The Ragman's Memory

Joe Gunther #7

by Archer Mayor

A small girl brings Joe Gunther a bird’s nest—made partially of human hair. In the search to put a body, and an identity, to the hair’s owner, Joe comes upon an unexplained death, a grisly murder, and a sudden disappearance. All seem to be entangled in a puzzling web of municipal corruption, blackmail, and industrial espionage. A shell-shocked World War II vet nicknamed “The Ragman” may hold the key to it all, if Joe can get him to talk before the murderer strikes again. “…by practicing his craft with dazzling skill and by digging for the deeper moral issues behind every grass-roots crime, [Archer Mayor] has made an honorable art form of the regional mystery.” —Marilyn Stasio, New York Times

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Audiobook, Mystery Thriller, Crime, Thriller, Detective

399 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1996

About the author

Over the years, Archer Mayor has been photographer, teacher, historian, scholarly editor, feature writer, travel writer, lab technician, political advance man, medical illustrator, newspaper writer, history researcher, publications consultant, constable, and EMT/firefighter. He is also half Argentine, speaks two languages, and has lived in several countries on two continents.

All of which makes makes him restless, curious, unemployable, or all three. Whatever he is, it’s clearly not cured, since he’s currently a novelist, a death investigator for Vermont’s medical examiner, and a police officer.

Archer has been producing the Joe Gunther novels since 1988, some of which have made the “ten best” or “most notable” lists of the Los Angeles and the New York Times. In 2004 Mayor received the New England Booksellers Association book award for fiction.

Intriguing plots, complex characters, and a vivid landscape are the foundation of Archer Mayor's award-winning New England thrillers.

Reviews

[Erth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really really good read, with plenty of twists and turns in the plot which leave you almost breathless. Never ever predictable, but kind of like Joe...reliable.

[Ensiform · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this Joe Gunther novel, the discovery of human hair in a bird’s nest leads to an investigation into corrupt selectmen, blackmail, and wrongdoing on the part of two of Brattleboro’s wealthiest and most powerful figures. And of course, other murders follow.

After last year’s boring entry The Dark Root, this book is a bit of a redemption for Gunther. The characterization and the dialogue are as always top-notch. Mayor’s attention to detail is strong as ever, but the detail makes the atmosphere stronger rather than distracting from the story. On the minus side, as usual the plot is utterly, ridiculously convoluted. Some of the murders are rather tenuously linked to the financial plot, and I honestly have no idea how the first body found has any relation to it at all. And of course, there’s the usual one-on-one chase scene where Gunther conveniently forgets his radio, doesn’t call for backup, etc. The book’s superficially exciting, but not in the least satisfying.

[Kimberly Morehouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a interesting tale. Starting with mysterious human hair in a birds nest, some bone fragments and a tooth too multiple murders, missing persons, rabies and financial corruption.....this book has it all in spades. Love the mystery and wide cast of characters. Narrator was great.

[Sherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

copywrite 1996 JOE GUNTHER #7 series 3.5
This year, I finally discovered JOE GUNTHER series, so I’m reading them in whatever publication order I can find them. This isn’t my favorite so far, but it could compel us take a second hard look at our town’s leaders and their motivations for making decisions for our community! Maybe some of the small-town rumors could be true?

A 12-year old brings Lt. Joe Gunther a bird’s nest with human hair mixed in it and that starts the first mystery that will lead to multiple and complicated investigations of more muders with no solid clues to substantiate speculations. Are these all isolated incidents or could there be there a connection somehow? There's some wild twists and turns and strange personalities to make it a good read to the interesting, if bizarre, conclusion.

Mayor is wonderful with his character portrayals of rich and poor and in between social/economic strata in innocent-seeming, 1950s sedate, and (mostly) picturesque small town in Brattleboro, VT.

[Jerry B · Rating 4 out of 5]

We’re reading Mayor’s Joe Gunther series in order, with “Ragman” being the 7th in a long series about Vermont cops headed by our chief detective protagonist. After a clunker in book #6 (“Dark Root”), we were glad to see the troops back in form in a murder mystery that unfolded one suspenseful event after another. We weren’t impressed with the part about the WWII survivor nor Joe’s getting hurt near the end (a common occurrence), but the remarkably discovered teenager’s murder; then a homeless man’s death (by rabies!); and then a killing at a nursing home sustained an entertaining plot, especially when they eventually tied together with a huge local corruption scheme.

We note that other reviewers observed quite a few flaws in this outing, but given the rate at which we turned pages, we were happy. {3.5}

[Traci Pierpont · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this installment better than the previous one. I was pleased this story brought us back to Brattleboro, VT, with a cast of familiar faces. The mystery was intriguing and kept my interest. Joe Gunther is an insightful, intelligent detective and it is a pleasure to experience the story through his point of view.

