The Skeleton’s Knee is the fourth book in Archer Mayor’s series about Vermont Police Lt. Joe Gunther. It was first published in 1993, so it does feel a bit dated. However, the mystery at the heart of the book is a good one that takes Joe out of Vermont to the big city of Chicago.

Abraham Fuller was a bit of a recluse living just outside of Brattleboro, Vermont. He is taken to the hospital, where he pays the bill in advance in cash and ends up dying there. The autopsy reveals that his cause of death was a bullet in his body for 20 years. It’s the ultimate cold case. As they dig deeper into who Fuller was, they discover a bag of cash hidden in his home, as well as a body buried in the garden. The skeleton in the garden has an artificial knee, which points Gunther in the direction of Chicago. Once there, he finds himself immersed in a world of the late 1960s with the Black Panthers, Chicago 7, and the Mob.

This could have been a fish-out-of-water story, but Mayor does a great job having Gunther able to hold his own in Chicago. He’s teamed up with a detective who is close to retirement and who doesn’t think there’s much of a point to investigating when they don’t even know for sure that a crime took place. Still, Gunther is persistent, and he does a great job unraveling clues in Chicago. He heads back to Vermont knowing that there is a good chance he’s being followed by a killer who thought he got away with his crime.

The Skeleton’s Knee was different from earlier books in the series as it takes Joe Gunther out of Vermont and to the big city. The police are somewhat different there, as they have heavy caseloads, which means they generally have to triage what cases they are going to look at. A case where they aren’t even sure what crime was committed is not something they will put much effort into. Things are very different where Joe comes from, though, and he’s determined to do as thorough a job as he can.

This book is heavy on the police procedural. Joe is used to doing things differently in Brattleboro, where there is a degree of familiarity between the people in town. Having him travel to Chicago for the bulk of the book is a way to show his skills as an investigator. He’s in unfamiliar territory but still manages to uncover information from more than twenty years before. Someone wants secrets to stay hidden, though. It starts in Vermont with an attempt to stop the remains from reaching the coroner. There are many twists and turns throughout the book, and I was guessing all along. I could not solve the mystery until the end.

There’s not much character development since most of the book is Joe investigating outside of Vermont. He has the chance to grow a bit, having to deal with a case in the big city as opposed to the rural demeanor of Brattleboro. He is overwhelmed at first, but his instinct for how to investigate a case comes through. Joe might not have all of the street smarts of the police in Chicago, but he has tenacity, and sometimes that’s good enough.

The Skeleton’s Knee is a good police procedural. Right from the start, it’s apparent this case is going to be difficult. It’s a case where it would be easy to forget about it since it took place so long ago; there’s no one clamoring for it to be solved. I did enjoy reading how Joe built his case with so much going against him and at a time when we didn’t have the technology of today.

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