Steven F. Havill Books In Order

Publication Order of Bill Gastner Mystery Books

Publication Order of Posadas County Mystery Books

Publication Order of Dr. Thomas Parks Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Steven F. Havill is a famous American writer who was born in 1945 in New York, United States. He has become popular for authoring westerns and mysteries. He has also written two thrilling series that revolve around police procedures. These seem to have become quite popular for many readers and are set on a fictional county in New Mexico known as Posadas. Steve is married to Kathleen and they both live in Datil, New Mexico.

Having gotten his education at the University of New Mexico, Steven developed a passion for writing at an early age and eventually decided to become an author. He graduated with M.A and a B.A from the university. He is a committed high school teacher and teaches English and Biology. He has held a number of book tours in various cities around the world to promote his works. The two series about police procedures in Posadas are fictional, but have been embraced by millions of readers as real stories. Steven has worked through the years with various publications as a writer and also an agent. He was able to complete his first novel in 1981 and has not looked back since then. Mysteries and the westerns are the main genres that Steven seems to thrive in.

He started with four novels of the American West, with his first novel being, The Killer. However, his star seems to have shone when he ventured into the mystery series. The series was set in a fictional county known as Posadas in New Mexico. The series features Bill Gastner who acts as the Undersheriff and later becomes the sheriff of the county.

Heartshot is the first novel of the series and was written in 1991. Bill is the Undersheriff in Posadas County in New Mexico. The county is known to have a few streets that have notorious people. Bill is a widower and as such, he has nothing else to do with his life besides law enforcement. He has kept the county in check until one day when disaster strikes. A car full of teens, speeding into the county, crashes into the rocky outcrop and all the five kids die on the spot. Upon scrutiny, cocaine is discovered under the seat. Could this be a new wave of crime in the county?

The Undersheriff has grieving parents to handle and there is so much tension in the county. One of the parents packs and uses his gun to kill one of the cops, and this puts the entire police force under pressure. The sheriff is forced to put to put together a team that will handle this incident effectively. The only challenge in the team is having Bill who seems to be feeble, but will not bow out. In most cases, he will not heed to the advice and does work with other team players. He takes the case into his own hands and this seems to make matters quite complicated. The fate of the cop and the killer still remains undecided.
The story is narrated by septuagenarian Undersheriff Bill, who is conscious about his advancing age. He seems to have trust issues with Martin Holman, the newly elected sheriff of the county. When the incident that kills the youngsters happens, one of the parents ends up shooting an undercover cop and all these factors push Bill to having a heart attack.

In an unforeseen twist of event, the skills of Holman and Bill expose the drug-smuggling syndicate that is taking place in the county. Detective Estelle Reyes is part of the formidable team that unearths this scandalous operation. At the end of the entire exercise, Bill feels that he has gained a new lease of life and is now committed to fighting crime more than ever.

The second book of the Bill Gastner Mystery series is Bitter Recoil, which was written by Steven F. Havill in 1992. In this second book, Bill is already aging and decides to take a vacation in the northern mountains. This is a strategy to evade his medical providers who wish to that he would reform. He uses the opportunity to reunite with Estelle Reyes, who is working in the San Estevan County. Just as he arrives at the Steamboat Rock Campground, all his vacation plans are thwarted by sirens. All over sudden the Bill, Estelle and her husband are facing a lifeless body a young woman who is pregnant.

The initial assumption is that she was involved in an accident. After medical examination, they realize that she had been thrown out of a moving vehicle after attempted rape. Bill tries to remind himself that he is on vacation, but the four other murders that follow cause him to step into action to bring law and order into this county. He had taken a vacation after a bypass surgery and is already 62 years old, which means that he should be taking things easy.

The book is written in an uncommon setting of the rural New Mexico and has many twists and unexpected surprises. When the young victim dies, there are a couple of suspects, including a priest and the girl’s lover. Bill agrees to help his former deputy to investigate the case and hopefully stop the killing menace in the county. The young lady is known as Cecilia Burgess and was thrown out of a moving vehicle by five teens who had tried to rape her. The five youngsters start being killed one after another and fortunately one victim survives. This is the channel that Estelle and Bill explore and eventually close in on the killer. A series of gun shots come to play and this renews Bill’s zeal to keep working as a law enforcer.

This is a second book ends on a very high note, with the Posadas County mystery series gaining momentum. This is where the action has just begun and there is so much more to get from Bill Gastener. Steven F. Havill has so much to offer to his audience in terms of the countless novels that he keeps writing. None of the books have disappointed the readers.