Sometimes leaving Vermont is a good way to realize how outsiders see us. My own version is to look through the books in airport bookshops, watching for who's telling the world about us -- and in the fiction racks, Archer Mayor and Howard Frank Mosher stand well above the crowd lately.
     It's no coincidence that Mayor's books are all detective mysteries featuring Brattleboro cop Joe Gunther (except for one lost item of nonfiction from long ago) and Mosher's best known film adaptation is also from his mystery ("A Stranger in the Kingdom"). Mysteries make up a huge chunk of the stress relief reading that travelers do. They're also crowding the top of my list for books to enjoy on snowstorm nights and ice-storm mornings, when road conditions offer a blessing on staying home. Cabin fever? Not with these page-turners and some fresh-baked bread.
     Ann McKinstry Micou, who retired to Newfane, Vermont, in 1999 after a career teaching that led to her second career editing and a third one compiling resource directories (more than 35!), just released a stunning directory through our own Vermont Humanities Council: "A Guide to Fiction Set in Vermont." Ranging from Stephen King to E. Annie Proulx, with a huge segment devoted to the state's godmother of fiction, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, the book provides summaries of 484 novels and short stories.
     And by my count, 63 of those are mystery fiction.
     Now, granted, that includes consummate New York author Donald Westlake's John Dortmunder mystery called "Don't Ask," and the rather specialized fly-fishing mysteries by the late David Leitz. But Westlake's tongue-in-cheek take on Vermont (where everyone goes to bed so early!) is a good antidote for the next gray day, which probably means most of next week. And thinking of King's creepy tales reminds me of how much I liked reading Vermont-grown horror stories by Mark T. Sullivan (see "Ghost Dance") and the eerie twisted stuff that Jodi Picoult, who lives just a few miles into New Hampshire, has offered ("Second Glance" is a psychic thriller tapping into Vermont Abenaki heritage).
     My husband Dave and I gravitate toward fast-paced detective work and human dilemmas woven into the plots, so we're both long-time Archer Mayor fans. Mayor's latest gem, "St. Albans Fire," takes a hard look at what a bitter winter can bring out in a family, as well as the downside of land development (he's also tackled drug-running and criminal activity at ski resorts, groan). That means we also spend a lot of winter evenings with mysteries by Sarah Stewart Taylor (who'd have guessed that the history of death rituals and art would come in so handy on those plot twists?) and the yummy village-bound traditional mysteries by B. (Barbara) Comfort, whose Tish McWhinney is in her seventies and sharp as a tack. Older versions of the B. Comfort books came in great paperback covers, too.
     Dave says one of the best mysteries he's read, a real sleeper since few people know of it, is William Heffernan's "Beulah Hill," set in 1933 and drenched in the bitter reality of racism. I have it on my list for this winter; I'm also reading my way through the contrastingly comfy "country mysteries" by Nancy Means Wright, who made the most of a divorce by erupting into "Mad Season" and recently brought out her fifth Ruth Willmark rural rustler, "Mad Cow Nightmare." Gotta love the reality of how we survive lately, quarantined sheep and all.
     We're both eagerly waiting for Don Bredes to bring out the third in his Hector Bellevance trology, set up here in the Kingdom, but it looks like it won't happen in '06; Don says he's writing two books at once, slow work, but that leaves time to re-read "The Fifth Season." And we continue to argue over whether the Chris Bohjalian suspense read, "Before You Know Kindness," is a literary puzzler or a true member of the mystery genre. After all, someone gets shot.
     Micou's great compendium includes a genre breakdown at the back, and I see she has Daniel Hecht's "Skull Session" as a mystery (it's a good psych thriller), as well as Miriam Borgenicht's little-known bibliomystery "Booked for Death." Digging deeper into the lists reveals that the Peter Collinson suspense novel called "The Northeast Kingdom" was actually written by bestselling author Chuck Hogan; that Ian Fleming located a James Bond story in Vermont ("For Your Eyes Only" is set just south of Enosburg Falls!); and that an amazing number of Bread Loaf Writers Conference lecturers have used the Green Mountains in their plot work. I wonder whether they do this before or after they're invited to the conference?
     Obviously, I haven't mentioned all 63 authors here that Micou classifies as mystery fiction writers. Some, frankly, are a bit out of date for me (I rarely read mysteries from the 1800s lately!). Others are more "literary" than my taste runs to (I did mention fast-paced plot, yes?). But all in all, browsing through the entire Micou guide is worth the effort, in the pleasure of recalling books I haven't re-opened in a while. And half the fun is knowing, too, that each year there are more being published. What's up for next fall from Archer Mayor, for instance? He gave hints, along with the saying that led him to the plot twist: "The early bird may get the worm, but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese."
     Ah, dead bodies and emotional torment. Keep it in the pages of a good mystery, instead of on the front page of the paper, and I'll be satisfied. Go ahead, let it snow another foot.

     Beth Kanell