The Orphan's Guilt

July 1, 2020
Vermont Bureau of Investigation head Joe Gunther's latest deep dive into crimes and misdemeanors takes off from the most unexpectedly consequential DUI arrest in local history. The stop itself is routine. Web designer John Rust has clearly had one too many, Trooper Tyler Brennan pulls him over without incident, and the closest Rust comes to putting up any resistance is explaining that he's been drinking to get over the death of the brother he's cared for since childhood. Peter Rust had been hydrocephalic and vegetative for most of his 28 years, and everyone who knew him would agree that both before and after his worthless father, Daryl Hicks, took off 10 years ago following the fatal overdose of his wife, John took care of his brother with saintly patience. It's not until Scott Jezek, John's lawyer, spots procedural irregularities in the arrest that might give his client some wiggle room and asks investigator Sally Kravitz to dig up more details about the family's past that skeletons begin to spring from their closets, joined shortly by the all-too-fresh body of Daryl Hicks. As Joe works his corner of the case, Sally and reporter Rachel Reiling team up again to work their own, and Mayor provides so much fodder for everyone that fresh complications are still piling up as the tale hurtles toward its final scene. The ending may leave readers shaking their heads, but not until they've plowed through an impressively darkening middle.

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August 1, 2020
Joe Gunther, grand old man within the Vermont law-enforcement community, takes us to his sylvan state for a thirty-first time (after Bomber's Moon, 2019). A routine DWI stop escalates into a case involving multiple murders, assaults, and thefts going back decades. When John Rust is arrested for drunk driving, his lawyer hires private eye Sally Kravitz to dig a little deeper into his troubled past, and dig she does, with an able assist from her journalist friend, Rachel Reiling. John was the devoted caregiver of his younger brother, Peter, believed brain-damaged at birth, who had died earlier that day. The police take an interest when it is comes to light that Peter's condition was probably caused by a beating he received as an infant, 28 years earlier, at the hands of his father. The deeper Gunther's team digs, the darker it gets, as the sins of the Rust parents and their self-destructive behaviors are revealed. Mayor once again delivers a fine police procedural, one with a heartrending backstory within its crystal-clear narrative.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

August 24, 2020
Bestseller Mayer’s solid 31st Joe Gunther novel (after 2019’s Bomber’s Moon) begins with a DUI arrest along a Vermont road. The case of John Rust, a repeat offender, appears to be open and shut, until his lawyer, hotshot Brattleboro defense attorney Scott Jezek, angles for a way to appeal to the jury’s sympathy. Jezek hires PI Sally Kravitz to check out the death of John’s invalid brother, Peter, to whom he was devoted, on the day of John’s arrest. Peter’s death was apparently the result of complications of a childhood brain injury, but Kravitz comes up with evidence suggesting it was murder as she uncovers the troubling truth behind Peter’s condition and John’s drinking. Gunther, head of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation, and his team step in to investigate. Meanwhile, someone has come a long way to finish his business with the Rust brothers, and he has little to lose after so many years. Mayer expertly intertwines murder with a view of life off the beaten path. This long-running series continues to impress. Agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich Agency.