Joe Gunther Mystery

24 primary works • 30 total works

Open Season

by Archer Mayor

Published 9 September 1988

Borderlines

by Archer Mayor

Published 30 October 1990

Out for some sorely needed "R and R, " Brattleboro police lieutenant Joe Gunther heads straight to the leafy Vermont town of Gannet - where he spent many a sunny boyhood summer. But Gannet's days are darker than maple syrup now, and not nearly as sweet. As if economic depression weren't enough, townfolk are upset by the Order, a weird back-to-nature cult that keeps expanding...until it explodes in violence.

Scent of Evil

by Archer Mayor

Published 1 June 1992

The Skeleton's Knee

by Archer Mayor

Published 1 December 1993

Fruits of the Poisonous Tree

by Archer Mayor

Published 1 December 1994

The Dark Root

by Archer Mayor

Published 1 December 1995

The Ragman's Memory

by Archer Mayor

Published 1 December 1996

It begins with an abandoned bird's nest; a nest made of hair -- human hair. Who is the victim? And what was the cause of death? A trail of grisly clues leads Lt. Joe Gunther to discover the identity in question: a teenage girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Then comes a rash of strange mysteries. Sudden disappearance. Unexplained death. Gastly murder. Searching for the truth takes Joe from Brattleboro's lowlife to its wealthiest citizens and into a maelstrom of corporate greed, personal betrayal, blackmail, and homicide. But the key to it all lies shuttered in the mind of a shell-shocked World War II vet who lives in the past. Gunther must find a way to unlock the ragman's memory...before murder strikes again.

Bellows Falls

by Archer Mayor

Published 1 December 1997

Mayor delivers another superb combination of case, characters and local color and brings it all to life without a wasted word. -- starred, "Publishers Weekly"
Honoring a request to conduct a minor Internal Affairs investigation for a small-town police department, Joe Gunther travels upriver to the town of Bellows Falls. But there's more to this case than a young officer's embarrassment. Soon rumors of police corruption, spousal abuse, drug deals and murder begin to engulf the little river town -- and Joe is the one responsible for separating fact from fiction, which is becoming a dangerous task . . .

The Disposable Man

by Archer Mayor

Published 1 November 1998

Occam's Razor

by Archer Mayor and Archer Mayer

Published 1 January 2000

As Lt. Joe Gunther and his team attempt to reconstruct three seemingly random crimes they uncover a terrifying conspiracy with links to the highest levels of government.

The Marble Mask

by Archer Mayor

Published 1 October 2000

Tucker Peak

by Archer Mayor

Published 12 November 2001

The Sniper's Wife

by Christopher Graybill and Archer Mayor

Published 22 October 2002

Leaving the relative calm of Vermont, Detective Willy Kunkle must confront his past as he seeks revenge for the death of his ex-wife in the back alleys of New York City. Labelled an accidental overdose, her death is considered routine by the NYPD. But Willy's instincts suggest foul play. Now, his search for the truth will uncover more about his own life than he ever thought possible - and place him in the gravest danger he has ever known.

Gatekeeper

by Archer Mayor

Published 29 October 2003

When heroin traffickers establish a vast and swift pipeline into nearly every corner of Vermont, Joe Gunther's Bureau of Investigations is called on to stem the tide. With pressure building from politicians and resentment burgeoning in the ranks of rival investigative units, Joe's team is forced to take wild risks and push a number of ethical envelopes in their attempt to bring the problem under control. Sammie Martens must go deep undercover as a drug dealer, Lester Spinney must investigate a loved one, and Joe must make some agonising choices as he works to reconcile a noble end with highly dubious means. With a "War on Drugs" in full swing within Vermont's borders for the firs time, Archer Mayor's beloved sleuths will be driven to their very limits as they struggle to rid their community of a plague of epic proportions.

Surrogate Thief

by Archer Mayor

Published 1 January 2004

Brattleboro is the epitome of scenic Vermont. Quaint in its architecture and plainspoken in its politics, it dominates the state's southeast corner. And yet there is darkness here, too, and nobody knows it better that veteran cop Joe Gunther. Over the years, he has battled drug pushers, corporate swindlers and foiled gangs...but hasn't always come out on top. Thirty years earlier, shop owner Klaus Oberfeldt was robbed and beaten senseless. When Klaus died six months later, a case of assault and battery became murder. The guilty man eventually appeared, but Gunther, distracted by his wife's losing struggle with cancer in the same hospital where Klaus was slipping from life, did something he would always regret: he let the case go cold. Now reopened, the Oberfeldt investigation forces Gunther to open old wounds. For somewhere on the idyllic Brattleboro streets, stalks a murderer who has good reason to kill again...

St. Albans Fire

by Archer Mayor

Published 1 October 2005

With Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation team spread thin on assignment everywhere, from the remote dairy county of Northwest Vermont to the slums of Newark, NJ, they're pushed to their absolute limit when a string of serial arsons across the Green Mountain State evolve into the most shocking series of murders the bucolic region has ever known.

The Second Mouse

by Archer Mayor

Published 1 January 2006

Chat

by Archer Mayor

Published 1 January 2007

"When a wintertime car accident leaves his mother and brother seriously injured, Joe Gunther takes a leave of absence to attend to them and investigate the cause of the crash"--Provided by publisher.

The Catch

by Archer Mayor

Published 30 September 2008

Tag Man

by Archer Mayor

Published 27 September 2011

""Archer Mayor's Vermont police procedurals are the best thing going..." --New York Times Book Review Across Brattleboro, Vermont, rich people (some with dark secrets) are waking up in their high security, alarm-equipped homes to find a Post-it note stuck to their bedside tables reading, "You're it." There is little sign of disturbance anywhere, nothing stolen (that anyone admits,) and only a bit of expensive food eaten as a signature. The Press loves the story and dubs the burglar the Tag Man. But who is he? And what's he actually doing? In fact, he's quickly running for his life, for what he discovers in one of these houses appears to be proof of a heinous string of murders. But is it? Joe Gunther, struggling to recover from a devastating personal loss, leads his VBI team to untangle the many conflicting pieces of evidence, while the burglar himself struggles for survival in the no-man's-land between the police and the villains. With no one knowing what to believe, or who to trust, with Tag Man running for his life in a way he never imagined possible, as no one knows who's watching as they sleep, or who truly did what, the Tag Man is critically acclaimed author Archer Mayor at his very finest"--

"Across Brattleboro, Vermont, rich people (some with dark secrets) are waking up in their high security, alarm-equipped homes to find a Post-it note stuck to their bedside tables reading, "You're it." There is little sign of disturbance anywhere, nothing stolen (that anyone admits,) and only a bit of expensive food eaten as a signature. The Press loves the story and dubs the burglar the Tag Man. But who is he? And what's he actually doing? In fact, he's quickly running for his life, for what he discovers in one of these houses appears to be proof of a heinous string of murders. But is it? Joe Gunther, struggling to recover from a devastating personal loss, leads his VBI team to untangle the many conflicting pieces of evidence, while the burglar himself struggles for survival in the no-man's-land between the police and the villains. With no one knowing what to believe, or who to trust, with Tag Man running for his life in a way he never imagined possible, as no one knows who's watching as they sleep, or who truly did what, the Tag Man is critically acclaimed author Archer Mayor at his very finest"--