The Ragman's Memory (Joe Gunther Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Archer Mayor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1997 | Series: Joe Gunther Mysteries (Book 7)

It begins with an abandoned birds nest a nest made of hair -- human hair. Who is the victim? And what is the cause of death? A trail of grisly clues leads Lt. Joe Gunther to discover the victim's identity: a teenaged girl from the wrong side of the tracks. Searching for the truth, the investigation leads from the basement dives of Brattleboro to the mansions of its leading citizens. But the key to it all lies locked in the mind of World War II veteran. Now Gunther must find a way to open up the ragman's memory...before a killer strikes again.

"A pleasure...Mr. Mayor has created an intelligent, gentle, and feeling human being in Gunther....A lovely way to spend a few hours". -- Washington Times

"By practicing his craft with dazzling skill and by digging for deeper moral issues behind every grassroots crime he has made an honorable art form of the regional mystery". -- The New York Times Book Review

"Fascinating...the Joe Gunther novels are among the best mysteries being written today". -- Booklist (starred review)

Here is the seventh in the acclaimed series of police procedurals by Archer Mayor.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Lieutenant Joe Gunther of the Brattleboro, Vermont, police force is back in Archer Mayor's thrilling detective story. In Ragman's Memory, the mysterious murders of wayward drifters point toward a complicated puzzle involving government corruption and industrial espionage. Mayor's stories typically utilize the New England landscape in the plot and character development, and Ragman's Memory is no exception to the proven formula of this popular writer's bestselling series. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

A child discovers human hair and scalp in a bird's nest, triggering a complex murder investigation for Brattleboro, Vt., police lieutenant Joe Gunther. In his seventh adventure (after The Dark Root), Gunther finds that the victim, troubled teenager Shawna Davis, had known local activist Mary Wallis, who abruptly dropped her opposition to a planned convention center soon before Shawna was murdered. Wallis is missing. Politician Ned Fallows supported the project, then retired and left town. A vagrant dies mysteriously. A nursing home patient is murdered in her bed. As Gunther tries to connect these events, Selectman Thomas Chambers (NeverTom, the locals call him, because he dislikes the nickname) pressures police to ease up. Gunther doggedly picks his way through this maze with the help of his lover, Gail Zigman, and a determined detective squad. The solution lies in the memory of a shell-shocked Battle of the Bulge survivor who still sees German spies everywhere, but may have seen a real killer, too. Joe Gunther is a sympathetic, regular guy who excels at a tough job in a beautiful, if unforgiving, environment. Mayor highlights tensions between proponents of development and those who would preserve Vermont's beauty, making this solid noir mystery an offbeat New England tourguide, too.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446605905
• ISBN-13: 978-0446605908
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,097 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 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A real page-turner, November 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ragman's Memory (Joe Gunther Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Archer Mayor's mystery The Ragman's Memory was a real page-turner for me. Set in the frozen, rural northland of Brattleboro, Vermont (not too different from Potsdam, New York, where I make my home), Mayor tells how Police Lt. Joe Gunther tracks down a series of seemingly-unrelated crimes, the first clue for which is a snatch of purple-dyed human hair plaited into a bird's nest. The landscape and setting are as much a character -- a clear physical reality and motive force -- in this book as are the persons. Gunther nicely balanced careful police work with brisk narrative drive. I recommend this book, especially for northern winter evenings spent reading.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This has to be one of Mr. Mayor's best !, March 7, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ragman's Memory (Joe Gunther Mysteries) (Hardcover)

Having read most of the Joe Gunther series I feel that this one is one of the best. They all give me the feeling that I am part of the story, are well written, and attention to detail is not spared. For those of us familar with the area [Brattleboro, Vermont] the descriptions of the streets, buildings and the Town in general is so accurate it it is like being there. Mr. Mayor through his writing, has the ability to impart not only the image but also the feeling of being there. When you drive down a street in Brattleboro after reading this story it is like you've already been there or lived the scene

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Mandlebrot Of A Story From The Green Mountains, October 24, 2001

By 

Author Bill Peschel "Writers Gone Wild" (Hershey, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ragman's Memory (Paperback)

Call it bookman's snobbery, but it seems like far more novels are published in hardcover than deserve the honor. The cardboard bindings, generous type and colorful wrapping gives the feeling that what you hold in your hand is a work of lasting value. It's saying this is not just a paperback story whose pages age into brittleness as fast as you turn them.

Archer Mayor's series about Vermont detective Joe Gunther well deserve the hardcover treatment. His seventh book, "The Ragman's Memory" is a richly crafted tale that begins with the discovery of a hank of human hair in a bird's nest, and grows into a web of interrelated murders driven by greed, insanity and pride.

It's also a book whose plot should not be summarized further. Even reading the jacket copy would spoil the fun of watching Gunther -- competent and bland but surrounded by a great supporting cast -- start with a small girl's wonderment at the hank of human flesh she found, and follow that thread as it grows and turns tangled and convoluted. It's a mandlebrot of a story. The closer Gunther and the rest of the Brattleboro police force look, the more details appear, the list of suspects grow, and the implications and dangers of what they find increase.

Mayor tells his tale with carefully chosen words that economically reveals its details without padding. His writing is focused and sometimes intimate at unexpected moments, whether spotting a detective with an unusual method of passing the time at stakeouts, or creeping into the mind of a World War II veteran unable to leave the Battle of the Bulge.

Acting as the amphitheater for this morality play is Vermont, a state of rugged, sometimes heartbreaking beauty, mashed against the reality of industrial towns that have outlived their usefulness but which survive on sheer inertia. It's a landscape as compelling as Chandler's Los Angeles or Hillerman's New Mexico, and Mayor's skill renders the Green Mountain State with sympathy and beauty.