Lt. Joe Gunther of the Brattleboro, Vermont police force has a serious problem: in a community where a decade could pass without a single murder, the body count is suddenly mounting. Innocent citizens are being killed and others set-up seemingly orchestrated by a mysterious ski-masked man. Signs suggest that a three year-old murder trial might lie at the heart of things, but it s a case that many in the department would prefer remained closed. A man of quiet integrity, Lt. Gunther knows that he must pursue the case to its conclusion, wherever it leads."

Lt. Joe Gunther is in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom investigating a minor embezzling case. It's a pleasant distraction, and a chance to reconnect with old friends, but when a house fire reveals itself to be arson, compounded by murder, Gunther can't help but investigate. Suddenly, he finds himself enmeshed in a web of animosity between put-upon townspeople, the state police, angry parents and members of a reclusive sect. Murder follows murder, yet no one seems to be telling Gunther the whole truth-not even his childhood friends-and truth is what he desperately needs if he's to stop the...

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.

When a body is found on Vermont's Mt. Mansfield, most assume it is a hiker who lost his way. But the body is identified as an old-time smuggler from Quebec who has been dead and frozen for more than 50 years--and foul play is likely. Lt. Joe Gunther sets out to solve the murder, landing him in a viper's nest of buried secrets, bloody gang wars, and a ruthless family with a taste for murder.

Vermont detective Joe Gunther vows to stop the flow of drugs into his beloved state when in the course of a week a young heroin addict is gunned down while trying to rob a convenience store, a narcotics dealer is found hanging from a bridge, and the granddaughter of political bigwigs dies of an overdose.

When the body of a fast-living young stockbroker is found in a shallow grave, suspicion first falls on a cuckolded policeman. Lt. Joe Gunther investigates the increasingly bizarre details of the crime, but finds that he's too far behind events to prevent a second murder. Indeed, whoever is responsible always seems to be a few steps ahead, as if there's a leak on the force. Sweltering August heat does nothing to calm the increasingly agitated town selectmen, who demand results.

Gail Zigman, town selectwoman and Joe Gunther's companion of many years, is raped, and the detective finds himself caught between the media, local politicians, and a network of well-meaning victims' rights advocates as he tries to put his own feelings aside and follow the trail of evidence. Every lead seems to point to a single, obvious suspect, but is the evidence too perfect? Risking his friendship with Gail, the respect of his peers, and his own life, Lt. Gunther keeps digging, hoping to find out if the man they have in jail is rightly there, or if the evidence against him is...

Linking a series of seemingly unrelated crimes to a Vietnamese gangster's campaign to take over a Chinese mob's operation in Vermont, Brattleboro Police Lieutenant Joe Gunther pulls out all the stops--including calling in the FBI. When Gunther's friend is wounded and one of his officers is murdered, his determination veers toward obsession as he joins the feds in a war that crosses the border into Canada for a final showdown in Montreal.