Five Questions with Archer Mayor

Archer Mayor is the author of the highly acclaimed, Vermont-based series of novels featuring detective Joe Gunther, which The Chicago Tribune describes as “the best police procedurals being written in America.” He was the 2004 winner of the New England Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA) Award for Best Fiction.

In addition to writing, Archer is a death investigator for Vermont's Chief Medical Examiner, a Deputy Sheriff for Windham County, VT, a volunteer firefighter, and the EMT captain of his local rescue squad.

The Joe Gunther detective series began in 1988 with Open Season and he has continued the series with nearly one novel a year as there are now eighteen Joe Gunther mysteries in print! Catch up with Archer Mayor online at www.archermayor.com.

Describe a perfect day in Vermont.
Any clear Spring day offers that initial realization that the sun's brightness, caught full on the face, is also, at last, bringing warmth. That's a hard feeling to beat. Paradoxically, Fall brings those days of bittersweet colorful demise, when the summer's bounty is being left behind once more, also a moment I'm hard put not to cherish.

Where would you take a visitor who has never been to Vermont?
My own village of Newfane, with the understanding that such places of historical, cultural, architectural, and familiar embrace are duplicated a hundredfold across Vermont, large and small, spectacular and modest.

What's the most surprising thing you've discovered about Vermont?
Its warmth, even while clad in snow, ice, and granite.

What's the best place in Vermont to get a drink or grab a bite to eat?
Your local general store.

What does Vermont mean to you?
The home I've hungered for following a lifetime on the road.

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