cover image Final Payment: A Posadas County Mystery

Final Payment: A Posadas County Mystery

Steven F. Havill, . . St. Martin's Minotaur/Dunne, $23.95 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-312-35415-2

In Havill's satisfying fifth Posadas County puzzler (after 2006's Statute of Limitations ), undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman and her colleagues discover three Hispanics shot to death, execution-style, at a remote New Mexico airstrip. Judging by the victims' soft hands, well-dressed appearance and airborne arrival, these are no ordinary illegals, and it's up to the sheriff's department to determine who's behind the crime. Meanwhile, a local reports his plane as having logged unexplained airtime. A Mexican exchange student's watercolor artwork lends the first clue to the puzzle, and the resulting answer astounds even the well-seasoned undersheriff. Estelle suspects she knows the next victim, and her attempt to stop the death toll lands her face-to-face with this calculating killer. Havill takes the reader through an all-terrain investigation to an edge-of-your-seat finale. (June)