"THE SECOND MOUSE" by Archer Mayor (B)

Mayor has written quite a few books and I would imagine that a fair number of them are about his fictional Vermont detective, Joe Gunther. Vermont is such a quaint state and one well off the beaten track for police work, so this is a pleasant diversion from a locale standpoint. 

Joe Gunther is also one of the better personalities in the PI world. Once again, he is a character that I have come to know and I feel comfortable with the way he proceeds, or plods, through his clues to find the solution. Like many of the detective books that I have been reading lately, the solutions involve working through the clues in a methodical manner with blind alleys at most turns. It is usually good police work that saves the day instead of instinct or blind luck. A good memory also helps.

Vermont has recently reorganized the state police department and has carved out an elite unit called the Vermont Bureau of Investigation, or VBI, an agency which is similar to the FBI and comparable in authority. Gunther is second in command at this new agency under the head of fellow officer, Willie Kunkel, who is a long time associate. Agents at the VBI specialize in violent crimes, usually murder and terrorism. The paperwork is less and they don't have to waste their time on the normal police routine work. 

Joe Gunther is a single cop whose wife had died from breast cancer many years before. A policeman's policeman, he has solved more crimes over the years than the next five officers put together. He is so highly respected that most of the state police will welcome his insight and help and will not view him as a bureaucratic intrusion. One day he responds to a police call in Bennington even though it is not in his normal jurisdiction of Brattleboro. Actually, his jurisdiction covers the entire state, but he tries to stay around Brattleboro, his favorite town and where he lives. Fortunately, the local cop on the beat knows him and welcomes his input. Gunther is one of those cops with a great mind and a reasonable ego, so he gets along well with pretty much everybody on the right side of the law.

Michelle Fisher has been found dead in her bed. She looks peaceful in death, and it appears to be an obvious suicide. However, Gunther is puzzled. Like all brilliant cops, it is the one thing out of place that sets his suspicions going, and here it is the fact that the pet cat is missing. There is no way for that cat to have escaped Fisher's house. Furthering his suspicions is the fact that Michele and her boyfriend, who had tragically died six months before, had a violent row with his dad, who was trying to evict them from the house which he owned. Everyone who is interviewed agrees that the old man is a mean-tempered low life, and Gunther sets out to build a case against him. 

This novel is a good read, but not a great one. I am currently reading another one of Mayor's novels about Gunther, and that one is much better. I will send out a review about that novel in due course. Here Mayor develops two side-by-side plots which we all know will eventually blend into one another. The only problem is that the second plot is introduced so abruptly that the whole tenor of the book is thrown off. Furthermore, this second plot isn't nearly as interesting as Gunther's investigation, which is the subject of the first plot. I want to know more about him and the development of his case, and just when things get interesting, there is the breakaway to the other story line. Still a good read, but kind of disappointing.

Enjoy, enjoy a good read whenever you can. Carl