Orem Library

"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."--Jacket.

"Bill Gastner, Undersheriff of Posadas County, New Mexico, is about to lose his valuable deputy when she goes to Minnesota with her doctor husband. Then his life becomes even more complicated when his boss, the sheriff, dies in a private plane crash piloted by his brother-in-law. Questions about why the men were flying (the sheriff hated to fly), especially in bad weather are overshadowed when the coroner finds that the pilot was killed by gun shots...

What do you do when you inherit $330 million after taxes? If you're New Mexico rancher Miles Waddell, you build NightZone, an astronomy-based theme park. Waddell's dream begins to sour when two eco-terrorists make an opening statement by chain-sawing power lines that feed the development. One of the terrorists is killed by a bucking power pole. When fleeing conspirator is stopped by a cop and guns the lawman down, retired Posadas Sheriff Gastner becomes...

A well seasoned sixty-nine, Sheriff Bill Gastner knows his Posadas, New Mexico, territory as well as he understands the foibles of the human condition. So when a backhoe crushes a man to death, it's more instinct than fact that leaves him feeling there's more to this "accident" than meets the eye. Adding to his problems, anonymous letters charging his best deputy, Tom Pasquale, with hustling Mexican nationals for cash are being dispatched around town....

When Bill Gastner retired, Robert Torrez took over the top spot. But what were Torrez's first days as a rookie officer like? Terrible! It's 1986. Undersheriff Bill Gastner hastens to the interstate exit where a violent crash has occurred. The vehicle struck the support pillars; it is totaled and the driver and a passenger crushed inside; a dead boy has been ejected. The first deputy to join him at the scene is rookie Robert Torrez, the department's...

One blizzardy New Mexico night, Posadas County Deputy Pasquale picks up a toddler scooting his Scamper along the shoulder of State 56. Yes, it's horrifying - a child apparently dumped out of a truck by his father. Nearly as horrifying is what unrolls while Christmas approaches after dad Darrell Fisher's arrest: a request arrives from the US Forest Service to locate a missing range tech and his unit last reported headed for nearby Stinkin' Springs,...

When a county employee is found shot to death in broad daylight while sitting in his county road grader, Undersheriff Bill Gastner is faced with puzzling questions. In addition to the demands of the investigation, Gastner learns a new deputy has been hired, who is destined to be the first female road patrol deputy in the history of Posadas County.