Lt. Joe Gunther is in Vermonts Northeast Kingdom investigating a minor embezzling case. Its a pleasant distraction, and a chance to reconnect with old friends, but when a house fire reveals itself to be arson, compounded by murder, Gunther cant help but investigate. Suddenly, he finds himself enmeshed in a web of animosity between put-upon townspeople, the state police, angry parents and members of a reclusive sect. Murder follows murder, yet no one seems to be telling Gunther the whole truthnot even his childhood friendsand truth is what he desperately needs if hes to stop the killings.
Archer Mayor is the author of the highly acclaimed Vermont-based series featuring detective Joe Gunther, which theChicago Tribunedescribes as the best police procedurals being written in America. He is a past winner of the New England Independent Booksellers Association Award for Best Fictionthe first time a writer of crime literature has been so honored. In 2011, Mayors 22nd Joe Gunther novel, TAG MAN, earned a place onThe New York Timesbestseller list for hardback fiction.
Before turning his hand to fiction, Mayor wrote history books, the most notable of which,Southern Timberman: The Legacy of William Buchanan,concerned the lumber and oil business in Louisiana from the 1870s to the 1970s. This book was published in 1988 and very well received; it was republished as a trade paperback in 2009.
Archer Mayor is a death investigator for Vermonts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, a detective for the Windham County Sheriffs Office, the publisher of his own backlist, a travel writer for AAA, and he travels the Northeast giving speeches and conducting workshops. He has 25 years of experience as a volunteer firefighter/EMT. Mayor was brought up in the US, Canada and France and had been employed as a scholarly editor, a researcher for TIME-LIFE Books, a political advance-man, a theater photographer, a newspaper writer/editor, a lab technil“\