Archer Mayor has written 27 crime mysteries featuring detective Joe Gunther. Photos by the author.
You wouldn?t want to be the focus of Archer Mayor?s work. That would make you dead.
If his name rings a bell, that?s because Archer Mayor is the New York Times best-selling author who has penned 27 mystery novels featuring police detective Joe Gunther. Mayor?s made-up world of crime and mystery revolves around Brattleboro, Vermont, and shares curious parallels with his real-life job investigating death scenes for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Vermont. But Mayor does something his hero character doesn?t do: he rides a motorcycle.
Mayor never uses real police cases in his books, but his mystery writing is informed by his experience as a criminal investigator, firefighter and EMT. Mayor outfitted his Yamaha V Star 950 to accommodate what he indelicately calls his corpse kit?a rugged, padded case for carrying his professional utensils. ?I have tools for poking and prodding,? he said, ?extraction tools in case I need to send your fluids to the office, cameras, magnifying lenses, very bright flashlights, laser measurers and various things that my colleagues might need at the scene.?
The corpse kit is heavy, so Mayor secures it in a similar, larger case he bolted to his V Star. When he?s called to a scene, he slides the corpse kit inside the larger case and off he goes. ?Time is of the essence, not because someone is going to die?that?s already happened?but because an...