Book Review: Bag Limit

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Bag Limit     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Steven F. Havill
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Police Procedural
Series: Bill Gastner # 9
St. Martin’s, Nov 2001, $24.95, 336 pp.

Sheriff Bill Gastner of Posedas County, New Mexico is apprehensive yet happy because in seventy-two hours an election to replace him is to occur. Bill is elated about retiring, but worries whether his under-sheriff Bob Torrez will become his replacement, as the man deserves the job.

Bill refuses to sit back and rest on his laurels. An underage DUI drives escapes from custody, but runs right into a tractor-trailer. The dead teen possessed a real driver’s license claiming he was over twenty-one. The next day, someone kills the boy’s father. As Bill investigates, he wonders why a border agent shows so much interest in the two deaths.

The Sheriff Gastner police procedurals are all interesting, but this one is particularly fascinating as readers gain an in-depth look at border town life. The well-executed mystery is an enigma that keeps the audience off kilter, but the heart of BAG LIMIT remains as ever with the protagonist, a septuagenarian law enforcement official who has the stamina of someone five decades younger.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner