by Archer Mayor
Part of Joe Gunther, book 19
First published 2008
Joe Gunther receives the call no cop wants to get. Deputy Sheriff Brian Sleuter lies dead on a dark country road, killed during what should have been a routine traffic stop. The cruiser's recording captures enough to suggest the killers are Boston drug runners returning from Canada. Gunther and his major crimes team take the case and follow the trail to Alan Budney, a Maine lobsterman's son turned drug kingpin. Budney has transformed his family's fishing operation into something far more dangerous, using the tight bonds of the lobster fishing community to smuggle drugs down the New England coast. As Gunther digs deeper into this insular world, he must navigate family loyalties and maritime traditions that now serve to protect a deadly business. The investigation forces him to unravel connections between legitimate fishing and illegal trafficking, where blood ties and old friendships have become tools for moving narcotics.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: investigation, organized-crime
Setting: Boston, Canada, Maine
Period: contemporary
274 pages · Hardcover · Minotaur Books
Content warnings: drug-use, violence