Archer Mayor

In Archer Mayor's Fall Guy, a body found in the trunk of a stolen car leads Joe Gunther and his team to crucial evidence in an infamous unsolved case from years past.A high-end stolen car is discovered in Vermont. A car filled with stolen items from a far-flung two state burglary spree. But it's what is in the trunk that brings Joe Gunther and his team from the Vermont Bureau of Investigation. In the trunk is the body of burglar in question - one Don Kalfus. Complicating matters, while the body was found in Vermont, it appears he was probably killed in the next state over, New Hampshire. The task force charged with finding out why Kalfus is murdered soon faces another problem. Within the pile of stolen cell phones found in the car is evidence of a notorious unsolved child abduction case from years earlier. Now the seemingly simple case has become more complicated and deadly, leading Gunther's team to be pulled from the New Hampshire coast to near the Canadian border as they attempt to find and capture the psychopath responsible for a tangled, historical web of misery, betrayal, and loss.

Joe Gunther's Vermont Bureau of Investigation team is plenty busy trying to solve the grisly murder of Wayne Castine, a suspected child predator who's got mob ties in the area. But Gunther has other pressing, more personal business to attend to: the old case of his girlfriend Lyn Silva's father and brother. Fishermen both, they were once believed to be lost at sea. Until today... With the Castine investigation in full swing, now is hardly the time for Gunther to go AWOL and join Lyn in Maine. But as more evidence emerges, the less it seems that the Silvas were innocent victims. Turns out they had some involvement with a gang of vicious smugglers-men who will do whatever it takes to keep Lyn and Gunther from finding the truth...and who will kill to keep old secrets buried.

An overworked sheriff and a string of condo burglaries at a luxurious ski resort have Lt. Joe Gunther and the newly-minted Vermont Bureau of Investigation digging deep for clues. But it doesnt take long for Joe to find the most likely thief missingand his girlfriend dead. As the complications mount, from drug dealing to environmental terrorism to attempted murder, Joe and his team go undercover to infiltrate the closed society of a one-company town, populated by bored millionaires and supported by a small legion of resort employees, not all of whom are what they seem.

In Archer Mayor's Marked Man, the death of a local millionaire becomes suspicious when Joe Gunther learns that he was not who he claimed. A year ago, local philanthropist and millionaire Nathan Lyon died a natural death in his sprawling mansion, a 150,000 square foot converted mill, surrounded by his loving, attentive family. Or so it seemed at the time. Now Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation team has discovered that almost nothing about that story was true. Nathan Lyon was actually Nick Bianchi from Providence, Rhode Island. His money came from Mafia-tainted sources. And his family now seems to be dying themselves and their deaths are now revealed to be murders. As Gunther's team desperately works to uncover what is going on at The Mill, who is responsible and what they are trying to accomplish, Joe himself travels to Rhode Island to look into the original source of the money. While the police are doing their jobs, private investigator Sally Kravitz teams up with reporter Rachel Reiling to expose the truth behind this tangled and expanding web of duplicity, greed, and obsession. Having betrayed many, it's no surprise that Nathan Lyon was a marked man. But now Gunther has to figure out who, among the many, killed him, and stop them before their killing spree claims another.

A bright and clear bomber's moon is ideal for finding one's target. But beware: What you can see at night can also see you. Often with dire consequences.Two young women. One, Rachel Reiling, an investigative reporter, the other, Sally Kravitz, a private investigator. Uneasy allies from very different walks of life, they work as a team to connect the murders of a small town drug dealer, a smart, engaging, fatally flawed thief, and the tangled, political, increasingly dark goings on at a prestigious prep school. Joe Gunther and his team of investigators at the VBI - the Vermont Bureau of Investigation - are officially assigned to the two homicides. While they set about solving them, Sally Kravitz and Rachel Reiling - sometime working with the police, sometimes against - pool their talents and take advantage of their civilian status to go where the police cannot, from working undercover at Thorndike Academy, to having clandestine meetings with criminals well acquainted with Vermont's unexpectedly illicit underbelly. And there is a third, much darker element at work. The common thread linking all this death and chaos is hard at work sowing mayhem to protect its vicious roots.

In Archer Mayor's intriguing new Vermont-based mystery, The Orphan's Guilt, a straightforward traffic stop snowballs into a homicide investigation after Joe Gunther and his fellow investigators peel back layer upon layer of history and personal heartbreak to learn a decades-old hidden truth.John Rust is arrested for drunk driving by a Vermont state trooper. Looking to find mitigating circumstances, John's lawyer hires private eye Sally Kravitz to look into the recent death of John's younger brother, purportedly from a childhood brain injury years earlier. But what was the nature of that injury, and might its mechanism point more to murder than to natural causes? That debate brings in Joe Gunther and his team.Gunther's efforts quickly uncover an ancient tale of avarice, betrayal, and vengeance that swirled around the Rust boys growing up. Their parents and the people they consorted with―forgotten, relentless, but now jolted to action by this simple set of circumstances―emerge with a destructive passion. All while the presumably innocent John Rust mysteriously vanishes with no explanation.

