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An odd thing to do, indeed. To most people, hatpins are vestiges of the past, used now only by elderly ladies who don't leave home without a hat. But recently the notion store in Posadas County has been doing a good business in hatpins to teenaged girls at the county middle school, who sharpen the points and carry the pin hidden in the inseam of their jeans.
There had been a fight - over a boy - after a volleyball game, and the other girl, Carmen Acosta, had been suspended because of it. But her friends were still around, and Deena wanted something to defend herself with.
Not long afterward Estelle is called to Carmen Acosta's home. She knew that of the domestic violence reports on the country records, at least fifty would include the name of the Acostas. When Estelle arrives, Carmen's father, Freddie, is in police custody and an unconscious Carmen is on the way to the hospital. Freddie claims to have come back from the convenience store just down the street, and found "the place tore up and Carmen in her bedroom, beat to a pulp." It is, of course, hard to believe that young Deena is responsible for this kind of mayhem; besides, Estelle has many other suspects to choose from, since the Acosta family holds the record for the number of domestic violence calls the police have received over the past fifteen years. The question is which of the other four children or which parent is responsible? Or is it someone else entirely.
In every book Havill draws his readers into the life of this small border county in New Mexico, and into the lives of its so-real and likeable characters. Estelle is not only an undersheriff, she is a mother of two delightful little boys, one of whom, in this book, shows unexpected musical promise. She is the wife of a warm and likeable surgeon, a Mexican-American as she is, and the daughter of a wise old woman whose life has been in the land south of the border. And of course, the threats from readers would have been dire if he had dispensed with Bill Gastner, the dearly loved former sheriff the author introduced many books ago. Bill may officially be retired, but he's quick to give Estelle the value of his experience when she needs it, and proud to have been chosen by the Guzman boys to be their surrogate abuelo - the grandfather. This is an author who never puts a foot wrong, and whose people and place could not have a more real and warm existence if you literally visited them in their homes.
Genre: Mystery
There had been a fight - over a boy - after a volleyball game, and the other girl, Carmen Acosta, had been suspended because of it. But her friends were still around, and Deena wanted something to defend herself with.
Not long afterward Estelle is called to Carmen Acosta's home. She knew that of the domestic violence reports on the country records, at least fifty would include the name of the Acostas. When Estelle arrives, Carmen's father, Freddie, is in police custody and an unconscious Carmen is on the way to the hospital. Freddie claims to have come back from the convenience store just down the street, and found "the place tore up and Carmen in her bedroom, beat to a pulp." It is, of course, hard to believe that young Deena is responsible for this kind of mayhem; besides, Estelle has many other suspects to choose from, since the Acosta family holds the record for the number of domestic violence calls the police have received over the past fifteen years. The question is which of the other four children or which parent is responsible? Or is it someone else entirely.
In every book Havill draws his readers into the life of this small border county in New Mexico, and into the lives of its so-real and likeable characters. Estelle is not only an undersheriff, she is a mother of two delightful little boys, one of whom, in this book, shows unexpected musical promise. She is the wife of a warm and likeable surgeon, a Mexican-American as she is, and the daughter of a wise old woman whose life has been in the land south of the border. And of course, the threats from readers would have been dire if he had dispensed with Bill Gastner, the dearly loved former sheriff the author introduced many books ago. Bill may officially be retired, but he's quick to give Estelle the value of his experience when she needs it, and proud to have been chosen by the Guzman boys to be their surrogate abuelo - the grandfather. This is an author who never puts a foot wrong, and whose people and place could not have a more real and warm existence if you literally visited them in their homes.
Genre: Mystery
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