Reviews for The Surrogate Thief (Joe Gunther Series #15)

The average rating for The Surrogate Thief (Joe Gunther Series #15) based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-09-03 00:00:00 Mitchell Blount I haven't read any of the Joe Gunther series in over a year. I think the last one (Gatekeeper) was not a favorite. This one has brought me back into the fold. Great book with a very old twist. I don't think I'll be waiting a year to read the next in the series!

Review # 2 was written on 2009-12-10 00:00:00 Carolyn Robinsky Oh so much promise! Yet oh so disappointing! Here's why. We never meet the bad guy! The premise of this novel in Mayor's Joe Gunther series is that elements of a modern crime dredge up a 30-year old case for Gunther. He and his team then solve an old cold case as well as handle current crimes related to that cold case. As the solution unfolds, the reader finds out who's responsible for the old crime. We "meet" this criminal in only a single scene in which the bad guy says nothing. Mayor, in fact, does not develop this bad guy's character at all beyond a surface physical description. This gives the case's resolution a horrible sense of boredom. The reader is not invested in either the original case (since it's all told through Gunther's recollections) or the modern-day ramifications. The novel is thus a bit unfocused and aimless. Having read some of the Mayor's Gunther novels that come after this one, I see how the author used this novel to set up later ones. By itself, however, it is weak and not a good representation of the author's work.