Review: Fall Guy: A Joe Gunther Novel by Archer Mayor

It is late winter as Fall Guy: A Joe Gunther Novel by Archer Mayor begins and Joe Gunther, Field Force Commander of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation, have been summoned out to a scene bathed in a sea of strobe lights from numerous agencies. It appears that the only party not there is the local dog catcher.

A stolen Mercedes four door sedan has been discovered abandoned. The car was reported stolen by the owner, Lemuel Shaw several days ago. Thanks to problems with the onboard GPS system, it was not tracked from the house in New Hampshire to the final resting place here in Vermont.

If it was a simple stolen car that would be one thing and would not have generated the massive law enforcement response. In addition to numerous obviously stolen items in the car, there is a dead body in the trunk.

If that was not enough, there were six cell phones in the car. At least one of the phones has pornographic images of a young child on it and the pictures are clearly very recent. That phone is also tied into New Hampshire which creates an avenue for Joe and his team to join an Internet Crimes Against Children Task force with their New Hampshire colleagues. It also gives them a way to retain jurisdictional control over a rapidly more complicated case.

One that will cross state lines repeatedly as Joe Gunther and his team works to figure out what caused Don Kalfus to wind up dead in the trunk of a rich man’s car. Along the way, they rescue a young girl from a horribly abusive situation, and solve at least one cold case from long ago.

The books in this series are always very complicated and this one is no exception. The police family are always a major factor in these books, on and off the job, and such is the case in this read as well. All hands are on deck and repeatedly a part of everything as the team works to clean up a nasty and extremely entangled mess.

Complicated and highly entertaining, Fall Guy: A Joe Gunther Novel by Archer Mayor is a solidly good read that keeps readers guessing in right to the end. 

My reading copy was a digital ARC courtesy of the publisher, Minotaur Books, via NetGalley. The book is currently scheduled to be released September 27^th.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2022