Joe Gunther, detective turned investigator, now works for the Vermont Bureau of Investigation. A wife kills her husband with a handgun that is traced back to a case some thirty years ago. Joe, remembering that long ago case, has some deep regrets. At the time, his wife was fighting a losing battle with cancer. So concerned was he with Ellen’s illness, Joe’s usually diligent investigation was flawed.

A local store owner, Klaus Oberfeldt, was robbed, beaten, and left for dead. His wife maintained a vigil for her husband just as Joe was doing for his wife. The Oberfeldts were not well liked in the community, and Joe, as he was confronted by Mrs. Oberfeldt in the hospital, could easily understand why. She is overbearing and doesn’t think Joe is paying enough attention to trying to find her husband’s attacker. Six months later, Klaus dies, and Klaus’ wife not long after. Joe has always regretted not having made more of an effort to clear the case, but at the time, he was too wrapped up in his own grief to deal more aggressively with the situation.

Now, thirty two years later, the weapon used on Klaus Oberfeldt reappears. Tracking the gun’s disappearance and reappearance leads Joe to a man named Peter Shea. Unearthing the whereabouts of Peter Shea proves a bit more difficult, until Joe finds the man had moved shortly after Oberfeldt was robbed, and changed his name. Now calling himself Norm Chesbro, the former Peter Shea lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He works in a fish-packing plant, keeps to himself, and spends his free time getting quietly drunk.

However, by the time Joe arrives in Gloucester he is again too late. He finds that Shea had been pulled out of the water earlier that day with a bullet hole in his head. Joe cannot accept that Shea’s murder is just coincidence. He is determined to solve the case not only to set his own mind to rest, but to repay a debt to an old woman, who, unpleasant though she was, deserved better treatment than what he had offered her so many years ago.

The Surrogate Thief is the fifteenth in Archer Mayor’s continuing saga following the career and life of Joe Gunther. As in most series books there are some entries that are more powerful and compelling than others. In addition, after several adventures it is a tough task for an author to come up with a new story line and a fresh approach. Archer Mayor has done both with this latest Joe Gunther tale. Tying his present work to events of thirty years ago is an inspired way for Mayor to give his readers a glimpse of Gunther’s history. He is able to actively show the devotion and love Joe felt for his wife and how that colors his present relationship with his political activist girlfriend, Gail.

The story is clearly more character driven than plot driven. The skill with which Mayor develops the emotional makeup of the people that inhabit Brattleboro is testimony to this author’s knowledge of his craft. Not only does he flesh out Joe Gunther and his other returning characters, but he introduces Katie Clark, a barkeeper in Gloucester who is more than a step above a cardboard character in most novels.

The location is equally important as the characters in The Surrogate Thief. Mayor carefully describes Vermont and Gloucester. There is no question as to where the action is occurring. Mayor’s Vermont is distinctly different from Gerry Boyle’s Maine or Jeremiah Healy’s Massachusetts though both of these writers give excellent portrayals of other New England locales.

Geographically speaking “Vermont is shaped like a broken wedge, pointed south. It’s barely over 40 miles across at the bottom, 90 across the top and 160 in length…It is tiny, rural, landlocked unindustrialized, politically quirky, among the whitest states in the union, and forty-ninth in population. Its capital, Montpelier, is the smallest of its ilk in the nation, and the only one not to have a McDonald’s restaurant.”

“Gloucester, Massachusetts, is one of the grand old New England towns, as renowned in maritime history as Cape Ann - on which it is perched - was famous … still fully functional as a fishing port, is but a pale glimmer of its past.” With such intense, detailed descriptions, there is no question of the backdrop for the novel. The geographical closeness to the rest of New England as well as the topography of the state make the reader constantly aware of the setting for The Surrogate Thief.

Although a continuation of the life and times of the intrepid Joe Gunther, The Surrogate Thief could easily be read as a stand alone novel. Those unfamiliar with the series will have no trouble identifying with such well developed characters. Those fans of the series will not be bored by a rehash or illusion to previous events in Joe’s life. This novel does have something for everyone.

--Andy Plonka