In a former life (as an architectural historian, of all things), I spent a lot of time on the same mean streets of Southern New England as Joe Gunther (albeit with a clipboard and a camera instead of a badge and a gun). Mayor's books are really notable for their sense of place -- I can call up clear pictures of his over-grown millyards and sagging tenements every time I read one of his books.Mayor gets the people right too. Even though his is a cop's-eye view, the villians are not simply generic "bad guys." They are individuals, with individual strengths, weakenesses and even talents.Mayor's books are procedurals with lots of procedure (he's a real-life Vermont constable) and now and then I lose track of a pawn or two in the bureaucratic chess game just because there are so many of them. But overall, an incredibly solid and admirable series.