[Tania · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little long-winded but entertaining

[John Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a detective novel, so who cares about writing? Well, I do. Good writing could make a detective novel better, and bad writing can make a detective novel distracting. Unfortunately, having read another one of Mayor's Joe Gunther stories, I'm disappointed by the writing. Some of the phrases and scenes that occur here also occur, almost word for word, in St. Albans Fire. Mayor is also overly dependent on dialogue, which is a problem because the characters often say things to one another that they'd never say. For example, Gunther's lady friend, Gail, tells Gunther her schedule and reasons for the schedule... months after beginning her new schedule. By that point, people who live together should have had that conversation, but Mayor writes about it as if it's all new. Overly depending on dialogue also causes problems because a) it often needs to put words in the mouths of characters who shouldn't even be present, like Gail, a non-cop who is equally or more involved with the case as the actual cops are, or b) it requires characters who are present to say certain things at certain times, taking away the opportunity for the character to actually develop a character. Aside from Kunkle, I don't believe I really got to know any of the cops, including Gunther.

The story itself covered a lot of territory and could have benefited from slowing down a bit. A whole bunch of murders coincidences to track down. Each one could have been the focus of its own novel. Of course, if Mayor wanted to write a detective story about coincidences piling up, then this is great... except that the other book of his that I've read is written the exact same way. Not every story should be filled with details that can't be properly detailed.

Other than these glaring issues, and a problem with tense changing at one point, Mayor once again at least keeps you reading. How can you not when it's a detective novel?

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am obsessively plowing through this guy's output. They are police procedurals set in and around Brattleboro, Vt. This one is particularly good. A couple are clunkers, like "Occam's (Mammy-Tammy) Razor," which I am wishing would just end already.

The hero is Joe Gunther, a Brattleboro cop (and later a leading force in the fictional and rather ominous-sounding Vermont Bureau of Investigation). He's hooked up with a high-maintenance power woman, but Mayor doesn't beat it to death. The side characters are entertaining.

The plots get complicated and delve into the past - think Ross McDonald.

Most are written in the first person; the pair of third-person novels I read suffered. Mayor should drop that gimmick.

The stuff about stupid selectmen and ineffective, dithering commissions and boards reads especially true to those who have covered such entities for a newspaper.

[Maddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: Lieut. Joe Gunther
SETTING: Brattleboro, Vermont
SERIES: #7 of 25
RATING: 3.25
WHY: It begins with the discovery of human hair in a bird's nest, followed by a series of bizarre deaths. The small Brattleboro, Vermont, police force under the leadership of Joe Gunther, faces lots of challenges in investigating so many cases. I like the character of Gunther a lot; he shows deep compassion for all whom he encounters. Unfortunately, several of the other main characters--Willy Kunkle, Sammie, Gail--don't feel so real to me. The complexity of the plot plus the numerous descriptions of the local setting made this a slow read for me.

[Cindy B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this quality series and characters. Lite profanity/ sex situations. Well narrated (as usual for series) and recommended.

[Viva · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a 31 book police protocol series based in Vermont. I had high hopes when I first discovered this series because I liked the writing and I like a series that I can spend a long time with. The author's strengths are the setting and the build up of his characters. I found the writing a bit long winded and as I followed the series the writing seemed to get progressively long winded.

I didn't finish the last book at 84%. Yes at 84%. At almost the end, I didn't bother to finish the book because I no longer cared. The final straw of that book was the long winded talk with the criminal Nguyen.

Anyway to get back to the subject, this book had a long winded build up as well. A young girl finds a human hair and scalp built into a bird's nest. She shows it to the police and they decide to investigate. I don't know what the protocol for investigations are but the impetus seems a bit slim here. The same problem, to me, was that everything seems long winded. Something that could have been written in a few pages takes 10 times as long to write, and read. I decided to quit the book at 5%. I just didn't think I could take the long winded writing anymore and I've also decided to quit the series and find something which is a bit more fast paced.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brattleboro, Vermont, Police Lieutenant Joe Gunther has his hands full with his latest case. It began with a bird's nest. Threaded through the twigs and grasses of the nest were strands of hair which is not terribly unusual unless the strands are still attached to pieces of scalp. This leads to the discovery of bones in the Vermont woodland, bones that were once part of an 18-year-old girl. A homeless man is found dead of rabies, an elderly woman is strangled in her nursing home bed and a well-known woman disappears in the middle of the night. Gunther knows these incidents must all be related but finding the connection proves to be extremely difficult and dangerous. Somehow it all points to an abandoned plan to build a multi-million dollar hotel/convention center. Funding has suddenly been found to resume the project and some of that funding is suspect. Prominent figures in town are stymieing Gunther's investigation while a quiet, vicious killer is working behind the scenes.

