Trace

Starred review from July 3, 2017
Bestseller Mayor’s outstanding 28th Joe Gunther novel (after 2016’s Presumption of Guilt) takes the field force commander of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation almost completely out of the picture while spotlighting the work of three subordinates in three separate cases. First, VBI agent Lester Spinney reexamines a closed case, in which a state trooper and motorist killed each other in a shoot-out, after a forensic scientist uncovers a disturbing anomaly in the evidence. Second, a Windsor policeman calls in cop Willy Kunkle after a girl discovers three bloodstained teeth on a stretch of railroad tracks. Third, Samantha Martens, who lives with Willy and their child, investigates the murder of Gunther’s romantic partner’s daughter’s roommate. Mayor keeps the suspense high as he showcases each of his detectives’ special talents—Spinney’s patience and doggedness, Kunkle’s unorthodox but effective rule-bending, and Martens’s bravery and resourcefulness—in this welcome addition to the long-running series. Agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich Agency.

August 15, 2017
Can the Vermont Bureau of Investigation get along without Special Agent Joe Gunther (Presumption of Guilt, 2016, etc.)? Joe's 28th case gives them a chance to find out.The Green Mountain State is a beautiful place, but it's not the best spot to recuperate from the Lyme encephalitis afflicting Joe's mother. So Joe squires her to a specialized Missouri facility for state-of-the-art care. While he's away, crime doesn't accommodatingly cease. Jayla Robinson, on the run after nearly killing her seriously abusive boyfriend back in Albany, gets off a bus in Burlington and is promptly hit by a car driven by Rachel Reiling, the daughter of Joe's girlfriend, state medical examiner Dr. Beverly Hillstrom. Dr. Tina Sackman brings to Special Agent Lester Spinney unwelcome new evidence that the traffic stop three years ago that led to the deaths of both Senior Trooper Ryan Paine and Kyle Kennedy, the driver he pulled over, was anything but a routine case of mutually assured destruction. And a 10-year-old girl brings three teeth she's found along the railroad tracks to Sgt. Colin Guyette of the Windsor Police Department. As Joe sits by his mother's bedside cheering her every improvement, Rachel plunges herself into danger back home by inviting Jayla to sleep on the couch in her place till she gets settled; Lester patiently interviews everyone he can imagine might throw some light on that 3-year-old shooting; those teeth lead the VBI on a winding path to an unusually inventive case of sabotage; and Joe returns just in time for a celebratory barbecue. Solid, unspectacular work from all hands, including Mayor, who as usual forgoes high-concept mystery for the slow-burning pleasures of the multitrack regional procedural.

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September 1, 2017

In this latest series entry (after Presumption of Guilt), Joe Gunther's mother has serious health issues, so he leaves the Vermont Bureau of Investigation in Sammie Martens's capable hands. While he's gone, the team juggles multiple cases. Readers who appreciate step-by-step investigations mixed with stories about the team's personal lives will appreciate this excellent procedural.--LH

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2017
Needing to attend to his ailing mother, Vermont Bureau of Investigation (VBI) field commander Joe Gunther appoints Sammie Martens to lead VBI in his absenceand VBI is immediately swamped with potentially big cases. Sammie draws the murder of a young African American woman who had just become the apartment mate of Rachel Reiling, daughter of Beverly Hillstrom, the state's medical examiner and Joe's lover. Willy Kunkel ponders several broken, bloodied teeth found on railroad tracks in a small town, and his investigation leads him to a potential national security crime. Lester Spinney finds something anomalous in the forensic evidence in the case of a routine traffic stop that resulted in the death of a cop and the car's driver. The incident's notoriety makes the possibility of investigatory failures a political bombshell. Gunther's absence from a VBI novel will make fans wonder if Mayor can pull off a series entry without the series star. Mayor can and does. Without Joe's always-interesting musings about his state, Mayor uses Lester to muse in Joe's place. The normally ultra-collaborative team must go solo, and Mayor uses Joe's absence to greatly enrich his readers' understanding of characters they thought they knew. Trace is one of the best of a very fine series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)