Archer Mayor

Archer Mayor is best known as the author of the highly successful series of mystery novels featuring Brattleboro, Vermont policeman Joe Gunther. The series - termed “dazzling” by The New York Times - began in 1988 with Open Season and has been followed by 15 more highlighted below.

The Los Angeles Times featured Scent of Evil in its 1992 year-end list of recommended readings and proclaimed The Skeleton’s Knee to be “one of the best ten mystery books of the year” in 1993. That book also prompted The New York Times to call Mayor “one of the most sophisticated stylists in the genre,” and, in 1997, to recommend The Ragman’s Memory as one of only five mysteries on its summer reading list. Other notable publications regularly praising Mayor’s works have been Publisher’s Weekly, The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, and The Washington Post.

His books have been published in Great Britain Germany, France, Italy, and Japan. Before turning his hand full time to fiction, Mayor wrote several well-received history books, and has been variously employed as a scholarly editor, a researcher for TIME-LIFE Books, a political advance man, a theater photographer, a newspaper writer/editor, a lab technician for Paris-Match magazine in France, and a medical illustrator. He is a graduate of Yale University. In addition to writing, conducting workshops, and giving informal, interactive talks, Mayor has been a faculty member at Middlebury College’s New England Young Writers’ Conference at Breadloaf, and the annual Seminar on Forensic Sciences at Colby College in Maine. He works as a volunteer firefighter/ Emergency Medical Technician for the NewBrook Fire Department in Newfane, Vermont. He is also an assistant medical examiner for the state of Vermont.

St. Albans Fire

The latest installment in Mayor’s classic Joe Gunther series finds the intrepid detective and his team in scorching pursuit of a serial arsonist.

The Surrogate Thief

Archer Mayor’s most recent book, Gatekeeper (Mysterious Press, 10/03, 0-89296-766-8), is poised to continue the author’s run as one of New England’s most beloved authors. It will be published concurrently in Warner mass market in 10/04. Mayor’s The Sniper’s Wife (Mysterious Press, 2002) was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year–a first in his storied career–and has over 47,000 copies in combined print. Tucker Peak (Mysterious Press, 2001) has over 41,000 copies in combined print. Sales of the entire Joe Gunther series continue to grow with the publication of each new hardcover, and Archer Mayor is a tireless promoter, visiting bookshops, libraries, high schools, and colleges throughout the Northeast.

Gatekeeper

Vermont detective Joe Gunther vows to stop the flow of drugs into his beloved state when in the course of a week a young heroin addict is gunned down while trying to rob a convenience store, a narcotics dealer is found hanging from a bridge, and the granddaughter of political bigwigs dies of an overdose.

Open Season

To tie into the December release of Archer Mayor’s Joe Gunther hardcover Fruits of the Poisonous Tree, here is a reissue of the debut novel that first introduced Joe Gunther in 1989–out of print since 1991. Gunther investigates the murder of a juror by another juror from a three-year-old case.

Borderlines

The second novel in the Joe Gunther re-release promotion finds Gunther in Gannet, Vermont. The quiet town is rocked by violence and murder when five members of a back-to-nature cult die in a suspicious fire.

Scent of Evil

The third outing for Vermont cop Joe Gunther. A murdered stockbroker sets a sticky case into motion for Lt. Gunther. Three bodies later, Gunther must unravel a sinister puzzle involving drugs, a naive young police officer, and someone bent on revenge.

Skeleton’s Knee

When Joe Gunther looks into the death of an old Vermont hermit, he finds a skeleton buried in the back yard that seems to have been there for 15 years…and the skeleton has an artificial knee! The mystery behind the skeleton’s knee leads Gunther on a terrifying trip to Chicago’s mean streets.

Fruits of the Poisonous Tree

Police Lieutenant Joe Gunther got the call at four in the morning–Gail Zigman, his longtime friend and lover, has been savagely raped in the bed he had left only hours before. Despite the disapproval of his superiors, Gunther works the case while struggling with his own tangled emotions.

