Willy Kunkle, a deputy cop, gets his own book in the largely under-the-radar series of thoughtful mysteries featuring Vermont police chief Joe Gunther. Called to New York to claim the body of his ex-wife, the apparent victim of a drug overdose, Willy is forced to confront his troubled past while seeking evidence to support his hunch that the Manhattan cops are overlooking what is actually a homicide. Meanwhile, Gunther and another deputy, Willy"s lover, run interference with the NYPD, where the cops aren"t sure whether they ought to be helping Kunkle find a killer or arresting him before he becomes one. A thoughtful, powerful, psychologically acute novel that deserves to break Archer Mayor out the midlist, The Sniper"s Wife draws the reader inside the mind of a protagonist who justly deserves the focused attention Mayor pays him. --Jane Adams