Before She Dies

Scottsdale, Arizona: Poisoned Pen Press, 2001. First Trade Paperback First Printing . Trade Paperback. Fine. 5 1/2" x 8 1/2. 253 pages. An as new book with no defects noted. Interior text pages are flawless. The fourth Gastner case is easily the best, no small feat in a series as strong as this one. Gastner is compassionate, intelligent, bulldog tough, and emotional. Posadas Register reporter Linda Real barely survives her nighttime patrol with one of Undersheriff Bill Gastner's deputies. He is killed by a more accurate shotgun blast than the one that ruins her face. Teamed with his intuitive, observant detective Estelle Reyes-Guzman and her usual sharp eye for physical evidence, Bill implicates Tammy Woodruff, the thrill seeking daughter of the local Republican County Chairman, in the brutal assault. Before he can interrogate her, though, Tammy hightails it. Soon she is found crushed to death after her truck goes off the road while she's loaded with booze-in fact, far too much alcohol, for anyone to have consumed. Originally published in 1996 by St. Martin's Press, Before She Dies is the fourth Undersheriff Bill Gastner mystery following Poisoned Pen Press' releases of Heartshot, Bitter Recoil, and Twice Buried. Authentic flavor of New Mexico locale and politics. Steven Havill lives with his wife Kathleen in Lincoln, New Mexico, where he is not writing about Billy the Kid.