The Disposable Man (Joe Gunther Mysteries Ser.) [Paperback]

Archer Mayor (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Mysterious Press (1998)
• ASIN: B002NJ1YRY
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Archer Mayor is the author of the highly acclaimed, Vermont-based series featuring detective Joe Gunther, which the Chicago Tribune describes as "the best police procedurals being written in America." He is also the 2004 winner of the New England Independent Booksellers Association Award for Best Fiction--the first time a writer of crime literature has been so honored.

Before turning his hand to fiction, Mayor wrote history books, the most notable of which concerned the lumber and oil business in Louisiana from the 1870s to the 1970s. This book was published by the University of Georgia Press back in 1988 and very well received; it has been republished as a trade paperback in 2009.

Mayor--who was brought up in the US, Canada and France--was variously employed as a scholarly editor, a researcher for TIME-LIFE Books, a political advance-man, a theater photographer, a newspaper writer/editor, a lab technician for Paris-Match Magazine in Paris, France, and a medical illustrator. In addition to writing novels and occasional articles, Mayor gives talks and workshops all around the country, including the Bread Loaf Young Writers conference in Middlebury, Vermont, and the Colby College seminar on forensic sciences in Waterville, Maine. In addition, Archer is a death investigator for Vermont's Chief Medical Examiner, a Deputy Sheriff for Windham County, VT, an investigator for the Windham County State's Attorney's office, the publisher of his own backlist, a travel writer for AAA, and he travels the Northeast giving speeches and conducting workshops. He also has 25 years experience as a volunteer firefighter/EMT.

Mayor's critically-acclaimed series of police novels features Lt. Joe Gunther of the Brattleboro, Vermont police department. The books, which have been appearing about once a year since 1988, have been published in five languages (if you count British,) and routinely gather high praise from such sources as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the New Yorker, and many others, often appearing on their "ten best" yearly lists.

Whereas many writers base their books on only interviews and scholarly research, Mayor's novels are based on actual experience in the field. The result adds a depth, detail and veracity to his characters and their tribulations that has led the New York Times to call him "the boss man on procedures".

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as enjoyable as others in the series, May 10, 2001

By 

Old Fisherman "Jim" (Orange, California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Disposable Man (Joe Gunther Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Joe Gunther has a mystery on his hands. Who is the body found face-down in the quarry with all the labels cut out of his clothing. The dead man looks vaguely slavic and he has some cyrillic characters tattooed on his toes, but that's it. As Gunther tries different avenues he finds that suddenly the CIA wants to talk to him about the murder. And when he goes to Washington he's attacked by a knife-weilding assassin. But the final straw is when he's suspended for allegedly stealing a diamond brooch missing from a jewelry store robbery. Joe is convinced that he's been set-up to take him off the case and he goes after the Russian mob on his own.

Mr. Mayor is a good writer. His characters and dialog have always struck me as being believable. However I think he's finding that having his protagonist work in the small town of Brattleboro Vermont is becoming a bit too constraining. In this mystery we've got the CIA and the Russian mob. We've got ex-Russian spies fighting for their lives and we've got a mob shootout that almost costs Gunther his life. Perhaps a bit too much to believe for Brattleboro. Not that the mystery itself is bad. I still think that Mayor's novels are many times better than a lot of the junk that passes for mysteries these days. I just think that this particular book doesn't quite measure up to his earlier works.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Suddenly heavyhanded Archer's arrow misses mark, February 4, 2000

By 

dude (Sacramento) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Disposable Man (Joe Gunther Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I had enjoyed several Mayor novels prior to this one: a sensitive and humble hero, nicely shaded supporting characters, multidimensional villains, complicated but carefully developed plotting. And framed by a lovingly drawn Vermont background.

But I guess Archer decided he wants Arnold to someday play Joe Gunther on the silver screen because this one leaves all of the above behind. Instead we have an ever-widening and increasingly unbelievable web of FBI, CIA, Russian operatives and a hail of bullets.

I think the reader from Maryland asks the right question: Did Archer Mayor really write this book?

Say it isn't so, Archer.

3.0 out of 5 stars This One Was a Little Hard to Swallow, Not Enough Reality, September 4, 2007

By 

Grey Wolffe "Zeb Kantrowitz" (North Waltham, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Disposable Man (Joe Gunther Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

This story begins with the finding of a body in an old quarry. The body has no fiber or other clues and all the labels have been cut out of his clothes. The only identifying markings on the body are Cyrillic letters tattooed on his toes, and his lousy eastern european dentalwork. Starting from this base, everything goes downhill for Joe Gunther and it looks like he might even be headed to jail for taking a diamond brooch at a jewelry store smash- and-grab.

From this seemingly plausible beginning, we end up with Joe (and Gail and Willy and Sallie) involved with a forty year old feud between ex-KGB and Russian Mafia, retired CIA agents, cold war Russian defectors and a cast of characters who seem to come from a bad James Bond rip-off. The culminating shoot-out at the end of the story, is so absurd as to be comical. This is the kind of stuff that only happens in bad B-Movies or Woody Allen spoofs.

This has been a very enjoyable series (eight books prior to this one) up to this point. Let's hope that Mayor gets back on the road to reality with the next one.