Featured Author - April 2009

Steven F. Havill

Born in upstate New York and now based in Ratón, novelist Steven F. Havill has written 15 mystery novels set in the fictional New Mexico county of Posadas. His first series followed Sheriff Bill Gastner’s exploits in real time. Soon, Gastner’s sidekick, the resolute under-sheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman, earned her own series. In the latest entry in the Posadas County series, The Fourth Time Is Murder (St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2008), Reyes-Guzman investigates a car accident involving a stranger who has mysteriously disappeared. Now, Wolf Schneider uncovers just where Posadas County would be, if it existed.

What makes Estelle Reyes-Guzman interesting?

She’s an orphan who was adopted by Teresa, her stepmother, in Mexico. She came to the U.S. when she was 16 to finish high school. Now she’s married to a surgeon and has two kids.

In The Fourth Time Is Murder, the characters are a likable bunch.

I like to [make] a villain who is probably basically a pretty good person. Then they get up on top of that slippery slope and make the first mistake, and it’s the snowball effect! Life just goes to hell.

There is no real Posadas County, right?

Are you sure? You had to ask! No. If you tried to fit it in the state, it would be about halfway between Deming and Lordsburg. But it’s in my head.

Has Hollywood ever come calling?

No—they don’t know where Ratón is. I have this recurring nightmare of seeing Estelle dressed up like Jennifer Lopez, with a revolver sticking out of her broad hips. You know, jutting out, looking absolutely asinine.

How do you keep fans hooked on the series?

At St. Martin’s Press somebody told me, “I really don’t care about the plot. I just love Estelle’s family.” Also, they like the accuracy of the police work.

What personal experiences have influenced your mysteries?

I worked for a weekly newspaper in upstate New York and had the police beat. I heard a young deputy ranting about a DWI case being tossed out. I got to thinking, What percentage of DWIs get dismissed? It was a huge number—something like, out of 286 cases, two were prosecuted. I started riding with the sheriff’s department and got to know them, and basically primed their pumps and asked them questions. Then, in New Mexico, I took part in a Colfax community law-enforcement citizen’s police academy, where you’re required to ride along. The problems are the same across the country.

What’s it like being a writer in New Mexico? Is there more respect here for creative jobs?

I don’t buy that. I don’t think there’s any more or less support here than in Rochester, New York. I could set these stories in Bangor, Maine, and am confident I could make them just as compelling.

Maine is fabulous! But you couldn’t set them in, say, Dubuque, Iowa.

You ever been to Dubuque? You ever seen what a dead body looks like after it’s been run over by a massive four-wheel-drive tractor? Writers can write anywhere.

Wolf Schneider has been editor in chief of the Santa Fean, editor of Living West, and consulting editor of Southwest Art.

Synopsis of The Fourth Time is Murder: Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman is always busy, but more so now than ever. The sheriff is still not completely recovered from his stay in the hospital, and she is recovering from a hospital stay herself. After a long day at work, Estelle is happy to clear off her desk and drive home, where her beloved family waits. She hears her cell phone ringing as she pulls into the driveway. A truck has gone off the road and the driver’s body found near the wreck. Back on the job, Estelle drives to the scene, where she finds more questions than answers. Was the truck’s going over the hill really an accident? And why was there a single footprint on the man’s body? An autopsy spurs further puzzles.

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