A Master of Small-Town Procedurals

Steven F. Havill, best known for his long-running series of mysteries set in fictional Posadas County, New Mexico, died on August 27 “after a bout with bone cancer.” He was 81 years old.

An online obituary—colorful and detailed enough that some suspect he wrote it himself—recounts his growing up in New York, his education and early employment, his marriage and move to New Mexico, his career as a teacher of biology and English, his step into writing fiction (both westerns and police procedurals), and his willingness to be bribed with chocolate-chip cookies. It says that Havill enjoyed “a life defined by curiosity, ‘people watching,’ hard work paid and volunteered, with a deep commitment to helping young people.”

I wasn’t aware of Havill’s passing until yesterday, when critic and blogger Lesa Holstine alerted me via e-mail. Her fine blog, Lesa’s Book Critiques, features many reviews of his work over the years. She added in her note, “I know I’m going to miss those books.”