"Sheriff Bill Gastner knows his Posadas, NM, 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's more to this "accident" than meets the eye. Adding to his problems, anonymous letters charging his best deputy, Tom Pasquale, with hustling Mexican nationals for cash are being dispatched around town. Gastner takes this one personally;...

Undersheriff Bill Gastner finds his cranky ancient neighbor Florencio Apodaca has borrowed a bit of land to bury his equally ancient wife--and the dead woman's stepson questions if she died a natural death.

What do you do when you inherit $330 million after taxes? If you're New Mexico rancher Miles Waddell, you build NightZone, an astronomy-based theme park. Waddell's dream begins to sour when two eco-terrorists make an opening statement by chain-sawing power lines that feed the development. One of the terrorists is killed by a bucking power pole. When fleeing conspirator is stopped by a cop and guns the lawman down, retired Posadas Sheriff Gastner becomes...

Undersheriff Bill Gastner has no other life than in law enforcement--and doesn't want one, even if hes being nudged gently toward retirement. When a car full of teens, running from a traffic stop, goes airborne into a rocky outcrop, all of the teens are killed and a package of cocaine is found under the seat. Has someone brought big-time crime to the county?

In New Mexico, Undersheriff Bill Gastner investigates the death of a real estate agent with the help of Estelle Reyes-Guzman, the prime suspect's niece.

"When a county employee is found shot to death in sun-drenched daylight while sitting in his county road grader, Undersheriff Bill Gastner is faced with puzzling questions. The simplest explanation--that an errant bullet from a careless target shooter's rifle blew out Larry Zipoli's brains--is soon discarded as inconsistencies surface. The fatal bullet shows no rifling marks, and investigation reveals that the shooter walked directly toward the road...

"Former Posadas County Sheriff Bill Gastner, now a New Mexico Livestock Inspector, is enjoying a day on Herb Torrance's ranch--soaking in the sun as he counts a small herd of cattle and thinking about an upcoming lunch with an old friend back in town. But a light breeze stirs dust, a horse spooks, and Bill finds himself ferrying a broken cowpuncher in the back of his SUV, headed out to meet an ambulance. Moments later, Bill's day goes from bad to...