The Second Mouse

A mysterious death in rural Vermont leads a local detective into a nest of criminality in the New York Times–bestselling author’s “superb” mystery thriller (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

A legend among Vermont cops, Joe Gunther has solved more local whodunits than a whole squad of detectives. But his latest case takes him and his team off their Brattleboro home turf, forty-two miles west, to chip-on-its-shoulder, blue-collar Bennington.

On the edge of town, Gunther encounters the lifeless body of Michelle Fisher. Her corpse, pale and seemingly at peace, offers him no clues about how she died. Snapshots and postcards show a woman who laughed hard and lived harder. Yet diaries reveal a rootless life marred by depression and drink. Suicide seems a reasonable conclusion, but Gunther suspects foul play. The house is for sale, after all, and Michelle was its only tenant—one who resisted all efforts to have her evicted.

To uncover the truth about the fate of this all-but-forgotten woman, Gunther must follow a confusing trail of half leads and mounting crimes. He draws near to a violent and careless trio of criminals whose leader is hellbent on making the career move of a lifetime—and willing to step on anyone who might get in his way.

• "[Archer Mayor has made] an honorable art form of the regional mystery."
  New York Times Book Review