The Marble Mask

Joe Gunther, a Brattleboro, Vermont, cop, is the head of the new VermontBureau of Investigation (VBI), a joint task force charged with statewideresponsibility for major crimes. In The Marble Mask, the VBI's first casetakes the force north to Stowe, where a 50-year-old corpse has turned up in acrevasse on Mt. Mansfield. Some of the more interesting minor characters inauthor Archer Mayor's long-running series about the amiable elder sleuth makereturn appearances here as Joe's teammates--like one-armed Willy, a former wife-beater who's now playing footsie with Sammie Martens, one of Joe's favoritecolleagues. When the frozen stiff turns out to be a (formerly) big-time Canadiancrime boss named Jean Deschamps, who disappeared after World War II, Joe and hisgang cross the border to work with the Mounties, the S++ret+¬, and the local copsin Sherbrooke, where Deschamps's son Marcel is involved in a turf war with theHell's Angels and a rival gang of thugs. Old secrets and intrigues come tolight while an intricate plan to frame a dying man for a crime half a centuryold forms an interesting puzzle that's not fully revealed until the last coupleof pages. Mayor excels at painting a picture of a time and place that's as authentic asmaple syrup, and in Joe he's created a Cooperesque character who's almost asenigmatic as the mist-shrouded mountains of his beloved state. Skiers who'veschussed down Stowe's fabled slopes will enjoy Mayor's recreation of the town inits bygone era as well as the description of its renaissance as a majortourist attraction today. Joe doesn't change much from book to book, but that'sfine with Mayor's fans. He's a good cop, a quiet hero, a reliable guy, and his11th appearance in this tightly woven mystery is cause for cheer. --JaneAdams