Tag Man

August 8, 2011
Mayor’s 22nd Joe Gunther procedural (after 2010’s Red Herring) offers strong ensemble play from Gunther, head of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation, and VBI staffers Willy Kunkle, Sammie Martens, and Lester Spinney as well as their Brattleboro police colleague, Ron Klesczewski. The action centers on the person known as “Tag Man,” who breaks into supposedly secure, occupied houses, explores them, takes nothing of value, but leaves a Post-it as his calling card. The Tag Man enjoys the challenge and the risk, until he makes a grisly discovery and is identified by one of his victims, who sends a hit man after him. Gunther, though on medical leave following a grievous personal loss, volunteers to help Klesczewski unmask the Tag Man. Multiple games of cat-and-mouse ensue as the Tag Man tries to elude both police and a determined killer. Vermont’s history and geography again serve Mayor well in this deadly and highly entertaining entry.

November 1, 2011
Joe Gunther (Red Herring, 2010, etc.) returns in the strange case of a burglar not so much. In Brattleboro, Vt., the privileged classes are experiencing the downside of being upper. That's because Tag Man has made it unavoidably clear where he sees his targets of opportunity. Tag Man is the slick, savvy operator who slips ghostlike past sophisticated security systems but never seems to steal anything of substance. He's struck the houses of Brattleboro's rich and famous half a dozen times now, pilfering esoterically--a wedge of chocolate cake here, a spread of caviar on crackers there--and leaving behind nary a clue. Except, of course, his signature calling cards, sardonic "You're it" Post-It notes that have made him the media's favorite antihero and earned him his jokey nickname. But then, suddenly, the game takes a significantly darker turn. Someone, somehow, has promoted Tag Man from a figure of fun to a serious threat. Someone, in fact, contemplates murder if certain hard-eyed individuals can locate Tag Man who, perceiving his difficulties, has quite sensibly gone on the lam. Which means that Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation team find themselves in an anomalous position. They have to catch a thief, all right, but in order to protect him. It's hard to imagine a more likable thief than Mayor's Tag Man--or, for that matter, a more companionable lawman than the time-and-trouble-tested Sage of Brattleboro.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

September 1, 2011

Every library needs Mayor's police procedural series (Red Herring) on its shelves. Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation team try to figure out who's behind the puzzling "tag man" burglaries.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2011
At the close of Red Herring (2010), Joe Gunther walked away from his job as head of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation. He was bereft because his lover had been killed by an assassin, and he wasn't sure he could return to work. At the same time, his driven, misanthropic subordinate, Willy Kunkle, learned that he would soon be a father. As Tag Man begins, Joe is still sidelined, and some of Willy's rougher edges have been smoothed by his infant daughter. Then both Joe and Willy's attention is caught by an unusual man who breaks into Brattleboro's most opulent homes, stealing nothing but always leaving a post-it note that says simply, Tag. But the Tag Man's break-insin addition to renewing Joe's commitment to his worktrigger a circuitous series of crimes and events that make for great reading. Richly drawn characters and a delightful sense of place are hallmarks of Mayor's superb procedurals, and they are both in evidence in this fine addition to the series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)