Presumption of Guilt

Starred review from July 4, 2016
A cold case heats up Mayor’s excellent 27th Joe Gunther novel (after 2015’s The Company She Kept), set in and around Brattleboro, Vt. When roofer Henry “Hank” Mitchell went missing in 1970, most assumed he’d abandoned his family and moved west to join the free love movement; 40 years later, though, his body is discovered inside a concrete slab at the decommissioned Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, leaving special agent Joe Gunther and his team at the Vermont Bureau of Investigation to solve the man’s now decades-old homicide. The subsequent murder of Hank’s old business partner and the kidnapping of VBI investigator Lester Spinney’s son suggest Hank’s killer is still at large and won’t go down without a fight. Evocative prose, a strong sense of place, and a simple yet satisfying conclusion elevate this expertly crafted whodunit. Trip-wire tension complements intelligent detective work, fascinating forensics, and an airtight plot; the rich shared history of Mayor’s deftly drawn ensemble cast adds texture and depth without leaving new readers in the dark. Agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich Agency.

July 15, 2016
The demolition of the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor discloses a 40-year-old corpse and a mess of industrial-strength criminal waste for Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation to clean up.Sharon Mitchell and her children always assumed that Henry 'Hank' Mitchell had simply run out on them. Both before and after her husband vanished, Sharon spurned the advances of his boss, Robert "B.B." Barrett, the owner of Ridgeline Roofing. She might as well have capitulated, since Hank's spent the past 40 years encased in the cement slab holding up the reactor. When Vermont Yankee is decommissioned and demolished, Hank's suddenly back in the headlines. So is Ridgeline Roofing, especially after someone places three .22 slugs in a tight pattern in B.B.'s chest. The person of interest Joe's most interested in is Johnny Lucas, Hank's replacement as B.B.'s No. 2 man at Ridgeline. But Lucas has retreated to a gated compound and indicated that he has no interest in talking to the police. So Joe's colleague Willy Kunkle, who's long had a don't-ask-don't-tell relationship with offbeat burglar Dan Kravitz, politely asks him to sneak into Lucas' place and take a look around. The law of unintended consequences takes over, and not just for the characters: Part 2 of this tale abruptly takes off in a new direction, with cat-and-mouse suspense replacing the procedural inquiries of Part 1. Veteran Mayor (The Company She Kept, 2015, etc.) has no trouble making the two very different parts of his story work well on their own, but even he can't make them mesh very convincingly.

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April 1, 2016

A skeleton found bound in concrete at a recently decommissioned nuclear power plant solves a 40-year-old missing persons case while opening up a murder investigation--and another, as someone linked to the case is shot dead after speaking to Joe Gunther, head of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation. Then a young police officer is kidnapped, and you've got to wonder just how bad the bad guys here really are. New York mafiosi, maybe? From the New York Times best-selling author of The Company She Kept; with a New England tour.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2016
A skeletal finger wearing a wedding ring appears as workers decommission a nuclear-energy plant in Brattleboro, Vermont. The exhumation of a body that has been encased in concrete for 40 years must be done with archaeological care, but within 24 hours of the process, first-rate forensics give Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation the victim's identity and evidence that he was murdered. Gunther, Willy Kunkle, Sammie Martens, and Lester Spinney begin by interviewing victim Hank Mitchell's widow and his two, now-middle-age children. They also interview a number of Hank's close friends and his former business partner, Bill Barrett, who has become one of the wealthiest men in the area. But everyone is guarded, prompting Lester to sum up the investigation: a bunch of shifty geriatrics and a bucketful of questions. Presumption of Guilt is another fine entry in a wonderful serieswell plotted, as always, and featuring one of the best ensemble casts in the genre. The circumstances and timing of the case also offer Mayor the opportunity to wax lyrical, musing on the first signs of spring after a brutal winter and on how Vermont has changed since the 1970s. A reappearance of the titular character from Tag Man (2011) will seem to fans like a reunion with an old friend.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)