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Vermont Investigators Chase Deputy's Killer

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By AL HUTCHISON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 5, 2008

"The Catch," by Archer Mayor (St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95)

In this, the 19th Joe Gunther novel, Archer Mayor begins with the cold-blooded slaying of a sheriff's deputy on a lonely stretch of highway in Vermont. But most of the action takes place in Maine, where Gunther, head of the fictional Vermont Bureau of Investigation, and his colleagues believe they'll find the killer.

There's little doubt the deputy was shot by one of the two men in a car he had been pursuing at high speed. His cruiser's video camera appeared to capture it all, including the vehicle identification that suggests the villains were connected to the illicit drug traffic between Canada and the United States. Since nothing enrages police more than the slaying of one of their own, multiple agencies join the hunt, and after a drug kingpin is slain in Maine, they suspect the best clues to the slaying may be found there. But that doesn't happen.

One of the attractions of the Gunther series is the supporting cast. Detectives Sammie Martens and Willie Kunkel now live together in a rather bizarre relationship. Given his prickly personality and offbeat behavior, Kunkel is extremely fortunate that in Martens he's found a woman who will tolerate him and even care deeply for him.
Kunkel may be a pain, but Gunther also has learned to rely on his intuition and, importantly, on his courage, and so he tolerates his eccentricities. In "The Catch," Gunther's patience and tolerance is repaid in a huge way.

Al Hutchison of Citrus County is a freelance writer.

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