From Amazon.com
Joe Gunther, a Brattleboro, Vermont, cop, is the head of the new Vermont Bureau of Investigation (VBI), a joint task force charged with statewide responsibility for major crimes. In
The Marble Mask, the VBI's first case takes the force north to Stowe, where a 50-year-old corpse has turned up in a crevasse on Mt. Mansfield. Some of the more interesting minor characters in author Archer Mayor's long-running series about the amiable elder sleuth make return appearances here as Joe's teammates--like one-armed Willy, a former wife-beater who's now playing footsie with Sammie Martens, one of Joe's favorite colleagues. When the frozen stiff turns out to be a (formerly) big-time Canadian crime boss named Jean Deschamps, who disappeared after World War II, Joe and his gang cross the border to work with the Mounties, the Sûreté, and the local cops in Sherbrooke, where Deschamps's son Marcel is involved in a turf war with the Hell's Angels and a rival gang of thugs. Old secrets and intrigues come to light while an intricate plan to frame a dying man for a crime half a century old forms an interesting puzzle that's not fully revealed until the last couple of pages.
Mayor excels at painting a picture of a time and place that's as authentic as maple syrup, and in Joe he's created a Cooperesque character who's almost as enigmatic as the mist-shrouded mountains of his beloved state. Skiers who've schussed down Stowe's fabled slopes will enjoy Mayor's recreation of the town in its bygone era as well as the description of its renaissance as a major tourist attraction today. Joe doesn't change much from book to book, but that's fine with Mayor's fans. He's a good cop, a quiet hero, a reliable guy, and his 11th appearance in this tightly woven mystery is cause for cheer. --Jane Adams
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
A new appointment for police detective Joe Gunther of Brattleboro as field commander of the newly formed Vermont Bureau of Investigation gives his 11th appearance (following Occam's Razor) broader scope in this fine procedural series. Designed to be "a small, elite unit" composed of the cream from Vermont's 68 separate law enforcement agencies, the VBI exists only on paper until the frozen body of a hiker is found on Mt. Mansfield. The "hiker," Jean Deschamps of Sherbrooke, Quebec, turns out to be a very unusual homicide victim. His body appears to have been on iceAliterallyAsince his murder in 1947. Gunther quickly assembles his first ad hoc team, which includes old colleagues Sammie Martens and Willy Kunkle, as well as newcomers Paul Spraiger and Tom Shanklin. And since Deschamps was Canadian, liaison with Canadian law enforcement is also necessary. Deschamps was head of a notorious crime family in Sherbrooke until his unexplained disappearance in 1947. His reappearance threatens to disrupt a fragile peace between that family, now headed by Deschamps's son, Marcel, and the Sherbrooke Hells Angels. Combining fieldwork (including a dangerous mountainside search) and dogged digging, the team delves into ancient rivalries and murders with roots going back to WWII, but threatening to erupt into fresh violence. This is a thoroughly entertaining police proceduralAimaginatively conceived and executed with the polish Mayor has honed over the life of the series. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
