Open Season by Archer Mayor

I enjoyed this book!

Joe Gunther is a Lieutenant on the Brattleboro Vermont Police Force. He gets a call about a shooting and it turns out there is a connection between the shooter and the victim. They both served on a case three years ago where a black man was convicted of killing a white woman. The problem is that the man does not remember committing the crime but he was sent to prison anyways. More inconsistencies pop up along the way as the members of the jury are attacked one by one, and Joe is wondering if he should open up a can of worms by looking into the case. No one at the station is too happy about it especially his superior Frank. But as a man known only as Ski Mask keeps committing the crimes, Joe realizes he had to do everything in his power to not only figure out what really happened in that case but to find out who Ski Mask is and to stop him.

This is my first book by Archer Mayor but certainly won’t be my last. I picked up this book because he is the author of the month for my yahoo-reading group. I love trying out new authors and this is the best way to do it in my humble opinion. I found his writing to be concise and clear. I love that! There were twists and turns that left me hanging. I thought the book was pretty accurate even though it was published in 1988. Yeah there are more high tech ways of finding out answers when it comes to DNA etc, but I thought that he did a really good job.

Joe Gunther would be a man I would want on my side. This guy does not do anything unless he feels the need. He is also someone you do not want to cross and get on his bad list. He is tough and pushes himself sometimes too far but in his defense they were trying to capture a killer and well there is no timeline of how to do that in real life even. Frank was my other favorite character cause he really seemed to know Joe not just cause they were co-workers but friends and fellow soldiers. Their camaraderie really impressed me. The other minor characters like Stan Katz were cool though at times really annoying. Wally Kunkle needed to really calm down and learn to take deep breaths. Yeah he was one of the people involved in the original case but he was just too uptight for me. I found all the characters to be real. I have even known people like that in real life.

I give this book a 4/5 because while it was a good story I didn’t find it unique. But I know this is the first in a series so I am excited to see where Joe Gunther goes as a character and how he develops. If you like crime thrillers, I highly recommend it. It is definitely a book to check out and read for yourself.

Now onto reading Thanksgiving by Janet Evanovich. Oh the other book I read The Spirit of Christmas. I hope to share the review with you soon. I will post a link to it. If I already stated this lol well I am sory. My mind is not all here today. Well off to a chad allen movie called What Matters Most. :)