"THE CATCH" by Archer Mayor (A-)

If you feel like kicking off your shoes, settling back, and picking up a good book to to read, then you will not go wrong by selecting this superior outing starring Vermont policeman, Joe Gunther. "The Catch," apparently Archer Mayor's 19th book, is a solid and pleasurable read that tilts heavily towards being a police procedural after a Vermont cop is murdered late at night along a lonely stretch of highway after pulling over a nondescript sedan for speeding. 

Like any popular brand, the subtitle, "A Joe Gunther Novel," says it all. This 2008 novel is the fifth one that I have read which stars Joe Gunther, the intrepid second in command for the (fictional) Vermont Bureau of Investigation. I do not know whether Mayor has created other literary heroes from the solitude of his home in Vermont after a career spent as a firefighter and a death investigator for the Vermont Chief Medical Examiner. In any event, he is doing just fine with his Joe Gunther series. 

Gunther wears well with age as a true professional who works seamlessly with others, especially his subordinates, as he is a team player rather than being a charismatic loner who alienates all near him. He is always desirous of sharing the credit (and avoiding the spotlight) with the highly favorable result that he is widely admired both within and without his agency.

Mayor is one of those dependable authors who never fails to deliver a solid read, but it can also be said that none of his novels which I have yet come across are enhanced by soaring literary verbiage or populated by bright characterizations which can elevate crime novels to the point of being literary treasures. It might fairly be said that Mayor thinks like a cop and writes like a cop. Never dull, and always entertaining. He wears well like and old shoe and is equally as comfortable. 

The theme of this novel begins with the possibility that a cop's murder might involve the smuggling of prescription drugs in from Canada to a dealer network known to exist in Maine. This working hypothesis brings in an unusual array of local and national police departments, including the local cops, the Vermont Bureau of Investigation (VBI), the Maine State Police, the Maine DEA, and the national ICE. 

Special Agent Joe Gunther plods through it all helped by his trusty subordinates, Lester Spinney, Willy Kunkle, and Sammy Martens. His superlative political instincts and low key demeanor allow him to navigate the shoals of potential interagency turf battles with consummate ease. 

The story begins on a lonely stretch of highway running through Vermont. Late at night while on patrol looking for drug smugglers coming from Canada, Deputy Sheriff Brian Sleuter pulls over a small sedan for speeding. Inside the car are two men, the driver, James Marano, and a passenger named Luis Grega. While checking on their stats back in his vehicle, an unknown assailant shoots him in the head from the driver side of his car. 

Fortunately, the information had been sent to dispatch and the whole episode has been caught on tape. Luis Grega was seen slipping out of the stopped car shortly before Sleuter was murdered, and an APB was quickly put out on him the next morning. It was also noted that the car had crossed the Canadian-American border earlier that evening and that Marano lives in an area of South Boston noted for being infested by gangs and drug dealing.

In the meantime, midlevel drug kingpin Matthew Mroz, aka "Roz", is gunned down with his bodyguard inside a cheap motel room in Rockland, Maine. This sets off alarm bells at all levels of law enforcement, for a battle for Roz's turf is sure to ensue with his drug distributor network now being up for grabs. 

In a complex plot with several threads yet to be connected, Alan Budney, the disaffected son of a wealthy lobster fisherman from up the coast in Maine near the Canadian border, has ambitions to succeed in his new career of smuggling in prescription drugs from Canada. Already having already served time for selling prescription drugs, Alan has little to lose in the eyes of his stern and unforgiving father. He meets with a Canadian who goes by the nom-de-plum of Didry in the hope of fashioning a more efficient supply network.

We also share in the personal relationships of the characters in this story.  Fellow VBI Officers and patrol partners, Willy Kunkle and Sammy Martens, are still an item, although it is easy for them to hide their relationship since everyone else would find the thought utterly preposterous. And after breaking up with his long time love in an earlier novel, Joe Gunther is happily settling in with Lynn Silva, the bartender who he had met in a previous novel after his breakup. She moved from Gloucester to settle near Brattleboro, and she has recently opened her own bar which just coincidentally happens to be a lot closer to Joe's small coach house apartment. 

As it happens, Lynn has a family history that becomes very relevant to this story. Her brother is trying to go straight after serving time for doing drugs, and we find out that both of them share in the sorrow of having lost their father and older brother, both lobster fishermen, in a storm at sea. 2008, St. Martin's Press, 274 pages.