Shamefacedly hiding the rookie inexperience that rendered a homicide case from the beginning of his career unsolvable, Joe Gunther discovers the case's murder weapon and begins tracking a killer who possesses a nature more brutal than anticipated.
Set in Brattleboro, Vermont,
The Surrogate Thief explores yet another facet of the life of Joe Gunther, head of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation. An unassuming, character-driven police procedural, the book asks difficult questions about how one deals with past demons when justice lies in the balance. If you’re looking for a procedural full of serial killers, this isn’t it. It’s Vermont, after all, and Joe’s a compassionate and introspective guy—perhaps too much so. A few critics complained about the procedural’s oozing pathos; do we need to know every sad detail of Joe’s emotional life? Yet
The Surrogate Thief once again reveals Mayor’s deep understanding of human emotion and intuition—important qualities, after all, for a detective.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
Mayor delivers the strongest entry yet in his Joe Gunther series (after 2003's
Gatekeeper) with this complex mystery tied to Gunther's personal life. Thirty-two years earlier, with his wife dying of cancer, a distracted Gunther allowed the investigation of a shopkeeper's murder to go cold. A new crime may be tied to it when a woman shoots her ex-husband with a gun the cops trace to the decades-old unsolved killing. Although it isn't Gunther's case now, he determines to find the link between the past and present crimes, in order to understand his younger self and the unresolved traumas of his early marriage and career. Gunther is an intuitive detective, and it's a treat to follow him as he analyzes subtle clues and teases leads from the unwilling or unwitting. He also must examine his relationship with his longtime lover, Gail Zigman, who's running for the state senate, when he discovers her opponent is backed by a suspect. A Vermont assistant medical examiner, Mayor delights in shedding new light on old evidence using modern forensic techniques that help Gunther solve this labyrinthine case. This is the prolific Mayor's most accomplished book—a character-driven novel that's enhanced by graceful prose and a compelling narrative.
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