STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS
by Steven Havill
“It’s the Christmas from hell,” says a hard-pressed deputy from Posadas County (N.M.), and Under-sheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman, his usually unflappable boss, is not disposed to argue.
Holiday rituals are interrupted, travel plans put on hold and groaning boards left piled with comfort food as the entire Posadas County PD turns out to cope with a sudden influx of mayhem and murder, much of it dismayingly close to home. Plucked from the bosom of her family, Estelle (Convenient Disposal, 2004, etc.) finds herself staring down at the inert form of retired police chief Eduardo Martinez. Two men, strangers, were seen in angry confrontation with him. Vanished now, they’ve left the gentle old cop comatose. Next, Janet Tripp, the beloved of young deputy Mike Sisneros, is discovered in a parking lot, a bullet in her head. And when someone sneaks up on former Sheriff Bill Gastner to clobber him within an inch of his life, Estelle wonders if it’s open season on Posadas County law enforcement. But why? Though she has nothing but gut to go on, she’s convinced her answers are rooted in her small town’s history. In close-knit Posadas County, where everyone knows everyone’s business, it turns out that some people can bury secrets, and some secrets are murderous.
A series that still feels freshly minted.