The Marble Mask [Import] [Hardcover]

Archer Mayor (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Mysterious; First Edition first Printing edition (2000)
• ISBN-10: 0759500118
• ISBN-13: 978-0759500112
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,901,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You've gotta read this guy, November 1, 2000

By 

Sean T. Carnathan (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Marble Mask (Hardcover)

Archer Mayor is steadily turning out first rate mysteries with a strong sense of place. Set in Vermont, Mayor's books capture their setting beautifully with quirky local details. But better still are Mayor's wild (yet plausible) plots. In this, his latest, the police find a frozen body with several missing parts (which broke off when the body was dropped from a plane). They quickly determine that the body belongs to a Canadian gangster, who disappeared fifty years earlier. The plot brings detective Joe Gunther to Sherbrooke, Canada, and involves delving into the history of a suicide-mission World War II commando unit, the product of a joint Canada-U.S. effort. One of Gunther's sidekicks -- the growling misanthrope Willy Kunkle -- brings a lot to these books as a character who evolves from book to book.

Just marvelous.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well done plot, October 5, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Marble Mask (Hardcover)

Former Brattlesboro police chief Joe Gunther knows that finesse and politeness are critical if the newly formed Vermont Bureau of Investigation (VBI) is to succeed. Joe, being a former town cop, knows that the locals will not appreciate outsiders from the state. As a matter of truth, the VBI has been mired under bureaucratic inertia until the Governor, answering a reporter's question, publicly assigns its first case even if the Stowe police chief has not asked for help.

The body of Canadian Jean Deschamps has been found frozen on the side of Mt. Mansfield. Someone with surgical skills amputated his feet and an arm, and punctured his heart. To Joe, the victim seems more like a frozen fossil since he has been iced for over five decades. As Joe and his crack team investigate the homicide, he also needs to massage the egos of the local law enforcement team, the Canadian liaison, the media, and the public expectations of the VBI's capabilities. At the same time, the threat of gang warfare in Jean's home province of Quebec increases the pressure to expeditiously solve the case.

The eleventh Gunther mystery is a dramatic change in the star's role as he switches from local policing to state law enforcement. The change is smoothly done as Joe's inner values and methodology remain the same, but the type of case and the political implications have moved to a higher level. THE MARBLE MASK is a strong police procedural that will excite fans of the series with its fascinating plot that combines a solid investigation with puissant external interests hampering the inquiry. Taking a risk, Archer Mayor continues to be a leading light of the New England regional mystery.

Harriet Klausner

4.0 out of 5 stars Vermont: More than a foliage tour!, January 18, 2009

By 

John Lee Payton - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Marble Mask (Joe Gunther Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

I've said this before but it's worth repeating: Mayor is a fine writer and I've enjoyed all his books from the first to the latest. If you like police mysteries you'll find he is a craftsman of the first order. If you just like a good story and a well crafted plot, you can't go wrong with Archer. But be advised: The first of his books you read won't be the last!