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THE WEIRS TIMES & THE COCHECO TIMES, Thursday, June 21, 2012
—SUMMER READING— GETTING TO KNOW JOE
by Debby Montague Entertainment Correspondent
Open Season, Archer
Mayor, Gere Dono- van Press, November, 2011
It’s funny how you Stop in Anytime! Breakfast Day & Night!
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come across a new se- ries of books. Some- times the gift of a book (James R. Benn’s Billy Boyle a birthday gift from my husband) starts you off. Or it could be something you see on TV (2001’s “A Nero Wolfe Mystery” made me fall in love with Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries). In this instance it was an email from a friend, along the lines of “You might be in- terested…” And the friend directed me to the New
Hampshire Writers Project website (www.nhwriter-
sproject.org ), particularly their Writers’ Day 2012. I’m a reader, not a writer, but a writers’ day seemed just the thing. Getting a measure on a creator en- hances a creation. The New Hampshire
“Pull up and tie one on ... ”
Writers’ Project Writers’ Day 2012 featured Ar- cher Mayor as the keynote speaker, and I was not familiar with Mayor or his Joe Gunther series. That wouldn’t do, so I Googled him, checked out his web- site (
www.archermayor. com) and in no time there was “Open Season” waiting on my Nook eReader, quite a bargain at 99¢.
Archer
Mayor is quite a speaker, too, particularly when re- sponding to questions in a Writers’ Day session. It took no time to get
— 177 Route 104, Meredith, NH —
www.macksgreatoutdoors.com 603-279-3330
“Open Season”on my Nook, but I didn’t just click ran- domly on the first thing I saw on Mayor’s website. I like to have an idea that I’m going to enjoy a book, even one as inexpensive as 99¢. Mayor’s Joe Gunther series is set in Brattleboro, Vermont, and the loca- tion caught my attention.
Brattleboro is a fa- miliar place, sort of. When I was a kid I’d drive up Route 91 from my home in Western Massachusetts to shop the shoe outlets at Exit 1. Back then Ver- mont seemed to be the only place with out- lets. Nowadays I travel through Brattleboro at least once a month. I cross the new See- bees bridge from Chester- field, NH, to Brattleboro, scoot around the roundy- round, and up the ramp
to Route 91 South. I
was detoured once through downtown Brattleboro and I remember the hills of the city and the old houses. Okay, so I’m not all that familiar with Brattleboro, but I expect to be once I’ve made my way through the Joe Gunther series. One book in the series
down and I’m getting to know Joe Gunther. Nice guy, Joe Gunther.
Joe is
a lieutenant in the Brattle- boro Police Department, barely middle-aged, a widower living alone but caught in the dilemma of whether or not to hook up in a more traditional way with his long time girl-friend. His elderly mom still lives at the old home in Thetford with Joe’s brother, a success- ful butcher with a smooth tongue who likes girls and cars. Joe could be your neighbor except that your neighbor, unless he’s a cop, probably doesn’t get caught up in a most pecu- liar and extremely perilous murder investigation. In “Open Season” Joe
tries to find out why the jurors in a murder trial from three years back are See MONTAGUE on 28
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