Mystery author Archer Mayor will be speaking at the Library a week from today – Monday, October 27th at 7:30 p.m. – as part of the authors@the library series.
Mayor is the author of the highly acclaimed Vermont-based series featuring detective Joe Gunther, described by the Chicago Tribune as “the best police procedurals being written in America.”
In addition, Mayor is a death investigator for Vermont's Chief Medical Examiner, and has served as a deputy sheriff, firefighter and EMT.
Marilyn Stasio, writing in the New York Times Book Review (Nov. 7, 2004) best summed up the scope of his work: “… these solidly built police procedurals don't trouble themselves with the theatrical antics of spree killers and serial murderers. (And wouldn't they look foolish if they did, since Vermont averages only about seven murders a year.) But over the course of 15 books, Mayor has devised a vivid overview of the kinds of criminal behavior -- from domestic violence to interstate drug trafficking -- that relentlessly wear down the social fabric in the postindustrial mill and factory towns of northern New England, giving people the uneasy feeling that they are losing control over their lives.”
The 19th Joe Gunther mystery, The Catch, was recently released.
When a deputy sheriff is shot to death during a routine traffic stop on a dark country road, it is believed that his killers – seen partially on the cruiser’s tape recorder – were a couple of Boston-based drug runners who had just crossed into Vermont from Canada, a hotbed of cut-rate pharmaceuticals.
The shooting gets Gunther involved in a major illicit prescription drug investigation which focuses on the activities of one Alan Budney, the disaffected son of an old-time lobsterman.
The Catch is a veritable alphabet soup of police and drug enforcement agency acronyms as the action moves – and does it ever move! – from Vermont to Massachusetts to Maine, and back and forth a few times in between as the collaborative investigation proceeds. Even the RCMP (The Mounties) are involved.
Great cop stuff! Archer’s website has a variety of video clips from his various appearances – which will give you a taste of the wonderful talk you are in for – my favorite being “The truth about cops and doughnuts.”
