The Price of Malice

I've liked this series since I stumbled onto them in a small VT bookstore 15 or so years ago. I like the area and the genuine aura matched with the step by step police work involved. But it all really boils down to Joe Gunther and the relationships that he's built and lost over the years. His team has grown up with him as the father figure despite all the bureaucratic turmoil they've been through. There are few characters I prefer to sit down and catch up with. All that said, I think there's been a lot of travel for Joe of late that can be a little distracting. I'm not looking for a closed room scenario, but I like the whole local VT flavor to the series. Some of the important plot lines are running from book to book now too. There's a question at the end of the book that I'm sure will be wrapped up in a future book, but I'm not that big a fan of teaser's like that. I'm very happy with the book as a whole and look forward to the next one eagerly. I have to admit though that I hope the series returns a little more to it's familar haunts.

First Sentence: Willy Kunkle gently removed his one functional hand from the bare back of the woman stretched out beside him and reached for the softly buzzing cell phone on the night table. Wayne Castine, a suspected pedophile, has been found brutally stabbed, in the apartment of a neighbor who didn't know him. While Willy, Sammie and the VBI team work to solve the murder, Joe is off on a personal investigation. He is helping his girlfriend, Lyn, discover who murdered her father and brother. I love New England so books set there do have a special meaning for me. Mayor always creates a very strong sense of place but occasionally gets a bit carried away with the driving directions. But that's a minor thing. What brings me back, book after book, are his characters. Joe Gunther, the protagonist, can be so solid as to almost be boring; Lyn, his girlfriend--well, I started to like her until she did something so TSTL even though she realizes it too late. It's Willy, Sammie, Les and Ron who add color and dimension and balance to the stories. The plotting was very well done. Mayor describes the investigative procedure and process well, while balancing it with humanity and emotion. The two plot lines were well balanced and never confusing. There was good suspense in both lines. I also appreciated the realistic frustration the team felt with Joe's absence. Mayor continues to be a "must buy" author for me. THE PRICE OF MALICE (Pol Proc-Joe Gunther-New Hampshire/Maine-Cont) - VG Mayor, Archer - 20th in series Minatour Books, 2009, US Hardcover - ISBN: 9780312381929

In a wannabe hooker's Brattleboro, Vermont apartment, the battered and shot several times corpse of thirtyish Wayne Castine is found. VBI police detective Joe Gunther leads the investigation by looking into the victim's life. They find strong evidence that Castine was a sociopath with the most condemning allegation being he was a dangerous pedophile. The team also learns that Castine had an apparent lover who has a tweener daughter. At the same he works that case, Joe's girlfriend and teammate Lyn Silva finds out more about her lost at sea father and brother; their boat vanished off the Maine coast. While Joe and the rest of the unit dig into the Castine murder, Lyn digs into her family tragedy as she learns her lobstermen family members might have been murdered by drug traffickers. The two investigations rotate lead with much of the fun is in observing Joe being pulled by both cases, which makes him less effective than usual and somewhat inefficient to the point that his team's loose cannon Kunkle is simply loose. The story line is not quite as taut as a typical Gunther Vermont police procedural. However it is as fast-paced and exciting as any series entry because of the hero's somewhat unproductive balancing act as one inquiry has a host of happy people with Castine's death and the other is personal with Lyn in the middle. Harriet Klausner

Mayer's thriller is set in Vermont, where a man is found brutally stabbed and beaten, virtually unrecognizable, save an ID in his wallet. The crime scene is soaked in blood, turning the indelicate stomachs of even the most seasoned investigators, Joe Gunther of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation and his crack team of detectives. And from the first chapter, Mayor takes charge of his characters and the rhythm of his story, with believable dialog and a grotesque crime scene. The author perfectly captures the cop shop camaraderie, consistent throughout the book, an eclectic group of men and women who live with violence in every from yet manage personal lives and relationships that sustain them. There is no ambiguity about which side Mayor is on, the sometimes slow, but affective wheels of Vermont's Bureau of Investigation turning, producing results, but not without unexpected twists and dangerous situations that threaten the public and officers alike. It's a good thing Gunther can rely on his team because an unexpected situation sends him from Vermont to Maine in pursuit of his current hopeful relationship with Lyn Silva. Lyn's father and brother have been killed in a fishing-related accident- or so she thinks- until new information surfaces that causes Lyn to question everything she has believed about her father. Lyn wants answers, putting herself in considerable danger in her need to find the truth. Hence, Joe's impulsive rush to Maine and a few terrible hours when he learns that Lyn has disappeared. Mayor juggles both cases, Gunther hovering over the Vermont investigation while pursuing Lyn in Maine, where he happily accepts the aid of Maine's bureau officers. The characters, good and bad, are strong and realistic, from Joe's team to the petty criminals who barter in information and the sociopaths who slip the boundaries of sanity and take revenge the old fashioned way. This is Mayor's genre, a satisfying walk on the wild side filled with colorful characters and close escapes, the detritus of existence below the radar and the occasional bursts of violence that call for the best in law enforcement for resolution. Luan Gaines/2009.