Joe Gunther is the hero of Archer Mayor's long-running mystery novel series largely set in Vermont and particularly in the city of Brattleboro.
He fought in the Korean War, then went to college in Berkeley and eventually joined the Brattleboro Police Department as a street patrolman.
At the time of the events depicted in the first book in the series (1988), Gunther is the second most senior detective in Brattleboro PD, with nearly 30 years of experience.
He was briefly married, but he lost his wife to cancer less than two years after becoming a detective, and he never remarried.
He has a younger brother Leo, who still lives in Thetford with their elderly mother as of the events of The Surrogate Thief (2004).