Joe Gunther and the VBI team are investigating a murder and an arsoncase-both potentially related to a small but lethal outbreak of Ebola at a localhospital. When the body of a young woman is found near a trail at a popularski mountain, the case falls to Joe Gunther and his team at the Vermont Bureauof Investigation (VBI). They quickly have a suspect, Mick Durocher, anda confession, but not everyone on the team is convinced of Mick's truthfulness.Despite his ready admission, investigators quickly sense there might bemore going on than is immediately apparent.At the same time, a large local business is being targeted with escalating acts ofviolence-a warehouse fire, a booby rigged truck, an industrial gas leak murderouslyunleashed. The odd and common denominator? Mick Durocher, the self-confessedmurderer, was once employed by the same company. These two puzzling cases-onlytenuously connected-are further complicated by the sidelining of a key member ofVBI. Willy Kunkle is undergoing surgery at the same hospital saddled with the unlikely-and suspiciously timed-outbreak of Ebola.Joe and his team pursue these cases, uncovering motives that might link them, while proving that trust betrayed can be a toxic virus, transforming love into savageloathing. Indeed, behind the mayhem and murder, Joe must uncover a tragic familyhistory before another victim dies.

Joe Gunther and the VBI team are investigating a murder and an arson case--both potentially related to an outbreak of Ebola.When the body of a young woman is found near a trail at a popular ski mountain, the case falls to Joe Gunther and his team at the Vermont Bureau of Investigation (VBI). They quickly have a suspect, Mick Durocher, and a confession, but not everyone on the team is convinced. Despite Mick's ready admission, investigators quickly sense there might be more going on than is immediately apparent.At the same time, a large local business is being targeted with escalating acts of vandalism--a warehouse fire, a vandalized truck, a massive cooling system destroyed--resulting in loss of life. And either by coincidence or not, Mick Durocher, the self-confessed murderer, was once employed by this very company.These two puzzling cases--now possibly connected--are further complicated by the sidelining of a key member of VBI, Willy Kunkle, who undergoes surgery at a hospital that appears to be having an unlikely--and suspiciously timed--outbreak of Ebola.Joe and his team pursue these cases, uncovering motives that might link them, while proving that trust betrayed can be a toxic virus, turning love into murderous loathing. Indeed, behind the mayhem and murder, Joe must uncover a tragic history before another victim dies.

The murder of a small-time drug dealer snowballs into the most complex case ever faced by Joe Gunther and his VBI team.It is said a bright and clear bomber's moon is the best asset to finding one's target. But beware what you wish for: what you can see at night can also see you, often with dire consequences.Two young women form the heart of this tale. One is an investigative reporter, the other a private investigator. Uneasy allies from completely different walks of life, they work together―around and sometimes against Joe Gunther and his VBI cops―in an attempt to connect the murders of a small-town drug dealer; a smart, engaging, fatally flawed thief; and the tangled, political, increasingly dark goings on at a prestigious prep school.While Gunther and the VBI set about solving the two murders, Sally Kravitz and Rachel Reiling combine their talents and resources to go where the police cannot, from working undercover at Thorndike Academy, to having clandestine meetings with criminals for their insider's knowledge of Vermont's unexpectedly illicit underbelly.But there is a third element at work. A malevolent force, the common link in all this death and chaos, is hard at work sowing mayhem to protect its ancient, vicious, very dark roots.

Ben Kendall was a troubled man. Coming back from Vietnam with scars that no one else could see, he hid away from the world, lling his house with an ever-increasing amount of stu . Finally, the piles collapsed and he was found dead, crushed beneath his own belongings. Ben's cousin, also the medical examiner, is unsettled by the circumstances of his death, and alerts Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation team. What appears to be the accidental death of a hoarder may be something much more -- and much deadlier. Ben, it seems, brought back combat photos and negatives from Vietnam, that someone wants to desperately keep from the public eye. And a two-man hit team is searching for some of the missing negatives. With Joe Gunther and his squad trailing behind the grisly research results of the hit team, Gunther has little time to nd and protect the next person on their list before she ends up in the same state as those before her.

The Vermont Bureau of Investigation (VBI) has been pulled onto three cases at the same time; meanwhile, VBI head Joe Gunther has to take time off to care for his ailing mother. Those cases are now in the hands of the individual investigators. Sammie Martens is assigned a murder case. The victim is a young woman, the roommate of the daughter of Medical Examiner Beverly Hillstrom, and a recent transplant from Albany, New York. Sammie must find out what put a hit man on the trail of this seemingly innocent young woman. Lester Spinney takes over a famous cold case, a double murder where a state trooper and a motorist were killed in an exchange of gunfire. Or so it has seemed for years. When Lester is told that the motorist's fingerprints were planted on the gun he's supposed to have fired, it opens the question--who really killed the state trooper? Willy Kunkle's case starts with a child's discovery of three teeth on a railroad track, leading eventually to a case of possible sabotage against critical military equipment. In cases that lead the team all over Vermont and nearby, Archer Mayor once again shows why his novels featuring Joe Gunther and the VBI team are among the finest crime fiction today.

