The Marble Mask

The Joe Gunther Mysteries, Book 11

By: Archer Mayor

Narrated by: Tom Taylorson

Joe Gunther, a Brattleboro, Vermont cop, is the head of the new Vermont Bureau of Investigation (VBI), a joint task force charged with statewide responsibility for major crimes. In The Marble Mask, the VBI's first case takes the force north to Stowe, where a 50-year-old corpse has turned up in a crevasse on Mt. Mansfield. Some of the more interesting minor characters in author Archer Mayor's long-running series about the amiable elder sleuth make return appearances here as Joe's teammates - like one-armed Willy, a former wife-beater who's now playing footsie with Sammie Martens, one of Joe's favorite colleagues.

When the frozen stiff turns out to have been a big-time Canadian crime boss named Jean Deschamps who disappeared after World War II, Joe and his gang cross the border to work with the Mounties, the Surete, and the local cops in Sherbrooke, where Deschamps' son Marcel is involved in a turf war with the Hell's Angels and a rival gang of thugs. Old secrets and intrigues come to light while an intricate plan to frame a dying man for a half-century-old crime forms an interesting puzzle that's not fully revealed until the very end.

©2013 Archer Mayor (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

An intricare WWII historical detective story work-

an intricare WWII historical detective story worked through by bJoe Gunther, Willy, Sammi and the new VBI team

The great Tom T.

What a great performance by Mr. Taylorson! The subtle nuances in voice change make listening to this collection a wonderful experience. Mr. Mayor's writing of these characters is masterful and further embellished by Tom's understanding of their voice.

Marble Mask

I love Willie and Joe’s relationship. Also I’m so glad Sammie and Willie are together. The series is awesome

Horsecreek

Characters were confusing. Repeated several times to keep them straight. Not as clear as others

GREAT Gunther...!!!

It has a bit of a slow yet interesting narrative to start and then a cyclone of events, people, places and corkscrew twists and turns all leading up to a blazing finale fit For A Hollywood Epic. Of course Joe gets himself into plenty of eye rolling near death escapes and his new crew with Canadian cohorts really move the action along. Lots and lots of characters with French names and accents and you really have to keep paying attention to keep up. once again masterful writing with excellent dialogue held me suspended until the very end. highly entertaining. Mr Mayer and Mr Taylorson are a spectacular match. 👍👍👍👍👍

A First Class Thriller

Narrated leisurely by Tom Taylorson, Archer Mayer's "The Marble Mask" will take you through a mind bending path, humourous, enthralling, full of suspense, and finally comes together beautifully.

The 11th is a series, will cajole you to listen to the rest.

Interesting beginning

I enjoyed the first couple chapters very much- although I wish that author had more clearly circled back to the intense scene.
When time caught back up to the event, it was lacking the intensity of the first telling.
Otherwise, this is another interesting Joe Gunther book

Really enjoy the characters

As the books progress the character development gets better and better. I love the good but flawed people fighting for justice in a world that can be stacked against law enforcement. I will continue with this series.

Solving a Cold Case

Each book can technically be a standalone story, but you should really read in order starting at the beginning. It'll make more sense and be more enjoyable.

I've been enjoying this series. I like the main characters, the setting and Tom Taylorson is one of my favorite narrators.
I like all the regular characters that continue through the series, but there's a lot of extra characters that are new and different in each book. Sometimes I'm not sure what's going on, because I can't keep all the people and their connections straight. It's harder without seeing faces like in person or on TV, or reading the names in print. (I'd like to note, this is likely some type of comprehension issue on my part.)

There's been a few books in this series that I didn't understand without listening to more than once. This was one of those. I liked the book, but in the end I still don't know who killed who, how, where, etc. I do know why, but that's about it, lol. I'm sure if I went through and listened again, it would make sense then, but I don't want to listen again. I understand everything that's happening with the main characters, and that's all that really matters in order to move on to the next book.

Sidenote: Am I the only person wondering why this book was named after that mask? The mask didn't finally appear until the 2nd half of the book and it had no effect on the storyline whatsoever. The book would've been exactly the same if the mask was never mentioned. I understand drawing parallels between the mask and the characters who were pretending to be someone/something they weren't. But overall, I found the mask to be irrelevant. Maybe I'm missing something?

Anyway, on to the next book! I want to see how Joe nearly dies next, who Willy can piss off, if Sammy will get her heart broken again or not, how the new VBI situation is working out, etc.

GREAT story - beautiful narration

Joe Gunther develops into a friend over the series - great plots and interesting characters all through