Volume 3, Issue 5 – October, 2000
Steven F. Havill: Dead Weight
St. Martin’s Minotaur (Hardcover),ISBN: 0-312-25203-X
Over-weight, nearing 70 and an insomniac who actively hates the heat of his New Mexico county, Sheriff Bill Gastner might fall a little short of qualifying as the answer to a maiden’s prayer. But slow and savvy wins the race, solves the mystery and brings the bad guys to justice, right? Well, that’s how it’s supposed to work. With the good sheriff, readers never know exactly what might happen until they read last entertaining page.
What can you expect to encounter in Dead Weight?
Quirky characters? Yes.
Mysterious letters accusing a deputy of nefarious deeds? That, too.
A furious landlady using a motor home to demand justice? Yep.
County politics (with a promise of down-and-dirty)? Absolutely.
Feuding marital partners? What else, but in this case, the fight gives rise to another question: Do marital feuds lead to murder? And I refuse to spoil the book by answering this one.
An accident that’s far from accidental? Yes, but you could call it murder by tire (and you are going to have to read Dead Weight to find what that means).
An accidental teen pregnancy? Well, I suppose.
These diverse parts of the whole do not, at first glance, seem to possess much in common, but in Dead Weight they add up to murder. Sheriff Gastner excels at adding useless bits of information together until they make a cohesive whole. His brand of detecting might appear unorthodox, but it significantly reduces the number of unsolved crimes in Posadas County.
Dead Weight entertains, mystifies and will make a great winter read — the descriptions of the heat alone will keep you warm. I enjoyed it immensely.
Patricia Lucas White
Patricia Lucas White’s latest historical novel, To Last a Lifetime, was an Eppie finalist for 2003. To Last a Lifetime and two of her fantasy romances, the Sapphire Award-winning A Wizard Scorned and The Godmother Sanction, can be ordered through Hard Shell Word Factory. Her recent contemporary, PS, I’ve Taken a Lover, is available from Lionhearted Books.