Joe Gunther


Joe Gunther is the hero of Archer Mayor's long-running mystery novel series largely set in Vermont and particularly in the city of Brattleboro.
Gunther was born around 1933 on a farm near Thetford, Vermont. He fought in the Korean War, then went to college in Berkeley and eventually joined the Brattleboro Police Department as a street patrolman. At the time of the events depicted in the first book in the series, Gunther is the second most senior detective in Brattleboro PD, with nearly 30 years of experience. He subsequently becomes the head of detectives and then moves to the "Vermont Bureau of Investigations", which allows him to investigate serious crimes anywhere within the state.
It is revealed in later books that he made the transition from patrolman to detective some time around 1970. He was briefly married, but he lost his wife to cancer less than two years after becoming a detective, and he never remarried. He had a long-lasting relationship with Gail Zigman, a Brattleboro realtor turned politician, followed by a relationship with state Medical Examiner, Beverly Hillstrom. He has a younger brother Leo, who still lives in Thetford with their elderly mother as of the events of The Surrogate Thief.

Books

The Joe Gunther mystery series includes 33 books.
  1. Open Season
  2. Borderlines
  3. Scent Of Evil
  4. The Skeleton's Knee
  5. Fruits Of the Poisonous Tree
  6. The Dark Root
  7. The Ragman's Memory
  8. Bellows Falls
  9. The Disposable Man
  10. Occam's Razor
  11. The Marble Mask
  12. Tucker Peak
  13. The Sniper's Wife
  14. Gatekeeper
  15. The Surrogate Thief
  16. St. Albans Fire
  17. The Second Mouse
  18. Chat
  19. The Catch
  20. The Price of Malice
  21. Red Herring
  22. Tag Man
  23. Paradise City
  24. Three Can Keep a Secret
  25. Proof Positive
  26. The Company She Kept *
  27. Presumption of Guilt
  28. Trace
  29. Bury the Lead
  30. Bomber's Moon
  31. The Orphan's Guilt
  32. Marked Man
  33. Fall Guy
  34. "Crosscut"