Customer Reviews

Chat

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Joe Gunther of the Vermont Special Investigations Unit is investigating the death of two men who don't seem to have anything in common. After researching their history, he learns that they both had been using internet chat rooms. The men possessed child pornography on their computers and Joe and his unit suspect that the men may have been lured to the area by someone seeking retribution for a past sexual attack.

Archer Mayor always adds other investigations to his unit's activities. This attempt at realism seems to indicate an influence on the great Ed McBain, one of the founders of the police procedural.

In "Chat," Joe's brother, Leo, is in a car accident at the start of the story. Leo is with his and Joe's mother. Leo knows cars and tells Joe that it wasn't his fault but it was something in the car. While Leo is in the hospital, Joe and his unit investigate the auto repair shop and find something amiss.

The plot moved along nicely and kept my attention throughout. The author provides a taste of life in Vermont and this is a refreshing and enjoyable addition to the story.

Joe is a terrific protagonist. He's savvy, brave and a good administrator. He also shows his human side in having a new girlfriend and starting a relationship.

The other characters are equally well drawn and interesting. The series never fails to entertain.

During the last year, I've become a fan of Archer Mayor's Joe Gunther novels. Set in Vermont, the novels are an intelligent and emotional blend of mystery and slow-boil thriller. When you open one of the Gunther books, you get pulled into a world that is sharply realized and filled with real characters with real histories.

Archer Mayor writes about material he's familiar with. He's a death inspector for the state of Vermont's Chief Medical Examiner, is a deputy sheriff, and has been a fireman and EMT for 25 years. His crime scenes are worked right, and his technology is up-to-date and not somewhere in the ranks of science fiction.

Agent Joe Gunther works for the recently formed Vermont Bureau of Investigation. He's got a military background and a history with the state police. I like Joe a lot because he's the kind of guy I grew up around and still know. They're easy-going but hard-driven, the kind of guys who can talk with you all day and never take their eyes off the prize.

The latest novel, CHAT, brings the reader in close to Joe's family. Although his age is now permanently frozen in his mid-fifties by the author, Joe's been in law enforcement long enough to become something of a legend. He's been married once to a woman who died young of cancer. His family consists of a brother and invalid mother who still share their lives. I loved the way that Mayor introduces his characters and reveals how they relate to each other. Leo and his mother's relationship, and their relationships to Joe, are sparsely portrayed, but entirely believable.

I knew something was going to happen when I started turning pages in the book. Things always do. And when they start, you'd best sit up and start paying attention. Mayor works quickly, and he isn't afraid to juggle several different plot elements and expect you to keep up. When Joe and his mom nearly get killed in the opening chapter, I was keenly aware that I was reading a book that was going to further define Joe Gunther.

CHAT focuses on the threat to Joe's family. An old enemy reaches out of the past to even a score Joe doesn't even know about. It doesn't take Joe long to figure out that Leo's car was sabotaged, ending in a traffic accident that nearly killed him and their mother.

While Joe is digging into that, a naked dead man is found. Then another. In short order, his team is tracking what is evidently a multiple killer, but they have no idea what the motive behind the killings might be.

In the meantime, Joe is still dealing with the fallout from his breakup with longtime lover Gail. But a new woman has moved into town and isn't shy about letting Joe know she's interested in him.

I enjoy reading these books a lot. I always look forward to a lazy weekend I can spend dogging Joe's tracks as he hunts down the bad guys. The prose is light and easy to read, but due to the multi-layered plots, I often find myself reading so quickly to find out what happens next that I miss things and have to go back.

Archer Mayor is a great read, and a fantastic addition to the ranks of mystery sleuths on the shelves. If you haven't read a Joe Gunther novel, feel free to dive into the series anywhere. Even when you find out things about the characters that were revealed in earlier books, it's not really a big deal. You'll still enjoy Mayor's conversational writing and the well-plotted mysteries.

It is a picture perfect night when Leo Gunther and his mother leave the movies and head home after a brief ride around the green. Leo, a butcher, lives at home with his mother. However, home is not on the agenda for those two on this night. Leo suddenly loses control and the car goes down an embankment.

At the time of Leo's accident, his brother Joe is a police officer, working for the Vermont Bureau of Investigation, investigating a possible murder. When Joe learns of his brother's accident, he rushes to the hospital to find both his brother and his mother in critical condition. Joe cannot understand what caused the accident and when he begins checking into the facts, he finds that it might be more than just an accident.

The local police agree to help Joe in discovering what really happened to the car and who might have caused the wreck.

This book is several stories in one that are all tied together. Joe has gone his own way while Leo has stayed at home with their mother who is in a wheelchair. Now Joe has to step in and take a stronger role in the family. Joe's ex-girlfriend appears on the scene to be with the family in this emergency but she has moved on and her life is going in a different direction and away from Joe. A new woman suddenly makes an appearance in Joe's life and he has to decide if he is ready for another commitment.

The body that Joe was checking out when his brother's wreck happened is still an open case, yet another body has now been found, and clues indicate the two murders might be connected.

