Heartshot
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Posadas County, New Mexico, has very few mean streets and no city-slick cop shop. But it has an earnest, elected Sheriff and his aging Undersheriff - William C. Gastner. Pushing sixty, widower Bill has no other life than in law enforcement - and doesn't want one, even if he's being nudged gently toward retirement. Then big time trouble strikes.
A car full of teens, running from a stop by Deputy Torrez, goes air-borne into a rocky outcrop, killing all five kids and revealing a package of cocaine under the seat. Has someone brought big-time crime to the county?
Bill is now dealing with grieving parents - one of whom starts packing a gun. Then a second explosion of violence fells an undercover cop.
Under pressure, the sheriff's department pulls together to make a formidable team. Its weak spot may be Bill whose mind is too tough to crumble but whose body, long mistreated, gradually succumbs to stress. Ignoring all advice - and sense - he pilots the case to a final dramatic, midair confrontation where the fate of the killer - and the cop - will be decided...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Septuagenarian undersheriff Bill Gastner of Posadas County, N.M., is the skeptical, endearing narrator of this mystery debut by a writer of Westerns ( Timberblood ). Conscious of advancing age and his bulging waistline, Gastner distrusts both computers and the skills of newly elected sheriff Martin Holman, a former used-car salesman. When a large stash of cocaine is found in the car of five teenagers killed in a crash, local officials are stymied. A young state cop is brought in to mingle with the victims's friends, posing as Gastner's grandson. In short order, a grief-stricken father shoots the undercover cop, a moody teenager dies in a suspicious ``suicide,'' and Gastner has a heart attack. Eventually Gastner, the surprisingly capable Holman and detective Estelle Reyes expose a complicated drug-smuggling operation. Airplanes, real and model, loom large in the denouement and the climactic flying sequence is a corker. If the villain's identity is not surprising, readers still will enjoy this caper and look forward to future appearances of curmudgeonly charmer Gastner.
