Three Can Keep a Secret

The twenty-fourth entry in Archer Mayor's series featuring Joe Gunther of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation is among the best in the series. <br /><br />When Hurricane Irene blows through Vermont, it does millions of dollars worth of damage and causes enormous headaches for virtually all of the series' familiar cast of characters. Gunther's former love interest, Gail Zigman, is now the state's governor and has to deal with the mess and the political fallout that results. Gunther and his team must deal with a number of more specific issues.<br /><br />As an example, the Vermont State Hospital is flooded and an elderly mental patient who has been confined there for years manages to escape. The woman, Carolyn Barber, is known as "The Governor" because forty years earlier, she was indeed the state's governor for a day as the result of a PR stunt that didn't turn out so well. Gunther and his team go looking for the woman but are unable to find any trace of her, save for a slipper that she lost while making her escape.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the torrential rains have torn through a cemetery, exposing several coffins, one of which breaks open. The deceased who had been laid to rest in the coffin years earlier, turns out to be a pile of rocks, leaving Gunther's team to figure out what in the hell ever happened to the guy who was supposed to be in the coffin.<br /><br />As if those weren't problems enough, a former state politician suddenly turns up dead at his very expensive retirement/nursing home. The doctor on the scene attributes the death to natural causes, but when Gunther learns that the former pol was connected to the missing "Governor for a Day," the coincidence seems just too great and he orders an autopsy and a full investigation.<br /><br />From that point, the story proceeds along two tracks as the acerbic Willy Kunkle investigates the case of the missing body, which will turn out to have important ramifications for Willy himself. Meanwhile, the rest of the team tackles the case of the missing "Governor" and the death of the former politician. All in all, it's an interesting and entertaining read. By this point, for those who have followed this series for years, any new entry is like renewing old friendships and here, as is almost always the case, Archer Mayor never disappoints.

Mayor does it again. This book takes place right after Irene, the hurricane that surprised everyone by turning back to land. It destroyed towns in Vermont. Flooded roads. Took down covered bridges. Made roads impassable. Cut off much communication. Mayor uses it as a backdrop and vehicle to start his story. As always, he maintains a great balance between mystery and character developing both. Kept me interested to the end. If you read the series, you'll find this ends (SPOILER ALERT) in a more upbeat fashion. Whew. I've been waiting for this. If you've been keeping up with the series, don't miss this one. If you've never read Archer Mayor you'll enjoy it but I suggest reading some of the newer ones first. This one is good but if you have the background on the characters it will be better.

I really enjoy the Joe Gunther series, but this is a lesser Mayor effort. The mysteries aren't that compelling and when Joe does finally figure them out, the ending just fizzles with one of the murderers still loose. Recommended only to true Gunther fans.

