drunkenly into the back of Gastner's cruiser.