Mon 4 Jan 2016
ARCHER MAYOR – Scent of Evil. Joe Gunther #3. Mysterious Press, hardcover, 1992; paperback, 1993.
Mayor is one of the few relatively new authors whom I have been recommending to just about anyone who asked. I thought both of his first two Joe Gunther books, Open Season and Borderlines, were excellent. Though he has gotten good reviews, he has failed to reach the critical mass of publicity that a number of lesser authors enjoy.
Joe Gunther is a middle-aged cop in Brattleboro, Vermont, chief of detectives on the day shift. In the current offering, a hand is discovered sticking out of the earth at a public works project, which upon excavation proves to be attached to a body, and a murdered one at that. The body had been inhabited by a young investment advisor, a Brattleboro native, and circumstances cast suspicion on a member of the police force. Within a day, a small-time local drug dealer is killed, and there are indications that the cases are linked. After that, things get complicated.
Scent differs somewhat from the first two in the series in that there is less space given to Gunther’s personal life and problems, though he remains the first-person narrator and very much the central character. His romantic relationship with one of the town Selectmen, Gail, continues to provide an interesting potential for conflict. There is much realistic police procedural work, and,a very interesting picture of the political life of a small New England city. Though I’ve visited Brattleboro, of course I can’t vouch for the picture’s veracity; it reads convincingly, however.
Mayor is an excellent story-teller, and has written another good book. It wasn’t quite as much to my taste as the first two, due to the slight shift from character to procedure, and the fact that I didn’t find the resolution completely convincing. Still, the characterization of the supporting players was sharp and clear, the story moved crisply, and I have no problems at all in recommending it as well as the first two.
[UPDATE] 01-04-16. There are now 26 books in Archer Mayor’s Joe Gunther series. See the Fantastic Fiction website for a complete list and a gallery of covers.
January 4th, 2016 at 4:57 pm
Steve, I think you need to correct the update date.
January 4th, 2016 at 6:23 pm
Hmm, I was concentrating on getting the year right, and then look what happened.
(In any case, it’s fixed now. Thank you, sir!)
January 4th, 2016 at 7:22 pm
Mayor went in a different direction from these, but the Gunther books were well worth a read.
January 4th, 2016 at 8:04 pm
I have always enjoyed his work and think of him as a thoroughly professional writer that always gives his reader his money’s worth. Realistic characters and nice descriptions of Vermont. In one of the earlier books, his girlfriend is raped, and he did a great job letting the reader know the mental anguish and trauma that the two of them went through.
Thank you for the reminder, I need to catch up with my reading with this series.
January 4th, 2016 at 8:21 pm
I’ve not read any of them. Just another series I’ve never gotten to. I bought the first one when it came out in paperback, but before I could get to it, it was next year and the next one had come out, and before I knew it, I had 8 or 10, all as new as could be, straight from the shelves at Borders, boxed away now, somewhere.
Somewhere along the way I stopped buying them, but I think the next time I go to B&N, I’ll use a gift certificate I have to pick up the latest one they have. And read it. Better late than never!
January 5th, 2016 at 8:47 am
What I like about them (after the first few) is the way each book seems to take place in a different part of Vermont.
January 5th, 2016 at 2:28 pm
I’ve heard that said before. You wouldn’t think that Vermont would have all that many parts for Gunther’s cases to take place in, though. Not like California, say, or even New York City.
January 6th, 2016 at 11:57 pm
I went to the local Barnes and Nobel this afternoon, and they didn’t have a single Archer Mayor book out on the shelves.
January 8th, 2016 at 10:52 pm
This is one of the few modern series in which I actually am up to date. While none of these are brilliant mysteries the police work is always solid and the characters and their individual lives, always changing and growing, are the major reason I enjoy spending time with the entire cast.