Bag Limit [Hardcover]

Steven F. Havill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 17, 2001

Parked high on a side road on the flank of the second highest peak in the San Cristobal mountains, peacefully surveying what soon would no longer be his responsibility as a sheriff, almost-seventy Bill Gastner could think that the night would be without incident.

He'd be wrong. He doesn't foresee that a car full of alcohol-inspired adolescents would run into his automobile. Nor that the driver would take off and disappear in the nearby woods. Far from uneventful, this night turns out to be one of the toughest in Bill Gastner's many years as undersheriff and then sheriff in this sparsely populated border area of New Mexico.

Gastner knows the young driver and his family - including the soon-to-be-sheriff, Bobby Torrez. Taken into custody from his home, the prisoner seems far too upset about being arrested. During the trip to the jail he makes a desperate attempt to flee again, an attempt that ends in his being hit and killed by an oncoming truck. Gastner has to dig deep to learn what is behind this tragic overreaction to a serious but unfortunately common DWI arrest.

With the imminent election, the visit of Gastner's former deputy with her surgeon husband and their two very active young ones and the near riot the dead youth's neighbors stage when his father dies suddenly, the sheriff's last few days in office are not as uneventful as he had hoped. But Gastner stoically retrieves the law-enforcement tools he has packed away, including his talent for detection, his diplomacy, and his just plain common sense. He has used them all successfully for many years, and it's a joy to watch him use them one more time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Low-key and laconic to the point of being almost comatose, this latest mystery featuring immensely likable New Mexico Sheriff Bill Gastner (after 2000's Dead Weight) coasts admirably on its folksy charm for most of the rambling narrative. Unfortunately, crime fans with even the slightest taste for action are going to be fidgeting after the first hundred sluggish pages. Bill is days from retirement when Matt Baca, a local teen, drives drunkenly into the back of his police car. Other drunken kids, who are in the car with Matt, are unharmed. Matt takes off, but once caught simmers down. Then he becomes irrationally violent and escapes from custody, only to be hit and killed by an oncoming truck driving close to the edge of the road. The job of telling Matt's father, a career drunk named Sosimo, falls to Gastner the next morning. But that sad conversation never takes place. The boy's father is found dead, perhaps from a heart attack, though there are signs of a struggle in Sosimo's tiny kitchen. For 150 pages after the second death precious little else happens. Gastner's son shows up in a Corvette, the old cop ponders a second career as a livestock inspector in a location apparently rife with rustling, while the mystery of Matt's two state identification cards preys on his mind. One ID is real, and one is clearly a fake. At the close there's a neat conclusion to a case that has ambled along at its own pace, like rolling tumbleweed in a gentle wind. (Nov. 19)novels in the series, Privileged to Kill and Prolonged Exposure.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In this transitional episode in the saga of Bill Gastner, reluctant sheriff of Posadas County, New Mexico, Havill answers two key questions: How will the series continue after Gastner, now 70, retires as sheriff? Will Estelle Guzman, formerly Gastner's second-in-command, return to Posadas and again assume a key role in the series? The answers emerge in the course of Gastner's turbulent last two days in office before his retirement. Prior to turning over the controls to Undersheriff Robert Torrez, Gastner must figure out why teenager Matt Baca was so intent on avoiding arrest for drunken driving that he attempted to escape and wound up being killed by oncoming traffic. Meanwhile, Gastner deals with multiple visitors to his usually tranquil adobe home, including his son and grandson and Guzman and her family. The quiet pleasures of small-town life are again at the center of this appealing series, as Gastner reaffirms his belief that even the encroaching evils of the modern world can be endured with the help of friends, family, and a properly prepared green-chile burrito. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (November 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312251831
• ISBN-13: 978-0312251833
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,010,321 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Series Ends and Another One Begins: Bag Limit, December 20, 2003

By 

Kevin Tipple (Plano, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Bag Limit (Hardcover)

This is eighth and final installment of a very enjoyable series involving Sheriff Bill Gastner and the small county of Posadas, New Mexico. The Sheriff and all the others are back with the Sheriff happily counting down the hours until he gratefully leaves office. He is looking forward to the peace and solitude of his adobe home with absolutely nothing planned to do upon his retirement.

Still an insomniac as much as ever, he relishes taking his police vehicle and driving up in what passes for mountains in his area and contemplating the scene below in the dark hours of the night. From his perch, he sees the beginnings of what appears to be a routine police chase of a drunk driver. However, the driver flees and is soon headed up toward Sheriff Gastner as the vehicle follows the switchback mountain road steadily higher.

Sheriff Gastner happens to be sitting on a small gravel turnoff that few know about and is not visible to traffic on the road. Matt Torrez is the drunk driver of the vehicle containing himself as well as two other teenagers and he knows the little road as well. Thinking that he is going to escape from the fleeing officer, who turns out to be his cousin as well as the most likely new sheriff after the election, Robert Torrez, Matt turns down the little used road.

Before he can stop, he rams Sheriff Gastner's car driving it precariously close to the edge. Matt escalates things further by refusing to surrender and instead, fleeing into the scrub brush where he soon vanishes. His companions are not so fortunate.

Soon, the chase is on to figure out where Matt is and why he is running from a simple traffic stop. Along the way, Sheriff Gastner will also find himself tangled up in a the middle of a cattle rustling case as well as election year politics, family problems, and what to do after he leaves office. To detail more would simply ruin the work as many things in this novel are interconnected as well as connected to previous novels.

This final installment is another very good read and numerous loose ends are tied up. While Mr. Havill does not plow any new ground with these characters, it is a real pleasure to welcome back old friends. After eight books, this reader feels like he has known these character all his life and I will sorely miss this series and its easy familiarity with readers. While this was the final Gastner book, the new series, which started with "Scavengers" has turned out to be a very good read as well.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Old Friends, March 7, 2009

By 

Baregrass "New Mexico Native" (New Mexico, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bag Limit (Worldwide Library Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the last in the Bill Gastner Posadas County Sheriff's Department series and one of the best. I won't add in a lot of detail about the plot as others have done a good job. Steven Havill is one of the best of the New Mexico mystery writers even though he is not as well known as Tony Hillerman or Michael McGarrity. His characters are so well drawn out that as the reader progresses through the series they become good and old friends, the kind that you like to spend a lot of time with. I suggest starting with the first book, "Heartshot", and going right on through the series. The author has continued the series with Estelle Guzman, a Posadas County Sheriff's Deputy and Gastner's good friend, as the main character. Havill just keeps on getting better and better. His novels leave the reader with a good, warm feeling.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do you ever wonder...?, February 7, 2007

By 

DWD "DWD's Reviews" (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Bag Limit (Hardcover)

Do you ever wonder why some authors make it to the big time, while other, more talented authors don't?

Well, I can name you a dozen big-time mystery writers who made it to the top that don't really belong there. Meanwhile, Steven Havill's Bill Gastner series cruises right along in relative obscurity.

Do yourself a favor - check out this interesting series. Think of burrito-loving, coffee-guzzling 70-year old insomniac Sherrif Bill Gastner as the Anglo version of Tony Hillerman's Lt. Joe Leaphorn and you've got a good idea of how good this series is.

Rather than go into plot details, let me just say that this book is probably not the book to start the series with. However, it is an entertaining read. Character development is at the heart of this series.

I give this one a grade of A