The following video clips were recorded by Treasured Memories Video - Bedford, NH:
- “What’s wrong with Maine?”
- Hear about the reason behind why Joe Gunther’s next adventure takes place in Maine.
- “The Author as Hardware Store.”
- Why Archer took his inventory into his own hands.
- “We can do anything we want with this language.”
- Hear how Archer’s love of language impelled him to write.
- “This is a place I want to be a part of.”
- Why Archer Mayor and Joe Gunther call Vermont home.
- “Hi officer!”
- Would you like a doughnut?” The truth about cops and doughnuts.
- “I am not a math major.”
- Why Archer chooses the topics he writes about.
- “I wrote Open Season three times.”
- The importance of discarding your first drafts.
- “This is possibly the worst book I’ve ever read.”
- This author’s answer to working in a cubicle.
Welcome, 2008! And welcome to several developments in my world and Joe Gunther’s, both. First of all, my personal thanks to all of you for your support of the recently published Chat. Once more, your enthusiasm placed Joe’s latest outing on the NEIBA bestseller list for several weeks running — no small feat, given some of the competition. This single feat, repeated year after year, played a major role in my decision to mortgage my house, take out a few loans, and republish the first 12 tales in the Gunther series under my own, brand new imprint, AMPress.
These books, once out-of-print and now handsomely redesigned as trade paperbacks, are available in the “Bookstore” section of this web site, as well as through your local independent bookstore. Places like Barnes & Noble and Borders are a little trickier, since they don’t play all that well with the Little Guys like me, but the first two options I just mentioned should meet your needs. Needless to say, spread the word! I need you more than ever to help keep Joe alive and kicking.
I’m happy to say that AMPress is moving forward on to a project I’ve wanted to do for many years. This spring we are starting production on the audiobook of Open Season. Over the years I’ve lost count of how many requests I’ve had for such “books on tape,” so I’m excited that it’s finally going to happen. There are a few audio editions of my later books which were produced by BBC Audio floating around out there—but they’re pretty hard to find. And there have never been such versions of the earlier books. So look for Open Season to be available as a CD in independent bookstores this fall. You’ll also be able to buy them from this website both as CDs and as a downloadable mp3 file. Stay tuned!
Joe’s 19th adventure, scheduled to be released in the fall of this year, is now at my new publisher, St. Martin’s Press. It’s called The Catch, and it is primary placed in Maine and focuses on the activities of one Alan Budney, the disaffected son of an old-time lobsterman. The book begins, however, in Vermont, where a deputy sheriff is shot to death during a routine traffic stop on a dark country road. It is believed that his killers (caught partially on the cruiser’s tape recorder) were a couple of Boston-based drug runners who had just crossed into Vermont from Canada, presumably carrying a load they didn’t want interdicted by the cop. This shooting gets Joe Gunther and the VBI involved in the investigation, pursuing the two bad guys, and headed toward a rendezvous, of sorts, with Budney and his plans to usurp and replace Maine’s biggest drug lord. (And that’s just the beginning…) St. Martin’s is a venerable publishing house, and being a part of their Minotaur Press mystery imprint is feeling great.
And now, a contest.
Yes, a contest. Being a self-published author has its advantages, one being that I can do whatever I want to encourage people to flock to my website and buy lots of books. So for the entire month of April, anyone who buys a book from my website will be entered into a drawing. If your name is picked, you will become a character in my next book. I should warn you, though: you might be the bad guy, a victim, a paper pusher, a prostitute, a cop, an innocent bystander, a gas station attendant, whatever. I’ll use your name, but I can’t guarantee it will be in a nice way—that’s the chance you’ll be taking to have your name in lights, I mean print. I’ll announce the winner of the contest on my website on May 15, 2008.
Finally, I’d like to thank you yet again for being a fan and supporting me and Joe. If you send an email with your mailing address in it to ampress@sover.net, Elaine, my publisher/publicist/partner-in-crime, will send you a very nifty Vermont Bureau of Investigation oval bumper sticker. Only the coolest people have them. Meanwhile, I will be immersing myself in writing Joe’s 20th adventure. Thanks again, keep reading, and I’ll see you on the road this fall during my book tour for The Catch.
Visit my Bookstore to see the new books and to order them.
The Joe Gunther detective series
The Joe Gunther detective series began in 1988 with Open Season, and now includes Borderlines, Scent of Evil, The Skeleton's Knee, Fruits of the Poisonous Tree, The Dark Root, The Ragman’s Memory, Bellows Falls, The Disposable Man, Occam's Razor, Marble Mask, Tucker Peak, The Sniper's Wife, Gatekeeper, The Surrogate Thief, St. Albans Fire, The Second Mouse and Chat. The Los Angeles Times featured Scent of Evil in its 1992 year-end list of recommend readings and proclaimed The Skeleton's Knee “one of the best ten mystery books of the year” in 1993. That book also prompted the New York Times to call Mayor “one of the most sophisticated stylists in the genre,” and in 1997, to proclaim The Ragman's Memory one of only eleven “Notable” mysteries of the year—an honor it repeated in 2002 with The Sniper's Wife.
What the critics are saying
“Mayor is a devil of a plotter and… (The Second Mouse)… is one fine trip.”
— Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times
“Superb”
— Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
“Mayor's elegiac tone and his insights into the human condition make The Second Mouse a fine addition to one of the most consistently satisfying mystery series going.”
—Thomas Gaughan, Booklist