First Sentence: It was
cold, dark, and slightly breezy, causing a few dry snowflakes to scurry the
length of Sally Kravitz's windshield.
PI Sally Kravitz works within the law, as opposed to her
father, a thief known as "Tag Man." Rachel Reiling is a reporter
working at the Brattleboro Reformer, hoping for her first big story. Now, thanks to Joe Gunther, head of the
Vermont Bureau
of Investigation, the women are working together to connect two murders to
a prestigious prep school.
While this is a new entry in the Vermont Bureau of
Investigation/Joe Gunther series, Mayor provides a good sense of each
of his characters beginning with a nicely done introduction of Joe, but also a
strong sense of place as well. It's refreshing
to have two female characters take a significant role. Also enjoyable is that they are not members
of the police, and that they are quite different from one another, yet find a way
to work well together.
One may find oneself smiling at how well the plotting is done.
Interesting 3D crime scene technology brings the story into today's
technology. There are times where the scene
would change which made one mentally hear the classic two-note scene indicator on the old
police show "Dragnet." The changes also made the story feel a bit disjointed.
There are lighter moments—"Idle chat in Vermont was
always punctuated by discussions of mud season, mosquito plagues, heat waves,
dry spells, snowstorms, black ice, and countless other attributes of a
muscular, quirky seasonal parade of weather-related iconography." Mayor does treat one to a lovely use of
language—"Biased as he was against other people's learning curves,
obdurateness, or rank stupidity, he distrusted his own predisposition to
dismiss people prematurely."
The book is a delightfully intricate Venn diagram of circles
neatly intersecting circles. It's not
manipulative, but one becomes more intrigued as the pattern emerges. The characters are interesting especially as
not everyone is as they seem, and a new friendship evolves which one hopes to
see continue.
BOMBER'S MOON (PolProc-Joe Gunther-Vermont-Contemp) – VG
Mayor, Archer –
30th in series
Minotaur
Books – Sept 2019
Posts
To me, anyway, this is one of those underrated series that consistently delivers solid stories. And, as you mention, you can read this one and enjoy it without having read all of the earlier ones in the series. Really glad you enjoyed this one.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Margot. I also really like reviewing books by authors such as Mayor. Connelly doesn't need my help, but if I can inspire a few people to try a lesser known author, I feel I've succeeded in my role.
DeleteExcellent. Thank you so much, on behalf of Archer!
Delete