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 a political bigwig dies of an overdose, Vermont detective Joe Gunther vows to stop the flow of drugs into his beloved state.

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. No one knows what to believe or who to trust. Tag Man is running for his life in a way he never imagined possible. No one knows who's watching as they sleep-or who truly did what. Tag Man is critically acclaimed author Archer Mayor at his very finest.

A forty-year-old skeleton is found encased in a concrete slab at a recently decommissioned nuclear energy site. It becomes a case for the Vermont Bureau of Investigation (VBI) and its leader, Joe Gunther, since they have the resources and the ability to investigate an old, very cold, missing persons case that has now been reclassified as murder. The victim was Hank Mitchell, and Gunther must chase down old rumors and speculations--who benefited from his death and the disappearance of his body? And was his death somehow tied to New York City mafia money being laundered through the construction project? But what seems the coldest of cold cases roars back to life when one of the central figures in this mystery is shot to death, right after speaking with Gunther. And when a young police officer--the son of VBI investigator Lester Spinney--is kidnapped, is that meant to be a warning to the VBI team to drop the case? After all these many years, the truth behind the murder still has to the power to kill, and it's up to Gunther and his team to capture the living and finally put the dead to rest. Presumption of Guilt is the twenty-seventh riveting mystery in Archer Mayor's Joe Gunther series.

During the height of a harsh Vermont winter, the body of a woman is found hanging from the steel-mesh retaining net lining the cliffs along the interstate. She was brutally murdered, with the word "dyke" carved into her chest. She was also a state senator and best friend and ally of the current governor, Gail Zigman. At Zigman's personal request, Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation team agree to help the Vermont State Police in their investigation before the victim's high profile and powerful friends create the inevitable publicity maelstrom. Raffner was indeed a lesbian, and the word carved into her chest might be evidence of a hate crime, or it might be a feint designed to confuse and mislead investigators. But the question remains-what was she involved with, who wanted her dead, and what company was she keeping? What Gunther and his team discover during their initial investigation isn't the stuff of a simple murder. Someone killed a prominent figure and fabricated an elaborate scene for a purpose. And this might only be the beginning...in Archer Mayor's The Company She Kept.

Joe Gunther gets the call that every law enforcement person hates and every friend and family member of a policeman fears--a cop has been murdered in the line of duty. Deputy Sheriff Brian Sleuter has been shot to death during a routine traffic stop on a dark country road. From what can been seen on the cruiser's tape recorder of the killers, it is believed that they are a couple of Boston-based drug runners who were stopped by the deputy on their way from Canada down to Boston. That brings Gunther and his major crimes team into the investigation--and eventually to Alan Budney, the disaffected son of a Maine lobsterman, now a drug kingpin, who uses the closed, clannish lobster fishing community, and his extended family in particular, to move drugs along the New England coast.

When Gail Zigman, town selectwoman and Joe Gunther's companion of many years, is raped, Gunther finds himself caught between the media, local politicians, and a network of well-meaning victims' rights advocates as he tries to put his own feelings aside and follow a trail of evidence. Every lead points to a single, obvious suspect, but is the evidence too perfect?Risking his friendship with Gail, the respect of his peers, and his own life, Lieutenant Gunther keeps digging, hoping to find out if the man they have in jail is rightly there, or if the evidence against him is tainted--what police call "fruits of the poisonous tree."

Archer Mayor's New York Times bestselling Joe Gunther series returns with a complex case involving two corpses, one escaped mental patient, and a long-held secret that binds them together "Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead." --Ben FranklinJoe Gunther and his team--the Vermont Bureau of Investigation (VBI)--are usually called in on major cases by local Vermont enforcement whenever they need expertise and back-up. But after the state is devastated by Hurricane Irene, the police from one end of the state are taxed to their limits, leaving Joe Gunther involved in an odd, seemingly unrelated series of cases. In the wake of the hurricane, a seventeen year old gravesite is exposed, revealing a coffin that had been filled with rocks instead of the expected remains. At the same time, an old, retired state politician turns up dead at his high-end nursing home, in circumstances that leave investigators unsure that he wasn't murdered. And a patient who calls herself The Governor has walked away from a state mental facility during the post-hurricane flood. It turns out that she was indeed once "Governor for a Day," over forty years ago, but that she might have also been falsely committed and drugged to keep her from revealing something that she saw all those years ago. Amidst the turmoil and the disaster relief, it's up to Joe Gunther and his team to learn what really happened with the two corpses--one missing--and what secret "The Governor" might have still locked in her brain that links them all.