The Dark Root

Linking a series of seemingly unrelated crimes to a Vietnamese gangster’s campaign to take over a Chinese mob’s operation in Vermont, Brattleboro Police Lieutenant Joe Gunther pulls out all the stops–including calling in the FBI. When Gunther’s friend is wounded and one of his officers is murdered, his determination veers toward obsession as he joins the feds in a war that crosses the border into Canada for a final showdown in Montreal.

The Ragman’s Memory

It begins with an abandoned birds nest a nest made of hair — human hair. Who is the victim? And what is the cause of death? A trail of grisly clues leads Lt. Joe Gunther to discover the victim’s identity: a teenaged girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Searching for the truth, the investigation leads from the basement dives of Brattleboro to the mansions of its leading citizens. But the key to it all lies locked in the mind of World War II veteran. Now Gunther must find a way to open up the ragman’s memory…before a killer strikes again.

“A pleasure…Mr. Mayor has created an intelligent, gentle, and feeling human being in Gunther….A lovely way to spend a few hours”. — Washington Times

“By practicing his craft with dazzling skill and by digging for deeper moral issues behind every grassroots crime he has made an honorable art form of the regional mystery”. — The New York Times Book Review

“Fascinating…the Joe Gunther novels are among the best mysteries being written today”. — Booklist (starred review)

Here is the seventh in the acclaimed series of police procedurals by Archer Mayor.

Bellows Falls

A minor Internal Affairs investigation leads detective Joe Gunther to the hard-luck town of Bellows Falls, Vermont. Soon, rumors of police corruption, drug dealing, spousal abuse, and murder spread through the streets. As Gunther struggles to separate fact from fiction, he uncovers a regional narcotics network and must take a calculated risk to expose the criminals.

The Disposable Man

The Disposable Man was published in Mysterious Press hardcover in 11/98. This mass market edition will include a teaser chapter from Archer Mayor’s new hardcover, Occam’s Razor (Mysterious Press, 11/99). The Joe Gunther series has received critical acclaim nationwide. The New York Times Book Review consistently lists Mayor’s novels among the top crime fiction of the year. With the most recent Gunther novel, Bellows Falls (12/97), leading the way, each new novel in the series continues Mayor’s dramatic sales growth.

OCCAM’s Razor

The dead man lay on the railroad tracks, his head and hands amputated by an onrushing train. He looked like a vagrant. Yet Gunther smells a rat. What bum wears clean white underwear? And why would a bum be covered with sores caused by deadly chemicals? His suspicions grow when an abandoned vehicle is found leaking the hazardous stuff. Then another grisly murder rocks Brattleboro and an anonymous tip links the two killings. Puzzled, Gunther recalls that old maxim — Occam’s Razor — which implies that too many theories can muddle clear thinking. But clarity doesn’t always cut it when you’re facing multiple homicides, venomous blackmail, and a poisonous lust for power.

The Marble Mask

When a body is found on Vermont’s Mt. Mansfield, most assume it is a hiker who lost his way. But the body is identified as an old-time smuggler from Quebec who has been dead and frozen for more than 50 years–and foul play is likely. Lt. Joe Gunther sets out to solve the murder, landing him in a viper’s nest of buried secrets, bloody gang wars, and a ruthless family with a taste for murder.

Tucker Peak

As developers overseeing the expansion of the ski resort at Vermont’s Tucker Peak clash with environmentalists protesting the project, the slope-side condo owners suffer a rash of burglaries. Sheriff’s Lt. Joe Gunther soon realizes the most likely thief has vanished–leaving behind a dead girlfriend. Grappling with an increasingly violent game, Joe soon finds himself caught in a perilous town where truth may be the deadliest sport of all.

The Sniper’s Wife

The bestselling author of the hard-boiled Joe Gunther detective series explores new terrain with this riveting tour de force starring Gunther’s one-armed, wide-eyed colleague, Detective Willy Kunkle.