PROLONGED EXPOSURE

Undersheriff Bill Gastner feels he’s going crazy sitting idle while recuperating from heart surgery. Dreaming of green chili, he is released by a phone call from home.
His house has been burglarized, and his cranky ancient neighbor Florencio Apodaca has borrowed a bit of land to bury his equally ancient wife.
The dead woman’s stepson questions if she died a natural death. Meanwhile a young boy camping out has vanished from atop Cat Mesa.

A careful search convinces Bill and Estelle Reyes-Guzman that the boy has been spirited away.
“Not only does Havill offer a melancholy reinterpretation of the grand western myth of the slow-talking, fast-thinking lawman.

He also writes crisp, marvelously detailed police procedurals with a mix of technical know-how, and informed common sense to get things done.” — Booklist