I love the setting for Mayor's novels; beautiful Vermont countryside. This one was a bit difficult to follow at times as I am certainly not financially intelligent and some of it was over my head. In the long run the mystery itself was good and as usual Gunther provides a satisfying ending.

[Tbfrank · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pre-teen child brings a chickadee nest to Brattleboro PD Detective Joe Gunther with a scrap of human skin and patch of hair woven into it. From this strange beginning our middle-aged hero discovers a young woman possibly a murder victim, a street person who died from rabies without being bitten, an elderly woman strangled in her bed at a nursing home, and a rabble-rousing woman who disappeared from her home in the middle of the night. He doesn't know how but his instincts tell him these are all related.

The descriptions of Vermont in the winter, the snowy conditions, the striking landscapes, the centuries old cities, towns, and villages serve to ground these stories effectively. The tendency to over-use adjectives appears far less often. The characterizations are short but often telling and keep the players from being seen as stereotypes. Gunther is his usual self, doggedly determined, aware of other's feelings and sensibilities, and flexible in the performance of his duties. It is a bit of a stretch to see Joe act as a sort of action-hero, one who takes some unexpected risks, and shrugs off significant blows.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a slow start (maybe that's a trademark Archer Mayor thing?) the book blossoms into a complicated mystery. Well done. Anyway, the author keeps a good series going, though i had my doubt over the first few chapters.
It starts with an unidentified set of remains found, partly in a birdbox! then it escalates through a down-and-out dying of rabies (!) and political shenanigans related to creation of a large (for Brattleboro) mall, whose backers stand to make a lot of money.
The Ragman of the title is an old soldier whose experience of the Battle of the Bulge left him with PTSD, and he and his colleagues who experienced the battle are often called Ragmen because of the way their uniforms wore out in the wintry conditions. Anyway, his albeit fault memory is a key to the solution of the case. Four separate threads eventually gather into one, exposing murder and corruption in Brattleboro.
I like it, though I do get bored occasionally with the architectural descriptions of the city!

[Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another mystery in the series that features Brattleboro, Vermont police detective Joe Gunther. These mysteries can best be described as police procedural stories. A crime has been committed, usually a murder, and now Detective Gunther must gather the clues and interview witnesses and suspects to solve it. The recurring characters are very realistic and human people with all the intelligence and foibles that all human beings possess. As such, they make mistakes and have conflicting opinions with each other. The story is told in the first-person voice of Joe Gunther. So, the reader gets to try and “solve” the crime along with Joe Gunther. The reader knows what Joe knows, nothing more and nothing less. There are no super heroes in these stories. At times, there can be some danger involved; but that is not a main ingredient for these mysteries. The dialogue fits the characters and the situation. These mysteries read like a very probable police investigation. The enjoyment for the reader is in trying to solve the crime right along with Detective Joe Gunther.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Joe Gunther book 7. Set in Brattleboro, Vermont, these books feature Joe, who in this book is the head detective in the small police force. A young girl comes to the station showing a bird's nest that has long hair and a bit of skin woven into the nest. Thus begins the search for bones eventually identified as a young girl who had a hard life and had disappeared. Then a local homeless man well known to Joe is found dead and the cause of death turns out to be rabies. Of course, as different as these deaths seem, they do eventually dove tail in the story. The plot is complex and engaging. Big wig politicians, wealthy behind the scenes manipulating, as long buried secrets lead to murder and corruption. I thought the book was very, very good. Mr. Mayor loves to describe the town and the surrounding floral and fauna. It is detailed and engrossing.

[Dennis Fischman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skipped this book because it was checked out of the library when I was going through the series. Reading it out of order lets me see its strengths and weaknesses more clearly.

Strengths: as always, a deep sense of local history combined with an endearingly realistic sense of the variety of human foibles.

Weaknesses: a convoluted plot that only comes together after, for what seems like the millionth time, Joe Gunther puts his own life in danger to catch the bad guy. (Gail should have left him a lot earlier in the series.) And even then, the mystery has to be explained in what is essentially an epilogue to the story, which is something you just can’t do any more.

A good read with an unsatisfactory ending.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the Goodreads Blurb: A small girl brings Joe Gunther a bird’s nest—made partially of human hair. In the search to put a body, and an identity, to the hair’s owner, Joe comes upon an unexplained death, a grisly murder, and a sudden disappearance. All seem to be entangled in a puzzling web of municipal corruption, blackmail, and industrial espionage.