<b>"Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead."</b><br /> ----------<i>Benjamin Franklin</i><br /><br /><br />That adage makes a catchy title, albeit not an especially pertinent one.<br /><br /><i>Three Can Keep a Secret</i> is the twenty-fourth volume in Archer Mayor's series about Joe Gunther and his fellow Vermont law officers. Gunther is now the number two person in the Vermont Bureau of Investigation, a group formed to assist other Vermont police agencies when requested.<br /><br />Hurricane Irene strikes Vermont, wreaking tremendous damage. The National Guard is called out and all police agencies are involved in helping people survive the storm. The always bad-tempered Willy Kunkle, who serves in the VBI, helps rescue some escaping criminals from a flood. Other members of the VBI are trying to find Carolyn Barber, an elderly long-term patient at a psychiatric institution, who has wandered off and may have drowned. At Barber's request, the people who work at that facility have always referred to her as "Governor"; although few are aware of this, many years earlier Barber had indeed been involved in a publicity stunt in which she had been named as the honorary governor of the state for one day.<br /><br />Flood waters also tear apart graveyards, and one smashed coffin is found to contain only stones. The coffin and its contents had been buried for a long time, but the VBI is able to locate relatives of the man who was supposed to have been buried in that coffin. <br /><br />The police also find the name of a man, once an influential Vermont politician, who had years before had some connection to Barber. On the day the VBI plans to see him, he is found dead in his bed in an upscale retirement home. It appears that the man had died of natural causes, but Gunther thinks that the coincidence calls for further investigation. Later there are other suspicious deaths of people who had some connection to Barber.<br /><br />The Governor of Vermont is Gail Zigmond, the one-time girlfriend of Joe Gunther. Political machinations arise that involve folks who had some relationship to the dead former politician; this may endanger Zigmond's administration.<br /><br />This is, of course, a mystery novel, with cruel criminals and nefarious schemes. It is also, to an unusual degree, a novel about people who suffer, people who overcome difficulties, who change and grow. Gunther in particular has a major change in his life.<br /><br />Willy Kunkle, once solitary and irascible, has changed in other ways. He is now married (to another important member of the VBI), and they have a baby daughter. It is Kunkle who unravels the mystery of the coffin filled with stones, and helps make three severely damaged lives begin to heel. Kunkle's wife Sam muses:<br /><br /><i>Willy was deemed unapproachable by most people, but to her, he wasn't that complicated. This was a smart man with a big heart that had been stepped on enough to make him angry, suspicious, and in pain. That's how she saw it, all the babble about PTSD and the rest notwithstanding. She'd seen him with their daughter and had been won over by him herself</i><br /><br />Governor Gail Zigmond, once a pillar of righteousness, has now become more of a politician. She denies this, probably even to herself. The following is part of a conversation with her Chief of Staff:<br /><br /><i>Gail nodded. This, in part, was why she had Rob Perkins as her CoS, as the jargon had it. He knew everyone. "Can you get to him?" she asked.<br /><br />"As in..." He left the implication dangling. <br /><br />She smiled without humor. "No. I don't do underhanded, as you very well know."</i><br /><br />But later, in a conversation with someone else, Zigmond requests information to which she knows she should not have access:<br /><br /><i>"Have you thought through what I think you're about to ask?" he asked her. <br /><br />"You getting technical on me?" she shot back.<br /><br />"I'm remembering my oath of office," he said carefully. <br /><br />But not carefully enough. <br /><br />"Meaning I've forgotten mine?" she asked sharply.</i><br /><br />One flaw in this series is that people do change but don't seem to age at anything close to a realistic rate. This doesn't matter in any one volume in the series, but it does have a cumulative effect. <br /><br />The end of the book is unusual, in that a major development is left unfinished. And yet, this in no way feels like an unresolved cliffhanger. The very end of the story is morally repugnant - and emotionally satisfying. <br /><br />This is, I think, one of the best books in a fine series, succeeding both as a mystery and as a moving portrait of police officers and the people with whom they interact.

When Hurricane Irene slammed Vermont, it did more damage than the usual flooding, severely damaged buildings, electricity outages, and destroying roads and bridges. It opened up decades of mysteries.<br /> As Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation, as well as police forces from throughout the state, try to help the storm victims, they are faced with some unanticipated situations. The flood raised coffins from some cemeteries. One of them got smashed and spilled out its contents: a bunch of rocks. The electrical failure in an old institution housing mentally ill people enabled one of the long-time residents, a woman called the Governor, to escape. All that was found was a shoe and a footprint. <br /> Soon thereafter the body of a long-time state politician was found in his bed at his expensive nursing home. The doctor ruled the death to be from natural causes, but Joe has his doubts. Other deaths follow, all seemingly connected after an investigation.<br /> Joe and his team begin to question the history of the missing patient and why she had been institutionalized for so many decades. They turn up a lot of history that some people would kill to keep hidden.<br /> Archer Mayor paints a picture of Vermont, its scenery, structure, politics, and people. People who followed the 2016 primary election in the US would not be surprised to read that the residents are politically populist. Mayor explains why. He also acknowledges it’s most famous product: Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia ice cream.<br /> The characters are well drawn and realistic. Each has his or her own, consistent personality. There are references to incidents in previous books but having read them are not necessary to fully appreciating this one. Most could have been omitted without any loss. The book is a fast read and the ending could easily lead to a sequel. <br /> Interesting observation: “Joe awkwardly shifted his cell phone against his cheek and ear to hear more clearly. He’d once taken the ergonomics of old-fashioned phones for granted. Never again.” <br />

Joe Gunther's twenty-fourth outing involves a missing body, a missing person, the murder of an elderly man in a nursing home, some historically lousy behavior by one-time legislators, and a political plot aimed at the governor in the aftermath of a major flood disaster. In lesser hands, the challenge of weaving all those elements into a coherent whole would be daunting, but Mayor pulls it off with his customary ease. Although one of the cases is a stand alone, the others have some connections among them. As a bonus, Joe gets to rediscover a relationship and Willy gets to perform a good deed. The local color is, as ever, well done.

Loved it! As usual!

Investigator Joe Gunther has his hands full in Vermont following a hurricane. A mental patient holds the clue that ties several seemingly unrelated cases together.

Joe and his crew investigate several murders during the time in which Hurricane Irene is laying siege to Vermont. Some great insight into various series characters in this one, especially Joe.

Two very satisfying conclusions to extremely different stories. Mr. Mayor is a master at this type of tale.