Archer Mayor St. Alban’s Fire

St. Alban's Fire

Archer Mayor

Mysterious, Oct 2005, $24.95, 310 pp.

ISBN: 0892968168

North of Barrington, Vermont, everyone who knows seventeen years old Bobby Cutts likes him as he is a thoughtful caring person. That is except his girlfriend man-eating tease Marianne Koch, who thinks the do-gooder is pathetic, enjoys seducing him into crazy desire for her, and wants to date other boys. Upset with Marianne's latest liplock with another male, Bobby enters the barn, which soon turns into an inferno in which for whatever reason he fails to escape. Bobby and a herd of cows die.

Vermont Bureau of Investigation Agent Joe Gunther finds the case perplexing as there seems to be no motive.. No one seems to hate the victim or his family; in fact everyone speaks highly of the late teen. Yet, someone planned to kill Bobby. The clues lead Joe and his partner Willy Kunkle to Newark, New Jersey where the locals at first cooperate, but eventually tell the New Englanders to go home. Joe knows he has no authority in Jersey, but an arsonist must be stopped before someone else meets a fiery death.

The sixteenth Vermont police procedural is a terrific refreshing thriller because the women involved either in the investigation (a Newark cop, the arsonist's girlfriend; and two disgruntled unhappy farm wives) and Joe's girlfriend are incredible characters. The case is complex with obvious motive unknown and the opportunity having to be someone who knew the victim yet no one disliked him. Fans will appreciate Joe's latest tale as nothing in his personal life or on the job seems to go right.

Harriet Klausner