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Content snapshot
Flag an inaccuracy →What's in this book, at a glance — five things readers want to know before they start.
Violence
A lot
Drug violence; multiple deaths; the investigation involves the heroin trade
Language
Some
Some strong language
Sexual Content
Barely any
Mild content
Substance Use
A lot
Drug trafficking is the central subject; significant substance presence
Emotional Intensity
Some
The specific vulnerability of economically struggling communities to drug economies; the dealers' calculation that rural Vermont presents easy markets and less enforcement
What this book is about
A heroin trade is operating in Bellows Falls, a small Vermont town, and the operation is run by people from outside who treat the town's residents as a market. Joe Gunther investigates both the drug network and the violence that accompanies it. Archer Mayor's seventh Gunther novel is the most focused on the mechanics of drug distribution — how a rural state gets targeted by urban dealers — and uses the specific geography of Vermont's struggling small towns to examine a problem that is both a drug story and an economic one.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
seventh Joe Gunther novel by Archer Mayor; heroin trade focus
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