Bitter recoil - Steven Havill

"Havill delivers an evocative tale of hard lives on the edge of society. His portly detective is a genuine low-key pleasure." --Publishers Weekly

Aging Posadas County Undersheriff Bill Gastner has weathered his quadruple bypass and is taking a rare vacation up in New Mexico's northern mountains. He's escaping meddlesome medical providers who wish he'd reform, but he is staging a reunion with his former detective Estelle Reyes who is working in San Estevan County. Arriving a day early at the Steamboat Rock Campground, his camping plans are interrupted by sirens. Suddenly, Gastner, Reyes, and her new doctor husband reunite over the body of a pregnant young woman.

At first the detectives assume she was a hit-and-run victim. Then the medical exam reveals she was instead thrown from a moving vehicle after a rape attempt. Gastner's curiosity is piqued - but he's on vacation. Then four more deaths follow and the still-to-be-reckoned-with lawman steps in to stop the rash of murders....