Joe Gunther, a longtime Vermont cop and now the head of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation gets the call that every law enforcement person hates and every friend and family member of a policeman fears—a cop has been shot and killed. A deputy sheriff was shot to death during a routine traffic stop on a dark country road. From what can been seen on the cruiser’s tape recorder of the killers, it is believed that they were a couple of Boston-based drug runners who had been stopped by the deputy on their way from Canada down to Boston. Which is what brings Gunther and his team to the investigation—an attempt to shut down the major drug running operation. Especially that of one Alan Budney, disaffected son of a lobsterman, now a drug kingpin, who uses the closed, clannish lobster fishing community and his extended family in particular, to move drugs along the New England coast.

Archer Mayor has written 17 Joe Gunther novels, including The Sniper's Wife, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, St. Albans Fire, and Gatekeeper, all of which are available as Sound Library® audiobooks. Mayor has written history books and has held a variety of jobs including, scholarly editor, researcher for books, political advance man, theater photographer, newspaper writer, lab technician, photo editor, and medical illustrator. He is also an Emergency Medical Technician and an assistant medical examiner for the state of Vermont. Mayor, whose books have been published in five languages, lives in Newfane, Vermont.