Convenient Disposal [Audio CD]

Steven F. Havill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 2005

A Posadas County Mystery. To most people, hat pins are vestiges of the past, used now only by elderly ladies who don't leave home without a hat. But recently, the notion store in Posadas County has been doing a good business selling hat pins to teenage girls. Following a "cat fight" over a boy, one of the girls, Carmen Acosta, has been suspended from school. But Carmen's friends are still around. So Deena, Carmen's rival, wants somthing with which to defend herself. Not long aferward, Posadas County Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman is called to Carmen's home. When she arrives, Carmen's father, is in police custody and an unconscious Carmen is on the way to the hospital "beat to a pulp." It is of course, hard to belive that young Deena is responsible. Estelle has many other suspects to choose from, since the Acosta family holds the record for the number of domestic violence calls the police have received. The question is, which of the other four children, or which parent is responsible? Or is there someone else entirely? Read by Stephanie Brush. 8 CD's 8.4 Hrs.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Homophobia, politics and perilous teenage rivalries make for an absorbing smalltown procedural, Havill's 12th novel in his Posadas County series. When Carmen Acosta, a middle-school tough girl, is severely beaten and stabbed in the ear with a hat pin, her brutalization may or may not have something to do with the disappearance of her neighbor Kevin Ziegler, the county manager, an honest and effective administrator who is keeping a few secrets from his constituents. The smell of cigarettes and liquor in the health-conscious Ziegler's truck lead Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman to a thrilling, bullet-riddled climax, a startling but artful departure from the novel's unhurried, Southwestern pace. Reyes-Guzman is a tough but tender cop, and Havill writes deftly and sensitively about both her work persona and home life, which provides a gentle, amusing counterpoint to the violence. Longtime readers of the series will be happy to see that Havill's retired protagonist, Sheriff Bill Gaston, is still on the periphery, but the undersheriff has proved herself a worthy successor in this third novel since Havill turned the spotlight on her; she's young, smart and dedicated, and she has a nose for solving crimes. Of course, the real protagonist is Posadas County, a troubled but endearing locale that readers will want to visit time and again.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

There is very little coincidence in small towns. Posadas County, New Mexico, undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman learned the lesson in small, sometimes painful increments over the years. When middle-school student Carmen Mauro is bludgeoned into a coma, and her next-door neighbor, Kevin Ziegler, disappears, the undersheriff knows the incidents are related, but she can't find the connection. Ziegler, the county manager, was gay, had a good relationship with the Mauro family, and was well respected in the community. The Mauro girl was in the midst of a feud with another student over the affections of a local heartthrob, but her rival was in school at the time of the assault. Who saw whom do what to connect the two strands? The eleventh entry in the Posadas County series is as intelligent, carefully plotted, and insightful as its predecessors. The original star of the series, former undersheriff Bill Gastner, drifts in and out of the action these days, but Havill has successfully switched the focus to Reyes-Guzman and her struggle to balance a young family and an all-consuming career. An outstanding series on all levels. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Books In Motion (September 15, 2005)
• ISBN-10: 1596073659
• ISBN-13: 978-1596073654
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,372,087 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific investigative thriller, November 16, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Convenient Disposal: A Posadas County Mystery (Posadas County Mysteries) (Hardcover)

In Posadas County, New Mexico following a volleyball game, middle school students Carmen Acosta and Deena Hurtado got into a fight over Paul Otero. Both fourteen year old girls were suspended. A few days later, Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman lectures honor student Deena, but also confiscates a potential weapon a sharpened six inch hat pin. Estelle reads Deena the riot act; case closed. Not long after that, Carmen is beaten unconscious with a stab wound to the middle ear that came from a honed hat pin. Estelle has doubts that a skinny young teen could have inflicted the brutal beating.

While Carmen is in the hospital, her neighbor County manager Kevin Ziegler vanishes. Estelle notices discrepancies between the image Kevin portrayed to his constituency as effective and efficient on the job and health living off the job; yet she finds evidence that he probably smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol or someone with him did. As Estelle continues to search for the missing administrator she wonders if the vicious teen thrashing is linked to Kevin's disappearance, but how seems elusive.

In her third appearance as the lead (retired Sheriff Bill Gaston still makes appearances and provides advice), Estelle proves she is a superstar in her own light as she easily carries the tale. Perhaps the New Mexico setting that Steven F. Havill brings so vividly to light made the transition so smooth; but more likely it is simply the author's talent. The story line is actually different than previous tales as the plot goes into hyperspeed and stays there throughout the action-packed thriller. CONVENIENT DISPOSAL is a terrific refreshing entry in one of the best police procedural series around today.

Harriet Klausner

2.0 out of 5 stars Inappropriate, annoying reading, June 2, 2006

By 

curtis martin (Redmond, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Convenient Disposal (Audio CD)

I have to admit that I couldn't get through the first disc of this book. And I use books on cd to help me get through a long commute each day, so you know I had to be really annoyed to just take the disc out of the player. The story was shaping up to be interesting, but Stephanie Brush's reading of it was incredibly inappropriate and annoying. It was inappropriate because the story takes place in New Mexico and has mostly hispanic American characters and Brush voices them all as though they are in Fargo, North Dakota. I kept expecting one of the hispanic characters to say "Ya' sure, you betcha" at any moment. The way Brush regularly clips "d"s into "t"s in that Marge Gunderson kind of way that just doesn't scream "New Mexico" to me.

I mean, Brush did go to the trouble to create marginally different vocal characteristics for each of the characters, so why use the wrong accents for them all? Better to have read it flat.

And even when the Fargo-itis isn't in full bloom, Brush, a veteren of many, many recorded books so the package says, reads the story in a clipped, singsong, iambic pentameter fashion that drives me crazy. Da-dut da-dut da-dut da-dut da dut dut you betcha.

Guess I'll have to break down and actually READ the book to see what happens.

3.0 out of 5 stars Real life mystery given context, January 30, 2006

By 

C. Blanc "Chris Blanc" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Convenient Disposal: A Posadas County Mystery (Posadas County Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Havill does what has best been done by two female authors - Dell Shannon and Sue Grafton - which is to get inside the normal lives of people who confront a violent crime. In this book, he does it by thrusting us into the immediate concerns of his characters, which is a relatively benign incident threatening violence, and then letting our consciousness slowly leak into a more symbolic form of brutal violence... the characters are meant to be real people in real situations, even if not all the details are lifelike, and in that, this book is a work of closely perceived life. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a brainy but realistic (no pretzel plots) mystery thriller.