Too scattered. At one time, Joe and his squad are investigating five case that may or may not be intertwined. And a lot of the twining has to do with financial hokey-pokey that doesn't make for great reading. We enjoyed the book but it wasn't one of Mayor's best.

This was book #23 on our 2022 Read-alouds With Lutrecia List and book #30 on our own 2022 Read-alouds List.

[M. Sprouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

The previous two books in the series seemed dedicated to social issues and weren't really that good. I'm so glad Archer Mayor got back to his mother's milk, a good ole whodunit and police procedural. I was about ready to give up on this series, but due to this book I'll hang on. The mystery, characterization, and suspense is quite good. On the other hand the title is a bit weak. The "Ragman" doesn't really show up until late in the book and basically just confirms what our hero, Joe Gunther already knew. Better titles, how about "A Nest of Murder" or "A Business of Death". Okay, not that great, but maybe you could do better?

[Andrew Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book goes from a small girl's bird nest to a shellshocked WWII vet who is battling amnesia. In between, we have two other murders and a disappearance of a community activist. Linking them all together is a corporate scandal that will rock the serenity of the small town of Brattleboro. Is Mayor sending us a cautionary tale of unrequited greed or is he simply taking a good story line and spinning it to fit the Vermont locale. Look out for more snow. Mayor enjoys his characters knee deep in the white stuff as they track down both killers and leads. Another good read.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite in this series...
Narrator Tom Taylorson and author Archer Mayor are a winning duo with another thrilling Joe Gunther Mystery. This one is not my favorite, however, it did not turn me off from this series. I’ve listened to quite a few and enjoyed them. Taylorson’s narrative talent is unbelievably spot-on with each character. I have several more in my wishlist and am looking forward to more adventures with Joe Gunther! This one recommended? Perhaps! There are others in this series I enjoyed more, but again, maybe it was just me.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a random jumble find..Mayor's writing is organic and natural, and his characters are believable if somewhat caricatured. The writing wasn't strained or stilted, and made for fast reading. The problem I had with the book is that many times a discovery hinges too heavily on coincidence, or a plot line gets rather farfetched. It was a crime drama, so I saw the book to its end, but it's a book that could be better. Mayor's decently talented; he just needs better people to bounce things off of...and a better proofreader.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here, Mayor is his reliable self with a well-written story, including the realistic descriptions and details about Brattleboro geography, architecture, and history. It's nice to see Joe and Gayle stable again after the trauma of the last couple of books and fun to have them working together while she is on board the DA's team. I like this Ampress edition of the series with artsy covers of black-and-white photos of real scenes from Brattleboro and environs.

[Shiela · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Joe Gunther series is one of the top five procedurals in that very crowded genre. The writing is superb; the characters buildups are well paced in each new volume; the setting is so well presented that it becomes another character; the storyline and action are believable and logical; and he manages a gripping read without undue emphasis on sensationalism, sex or violence.
I am very grateful that he is also a prolific writer!

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been 13 years since I read my first Joe Gunther mystery and I had this one on the shelf then. After moving it across state lines, I finally pulled it off the shelf and read it!
This is #7 in a 20+ book series. My original read I picked up in a bookshop in Vermont. I love the New England setting in Brattleboro VT. This was a good complicated thriller set against the backdrop of a Vermont Convention Center build.

[Judith von Kirchbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Archer Mayor is a fine writer and I've enjoyed all his books from the first to the latest. If you like police procedural mysteries you'll find he is a knowledgeable craftsman of the first order. If you just like a good story and a well crafted plot, you can't go wrong with Archer Mayor. In addition his mysteries are set in my very favorite state of Vermont and his descriptions of localities are spot on !

[David C Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow burning police procedural where some small crimes (a disappearance, a street person dying) connect with large scale corruption involving powerbrokers and a construction project worth millions.
It’s good, although Mayor can be laborious (all the descriptions of Brattleboro neighborhoods. . . ), but in real life I don’t think a huge financial corruption case would be handled by a local police force even in a state like Vermont.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with previous Joe Gunther books, the strength of The Ragman's Memory is not the plot but the range of characters. Whether corrupt, principled, angry, lost, guilt-ridden, or hopeful, they are realistic in their emotional vulnerability. Another attraction of this series is Mayor's ability to make the setting an essential character. While I wasn't fond of the resolutions of the overlapping conflicts, I enjoyed the book overall, including Taylorson's narration.

[LindaJ^ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I discovered that the vast majority of this series was available for free to read to Audible members and immediately added nos. 2-11 to my library and went on a Joe Gunther splurge. Reading them back to back reveals some weaknesses. Joe Gunther makes a lot of rather dumb decisions. He has more lives than a cat. But the series provides entertainment, especially when walking and bike riding. I won't be writing reviews for each book at this time.