The investigation into Leo's accident uncovers a scheme that might be in part drugs and in another part Internet porn. How can all of these things be connected? It just does not seem possible, but the author manages to draw all the lines together and keep the reader guessing from start to finish.

Chat is a great book that I enjoyed very much.

Armchair Interviews says: The characters were realistic and the story believable.

Les Gunther and his mother are driving home after seeing a movie when all of a sudden the car isn't operating the way it should; they crash leaving both of them badly injured. The next of kin Joe Gunther, a commander in the Vermont Bureau of Investigation, is notified and he passes a John Doe corpse case he is working on to his team while he returns home.

Before his brother lapses into a coma he says something was wrong with the car. When they discover what is wrong with the car, Joe is immediately suspicious because the vehicle was too new to have thrown a rod. When they find the cotton pin that held the rod in place they have probable cause to confiscate the computer at the Griffis Garage where the vehicle was serviced. The father E.T. and son Dan blame Joe for putting away the youngest brother Andy who was probably innocent and took the fall for Dan. If Dan was convicted of another crime he would have been put away for life under the state's three strike rule. While in jail Andy was raped and when he gets out he committed suicide. Ironically there is nothing on the computer to implicate Dan with his crashing the vehicle but there are a series of chat logs connected to the case Joe was working on before his family emergency.

This regional mystery gives a vivid picture of the Vermont countryside and the colorful inhabitants who populate it. Joe's love for his family is so real that readers expect to do what he can and more for them. The mystery is well plotted and has so many suspects besides the obvious avenging father and son team that readers will never guess who the killer is. Archie Mayor has written another great Vermont police procedural.

Harriet Klausner

I have been reading the Archer Mayor series in order, and I am finally getting toward the end of the series to date (August 2011). It seems to me that "Chat" and the previous book, "The Second Mouse," are showing a decline in Mayor's plots and writing. I find this most disappointing but not surprising. It must be hard to churn out a new book every year, wondering how to make the plot different and the writing fresh. It seems to me that every writer of a long series reaches a point where he/she has run out of steam and tries to use new techniques or change things up in ways that don't work.

Well, "Chat" is a product of the problem described above. This book is just messy. First of all, the chat sections before each chapter just don't work. There is no tie between them and the story until well into the book. The reader has no idea why those pointless little online conversation are there. Secondly, this book is very disjointed. There is always a jumping around from scene to scene and character to character in Mayor's books, but it seems to be extreme in "Chat" to the point that the reader can't make connections between events and activities of the various characters. Finally, the plots are just off, or Mayor just didn't make them ring true, at least his development of the plots was just sort of silly at times.

Finally, I am finding Joe Gunther's relationship issues a little sappy. And his trying to draw Willy out about his relationship with Sammy just doesn't seem realistic, even for a sensitive (though manly) guy like Joe.

Occasionally, Mayor's writing style of adding expository paragraphs here and there rather than showing the same information gets under my skin.

I am hoping Mayor got it better in his next book. I will be reviewing the entire series on my website when I have finished it. I can't give you the site on Amazon, but do search for mystery series reviews and you might find my page.

I gave up on CHAT which I found embarrassingly badly written. There's no accounting for taste.

As with other Joe Gunther series novels this one does not disappoint. The familiar cast of characters are there. They are as descriptive, likable, & real as in the past.
The novel is more a suspense mystery than a thriller. It has essentially two stories woven into it. One being personal; the other involving Internet predators which has resulted in two murders.
Mr. Mayor doesn't waste time on unnecessary dialogue or superfluous nonsense. His characters & story are very much to the point.
The ending is well done & not as simple as I had suspected. The book is a good, fast read which is well worth your time.

There's so much family involved in this book that it's a natural for the reader to relate.On one hand, you have Joe Gunther's family threatened for hi actions in a preious case. On the other hand, you have a series of murders in which it's easy to root for the murderer. The victims are internet predatorsI very much liked the use of chat room conversations prefacing the early chapters. These should be required reading especially for teen girls and their parents because this has become a part of real life.As in many contemporary mysteries, emphasis is put on all types of inter-personal relationships. In this case, this element definitely adds to the suspense and reader involvement. This is the second Joe Gunther novel I've read, and it sure is working to make me as much a fan of Archer Mayor's books as I have been of Michael Connelly's.This is a must read both as a mystery thriller and as a cautionery novel for teens and their parents.

Archer Mayor's stories carry a great balance of characters you can really get into and suspense that keeps you guessing to the end.

ChatI have read all the Joe Gunther books.... I'm not reviewing the Chat's plot, etc., but to state that the author is getting better and better and definitely worth reading, if you are into this genre.
Starting with "Occam's Razor" (1999), his books started using more of the character's (Joe Gunther) brain, doing away with much of the derring-do of earlier books. Some stated/implied violence/danger are still there, but the character seems to be getting smarter. Very enjoyable readings.
Hate to think that I have to wait probably a whole year for the next installment.... Agatha Christie in the making? He is already there!