Drew Gavin Books in Order

The Drew Gavin books take Steve Brewer's crime writing into the sports desk, which turns out to be a pretty good place to find trouble. Drew is an Albuquerque sportswriter, later a sports editor, and he has the useful habit of asking questions that other people would rather leave alone. He is not a private eye by trade, but he keeps getting pulled into investigations anyway.

That makes the series feel a little different from the Bubba Mabry books.

Drew moves through locker rooms, newsrooms, betting circles, and the business side of sports, so the cases have a more professional, institutional edge. He also carries some baggage of his own. Brewer presents him as a man with old football-hero history behind him and a present that is steadier than glamorous. He knows how men posture, how local fame fades, and how quickly loyalty can turn into leverage.

In End Run, Drew gets dragged into a murder case through an old relationship. What starts as a favor becomes a much uglier problem involving gambling debt, suspicion, and the uneasy feeling that the past has not stayed in the past at all. In Cheap Shot, the sports angle comes even closer to the center, as Drew tries to clear a colleague caught up in the death of a cheerleader while digging into a shaky basketball franchise and the money around it.

Brewer gets a lot out of that mix. The world of sports here is not heroic or shiny. It is full of ego, boosters, hustlers, career anxiety, and people who know how to package a story for the public. That gives Drew a useful place to stand. He knows the language of spin, but he is still trying to find the truth underneath it.

The tone is brisk and grounded. There is humor, because this is still Steve Brewer, but the Drew Gavin novels tend to read a little straighter and a little tougher than the Bubba books. Drew is less of a comic bumbler and more of a weary, capable observer who keeps getting closer to danger than he planned. The tension comes from that balance. He is smart enough to see patterns, but not insulated from the consequences.

Only two books make up the series, so it is a compact run. That actually works in its favor. There is no bloat here, just two fast mysteries built around a strong point of view and a setting Brewer clearly understands. If you like crime novels with newsroom energy, sports-world corruption, and a protagonist who feels like a working journalist instead of a genre machine, Drew Gavin is worth your time.

Start with End Run. It lays out Drew's world, his old connections, and the mix of reporting and risk that drives both books.