Piecing together a murder victim's identity occupies much of Det. Joe Gunther's time after Vermont's chief medical examiner notifies him about a man who died from a year-old gunshot wound. Gunther's initial findings only compound the mystery: the victim lived like a hermit, squirreled away a fortune, and had ties to organized crime in Chicago. Mayor expends a lot of energy on detail relating both to location and police methodology, so his effort should please procedural fans and those who enjoy country-cop-in-the-big-city escapades. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

When Vermont recluse Abraham Fuller dies, the autopsy reveals he was killed by an aneurysm--caused by a bullet shot at him about 20 years before. Back at the dead man's house, Brattleboro police lieutenant Joe Gunther (Scent of Evil, etc.) discovers that an elaborate astrology chart and a copy of The Scarlet Letter are missing, and also that there's a body buried deep in the garden- -dead about 20 years, with a surgically implanted stainless-steel knee joint. Who was the dead man and what happened? Joe tracks the knee joint to Chicago, where with the aid of about-to-retire cop, Norm Runnion, he's soon stirring up aging radicals who supported the Chicago 8--and stole millions in donations that were earmarked for their defense. A surgeon will die and Joe will be gulled by suspects and befriended by mobsters before the trail leads back to Vermont, where, give or take a name change or two, he identifies the principles in this decades-past story, which culminated with a wild gun chase during Vermont's grand tourist attraction, the Bread and Puppet show. Crisp medical writing and an intriguing premise don't quite obscure two major plot holes, one involving motivation and the other a misinterpreted clue. Mayor, who could probably write dandy investigative nonfiction, needs to tighten up his storylines before this otherwise estimable series sinks into mediocrity.

Although its population hovers around a mere 13,000, Brattleboro, Vt., has a four-man, one-woman detective force any metropolis--and any reader--can look up to. In his fourth outing, after Scent of Evil , chief of detectives, Lt. Joe Gunther is confronted with ``one very old, cold homicide'' after an orthopedic patient in a local hospital dies from an aneurysm brought on by a bullet fired 20 years before. The man had given the hospital no information other than his name, Abraham Fuller, and when asked how he meant to pay, pulled out $5000 in banded bundles of old, worn bills. Gunther investigates the isolated cabin where Fuller had lived a hermit's life since the hippie days, and discovers a chart of odd symbols, an empty holster, some ancient bullets--and a bag containing $300,000. But it's the discovery of a skeleton in Fuller's carefully tended garden that sends Gunther to Chicago for the second half of the book. There's fine work here. The complicated plot, embracing past crimes and current ones, spins with revelation and surprise; the numerous characters are fully developed; and the villain, once revealed, is everything a villain should be. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Abraham Fuller was a recluse who lived in a cabin deep in the woods near Brattleboro, Vermont. An autopsy reveals that his death was caused by an old bullet that shifted inside his body. Whoever shot Fuller is wanted for murder, even if it took 25 years for the shot to complete its deadly mission. Joe Gunther, Brattleboro's ranking detective, gets the case. First he has to piece together--from an arid patch of clues--a sense of the victim. He lived alone; he always paid for everything in cash; and even his landlord knew very little about him. Then a second shooting victim is discovered in Fuller's garden. The corpse is about as old as Fuller's gunshot wound and has an artificial knee. Gunther follows the medical trail all the way back to Chicago in the late 1960s. This fourth entry in the series solidifies Gunther's position as one of the best small-town fictional sleuths. ~--Wes Lukowsky