Review: The Sniper's Wife

It’s just an average morning in Archer Mayor’s Vermont series when Sammie Marten looks out the window and sees fellow detective and new love William Kunkle head into their shared office. He never arrives. Willie and we the readers of this fine regional series are suddenly diverted to New York City. Willie is there to investigate the apparent suicide of his former wife and us ? We’re about to see once again just how talented a scribe Mr. Mayor is.

Willie’s been back to his hometown exactly once since he loaded up his car and headed towards his present life in small state U.S.A. In fact that visit was with the newly deceased Mary Kunkle. Mary has died of a heroin overdose after seemingly being on the road to recovery and when Kunkle first visits the NYC detective in charge he’s skeptical and wants details.

After a look around Mary’s small but neat apartment he has more questions. Mary simply does not live like a heroin addict. As we walk the streets of New York with Willie and his past we get further definition to Joe Gunther’s right hand man. We see his pure cop instincts in a way we perhaps never could in a Vermont outing for the Mayor series.

Also we are treated to Mayors procedural talents in spectacular form. For even as Willie begins to pound the pavement of the City he once called home in a renegade style his fellow V.B.I. officers Samantha and Joe Gunther are on their way to New York to work the case with the New York Police and try to keep Willie out of trouble. It’s a case worked from two angles and a past and personality explored through Willie and the family and acquaintances we’ve never really known. It’s even a hell of a plot.

Mary’s death leads all of our protagonists to a drug and stolen goods syndicate where they play for keeps and a body count that would decimate the state of Vermont. And at the end Willie makes a choice. Is he the same angry man who left for Vietnam all those years ago? Or is he the cop readers of this series have come to know and grudgingly respect?

Another incredibly strong addition to a series with no duds. I highly recommend this book not only for long time readers but also for those who’ve somehow missed it.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Ruth Jordan - RAM

Book Review: The Sniper's Wife