Customer Reviews

The Disposable Man (Joe Gunther Mysteries Ser.)

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Archer Mayor is a good plot crafter. He sets up crimes bereft of any clue except one - and that one clue leads to many more. In this outing, there are ambitious city politicians, CIA spooks, and Russian mafia of all things. If Mayor was heavy handed or trite, he would have these evil forces pulling every impossible dirty trick from a comic book you could imagine. Thankfully, he shows restraint. The writing and dialogue is lean, the story moves quickly (sometimes too quickly) and there is a cliffhanger type of ending. One thing that would change my review to five stars is this: I don't feel a payoff from the climactic endings. All the events leading up to the finale are satisfactory.

Not to readers - you will get the most satisfaction from these books if you read them in sequence. You will get to know the characters and understand their motivations and personalities.

Having read and enjoyed most of Mayor's earlier works, I was prepared to sit back and enjoy a good plot sited in a scenic part of New England. But this attempt to entertain fell far short of Mayor's past books. Hence the title review blurb. The plot and character development are convoluted and inane, and it seems to have been written more for a "Die Hard -3" audience than for readers who like a bit of credibility in their mystery novels. Come on, Archer, you can do better than this.

THIS IS A GOOD BOOK. IF YOU WANT TO BECOME A MYSGTERY FAN YOU CAN'T DO ANY BETTER THAN JOE GUNTHER, ARCHER MAYOR'S DETECTIVE. I THINK ALL OF ARCHER MAYOR'S BOOKS ARE GREAT AND I LOOK FORWARD TO THE NEXT ONE. THE ONLY THING THAT I WISH IS THAT JOE GUNTHER WOULD GET A LITTLE TOUGHER, HE SEEMS TO BE TOO NICE A GUY FOR A DETECTIVE. AT TIMES HE APPEARS TO BE ALMOST A STUMBLEBUM, BUT THEN HE ALWAYS COMES THROUGH I HIGHLY RECOMMEND ANY OF ARCHER MAYOR'S DETECTIVE NOVELS.

This latest entry in the Joe Gunther series is a worthy successor to the previous installments. Once again, the small town of Brattleboro, Vermont is in the midst of an unexplainable crime, and the locals are on the case, only this time it is Joe himself who comes under suspicion, and has to work to save his career and reputation. The story, tho' tinged with intrigue, is believable, and Mayor's depiction of small-town Vermont and its people is once again dead-on. Mayor is one of a few who have really crafted outstanding series based upon small-town law enforcement (others being Stephen Havill for New Mexico and Gerry Boyle for rural Maine). Good job!

In Brattleboro, Vermont, police lieutenant Joe Gunther wonders why a foreigner would be murdered in a nearby quarry? The victim carried no identity and no one seems to be claiming a missing Eastern European. The only marks of meaning are some strange tattoos on the body of the corpse that abruptly arouse the attention of the FBI and the CIA.

The CIA wants Joe to back out of the case, something he refuses to do. Instead, they invite him to DC, but before he can leave someone tries to kill him. Still, the intrepid law enforcement official continues with his inquiries even though he is no longer sure who he can trust.

Just about any other writer besides the great Archer Mayor would flop miserably with this way out story line of a technological shootout between Russians in Vermont. However, Mr. Mayor not only pulls off the plot, but makes Joe seem more human in the face of his findings. Mr. Mayor is one of the sharpest writers of police procedurals, who also should be paid by the state tourist bureau because his descriptions of Vermont is breathtaking.

Harriet Klausner

~In Brattleboro, Vermont, police lieutenant Joe Gunther wonders why a foreigner would be murdered in a nearby quarry? The victim carried no identity and no one seems to be claiming a missing Eastern European. The only marks of meaning are some strange tattoos on the body of the corpse that abruptly arouse the attention of the FBI and the CIA. <P~ tries to kill him. Still, the intrepid law enforcement official continues with his inquiries even though he is no longer sure who he can trust. <P~ who also should be paid by the state tourist bureau because his descriptions of Vermont is breathtaking.

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