This long-running series featuring Joe Gunther and his team at the Vermont Bureau of Investigation has been consistently excellent. And this, the 21st entry, is of similar high quality with an inventive plot: Three murders are committed, seemingly with no connection, except for a single drop of blood. The victims are apparently unrelated and the evidence at each scene appears to be, at best, confusing, as if the crime scenes were deliberately arranged so that forensics would not be particularly useful in the investigation.
The Vermont forensics department, with limited resources and funds, is unable to process the few items of interest, but the suggestion that the Brookhaven National Laboratory on New York’s Long Island might have the ability to find clues is followed, resulting in a series of possibilities that, with old-fashioned police work, lead to common threads.
Once again, the author’s love of the Green State, its environment and people, provides a human touch to an otherwise macabre tale. Descriptions of the countryside are adept. And insights into antagonism between politicians, the public, the media and cops are vivid and insightful. Written with a deft touch, the novel is recommended.
