Statute Of Limitations

by Steven F. Havill Narrated by Stephanie Brush

Overview

It's Christmas in Posadas County, and Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman is settling down to a quiet evening with her family and friend ex-Sheriff Bill Gastner, that is until her doctor husband gets a disturbing call. Retired chief-of-police Eduardo Martinez is calling from a nearby motel where he is having chest pains. Not nine minutes later Estelle gets a call that there has been an incident at the same motel. Estelle and ex-Sheriff Bill Gastner, arrive at the motel parking lot to find it has turned into a crime scene, and the body of the retired chief-of-police is at the center. It appears that Eduardo had an exchange with two men and then collapsed while the men took off in his car. An out-of-town couple are the only witnesses...but their story doesn't ring true.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Things go from bad to worse in Posadas, N.Mex., at the start of Havill's appealing fourth Posadas County mystery (after 2004's Convenient Disposal). First, Chief of Police Eduardo Martinez suffers a heart attack while confronting car thieves on Christmas eve; Sheriff Robert Torrez has a pulmonary embolism Christmas morning; a deputy's fiancee is murdered that afternoon; and former sheriff Bill Gastner is brutally attacked that night. It's enough for under-sheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman to keep up with the medical reports, never mind track down the perps. As Estelle races from crime scene to hospital to home and back again, she's keenly aware of time slipping away and with it the criminals. The initial flood of characters and Estelle having to deal with her musically gifted son, Fernando, may make newcomers feel as if they've walked into the middle of a movie. But once Havill gets into the police work, the story becomes more focused. Descriptions are as spare as the Southwest desert, and the action gallops along to a satisfyingly thrilling ending. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

"It's the Christmas from hell," says a hard-pressed deputy from Posadas County (N.M.), and Under-sheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman, his usually unflappable boss, is not disposed to argue. Holiday rituals are interrupted, travel plans put on hold and groaning boards left piled with comfort food as the entire Posadas County PD turns out to cope with a sudden influx of mayhem and murder, much of it dismayingly close to home. Plucked from the bosom of her family, Estelle (Convenient Disposal, 2004, etc.) finds herself staring down at the inert form of retired police chief Eduardo Martinez. Two men, strangers, were seen in angry confrontation with him. Vanished now, they've left the gentle old cop comatose. Next, Janet Tripp, the beloved of young deputy Mike Sisneros, is discovered in a parking lot, a bullet in her head. And when someone sneaks up on former Sheriff Bill Gastner to clobber him within an inch of his life, Estelle wonders if it's open season on Posadas County law enforcement. But why? Though she has nothing but gut to go on, she's convinced her answers are rooted in her small town's history. In close-knit Posadas County, where everyone knows everyone's business, it turns out that some people can bury secrets, and some secrets are murderous. A series that still feels freshly minted.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171712914
Publisher:	Books in Motion
Publication date:	02/15/2006
Series:	Posadas County , #4
Edition description:	Unabridged

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