Mysterious Press, 2000. First edition. 2nd printing.. Hard cover. Very good in fine dust jacket. Signed by author. Remainder mark across bottom page edges. Shelfwear minor to back DJ.. 1 White flecked paper over boards. Blue spine titles. 320 p. Joe Gunther, fictional detective, is now head of the Vermont Bureau of Investigation. First assignment: a frozen body has been found wedged in an icy crag of Mt. Mansfield. A hiker? Not with that ice-pick wound to his chest. Outdated clothes, a license that expired in 1947, a Quebec address? Gunther follows the trail over 50 years of history, into Canada, hearing tales of a WWII scalawag.

Synopsis

A frozen body is found on top of Vermont's tallest mountain in the middle of winter. Lost hiker or foul play? Hard to tell until the marble-hard body is thawed out. A hand and a foot have been broken off, as if from a great fall, and the body's clothing looks oddly old-fashioned. An autopsy reveals an ice-pick wound to the heart, a Canadian driver's license dating back to just after World War Two, and the fact that the body's been dead and frozen for over fifty years. The corpse is that of Jean Deschamps, an old-time smuggler from Sherbrooke, Quebec, who made a fortune during the war as an industrialist. His son Michel has run the crime-family business since his father's disappearance. Both Hell's Angels and the Montreal-based Rock Machine are interested in taking over the Deschamps turf. Was the evidence suggesting that Michel killed his own father planted by those two factions? Indications are that Jean believed his older son, Antoine, had been murdered in the Italian campaign during the war, and not killed in combat as reported. And there are rumors a priceless marble mask by Michelangelo also vanished around the same time, never to be seen again, and that one of Antoine's fellow combatants is now a wealthy recluse in Stowe. Joe and his new Vermont Bureau of Investigation team, including Sam and Willy, set out to solve these riddles amid an increasingly dangerous political landscape involving cops and crooks on both sides of the border.

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Details

Bookseller: Hedgehog's Whimsey Books (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: Alibris.0004130
Title: The Marble Mask (A Joe Gunther Mystery)
Author: Mayor, Archer
Format/Binding: Hard cover
Book Condition: Used - Very good in fine dust jacket. Signed by author. Remainder mark across bottom page edges. Shelfwear minor to back DJ.
Quantity Available: 1
Edition: First edition. 2nd printing.
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0892967234
ISBN 13: 9780892967230
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Place of Publication: New York
Date Published: 2000
Bookseller catalogs: Mysteries;

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Hedgehog's Whimsey Books

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Hedgehog's Whimsey Books

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Newport, New Hampshire

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About Hedgehog's Whimsey Books

Hedgehog's Whimsey Books was born in a random moment when I decided to become a used books seller. Beginning in 2001, I apprenticed myself with a longtime pro in the next town, hoping to learn her secrets. She encouraged my free help but was wary of sharing all those secrets. Nonetheless, she turned me loose when she felt I would not embarrass her; she was impressed, finding I actually knew something about books and authors and styles. I am still learning, and I am having a good time with the random avalanches of books to be recycled into good homes, one by one. Inventory has mounted: my mother downsized her 7,000-plus library, and we (my Geezer and I) went to library book sales, yard emporiums on weekends, estate dispersals, and added the books my kids left behind, wanting to stock their own shelves anew. Some folks simply tooled down our dirt road and left boxes on our porch. Myself? Well, I am also a photographer, journalist, curious stuff collector, avid reader, writer, editor, small-time publisher, and online pontificator. At Hedgehog Enterprises, I do "Words & Pictures by & for Folks with Prickly Backs, Soft Bellies, & Small Brains", established in 1991. Since I have the smallest brain (by unpopular vote), I am the Head Hedgehog. Do I specialize in particular genres? I thought I did, but my barn has lots of Geezer-built shelves, and we have many interests, so topics vary, as do book conditions and editions. I try to describe such, and sometimes have too much fun as I poke along. There is no charge for the therapy of browsing, folks, so find my sites and stay awhile. If a purchase results, know that the tax collector in Newport, New Hampshire, may get a pleasant surprise. Or, I may buy a few more apple cider donuts or sweet potatoes. No pressure. Hedgehogs do have yearnings. If you should visit by chance or by appointment, enjoy our old New Hampshire farmhouse location alongside the Sugar River and its companion recreation Rail Trail, nearby two historic railroad covered bridges just off Chandlers Mill Road. Feel welcome. -- Lucy G Wells, proprietor.

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Edges: The collective of the top, fore and bottom edges of the text block of the book, being that part of the edges of the pages of a...
Fine: A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
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