Bucking the trend where murder, discovery and resolution all happen in a ridiculously brief amount of time, Occam’s Razor takes a more realistic approach and covers Joe’s career and cases over a year. Beginning with an apparent death by train -- a bum fell asleep on the tracks and the train decapitated him -- Joe’s team finds several incongruities, the first of which is that the victim’s hands were also “accidentally” removed. And upon autopsy, the doctor makes the observation that for a bum, he was in remarkably good health. Yet why would someone commit a murder, then go to such lengths to make certain the body and crime scene were discovered? When an abandoned truck is found nearby with a load of hazardous materials and no driver, Joe correctly suspects he has the driver in the morgue. Why would someone commit murder over a truckful of hazardous waste?

Following the heels of this bizarre case are internal changes, both political and personal. On the political front, the aspiring governor has chosen police reform as his platform and Joe finds himself drawn into the battle. While he admits the waste and redundancy of Vermont’s 70-plus police services, Joe also understands the territorial attitude they each have, as well as Vermont’s longstanding tradition of taking care of its own. Personally, he and long-time love Gail are drifting apart and he feels helpless to stop or change it. At work, Joe watches his stalwart second in command go through the agonies of an ill-fated romance and reluctantly steps in when it begins to interfere with her police duties.

A second case involving the fatal stabbing of a young woman brings new evidence to the bum-on-the-tracks case when several of the same witness names crop up again as associates of the young woman. When the woman’s small child is also found dead of hypothermia, the case becomes emotionally charged and gets high visibility from the local press. The local news reporter calls Joe confidentially and tells him of anonymous phone calls implicating the gubernatorial candidate in both the woman’s murder and the hazardous waste dumping.

Author Mayor is masterful at weaving seemingly unrelated pieces and parts into a unified, smooth whole. The reader is treated intelligently to the character’s insight, feelings and descriptions. Mayor is so not blinded by his love of Vermont that he doesn’t see the limitations of the state and its residents, and points them out with the indulgence of a loving parent.

Whether you chose to make this novel your introduction to Joe Gunther, or begin with an earlier one, you’ll find him worthy of your acquaintanceship and will wish you had met him sooner.

--K. W. Becker