New Mexico Undersheriff Bill Gastner is presented with a case that appears to have brought big time crime, including drug gangs, to the country.

Undersheriff Bill Gastner of New Mexico investigates the death of his superior who was involved in a secret investigation on his own. He died in a plane crash and an autopsy shows the pilot was killed by gunfire from the ground.

Undersheriff Bill Gastner finds his cranky ancient neighbor Florencio Apodaca has borrowed a bit of land to bury his equally ancient wife--and the dead woman's stepson questions if she died a natural death.

When Posadas Register reporter Linda Real barely survives her nighttime patrol with one of Undersherrif Bill Gastner's deputies who is killed by a more accurate shotgun blast than the one that ruins her face, Bill gets angry. 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...

"It starts with an abusive, drunken young scoundrel who resists arrest, holds a barmaid hostage, and gets what he deserves from the blazing .44 of Sheriff Caleb York. The New Mexico lawman doesn't regret taking such deadly action, but the late youth's powerful mother, cattle baroness Victoria Drummond, seems bound to feel differently. To York's surprise, Victoria takes the news with stoic resignation - all she asks of him is a favor: help her convince...