95. One Last Lie by Paul Doiron

#11 Mike Bowditch, Maine Game Warden

listened on Audible
narrated by Henry Leyva
Unabridged audio (9:33) 
2020 Minotaur Books
310 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 7/19/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.18 - 1139 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: Fort Kent area, Maine

First line/s: "Before I left for Florida my old friend and mentor Charley Stevens gave me a puzzling piece of advice." 

My comments: Charley Stevens has disappeared, on his own, and Mike Bowditch is out hunting for him, following the breadcrumbs that he has left as a trail.  The story is a bit convoluted and involves a lot of people, and it seems to get a little bit disjointed at times.  Perhaps because it didn't hold my interest as much as the Bowditch stories usually do.  And I think he's going to get back with Stacy Stevens, I don't know what the attractions is with her, but his current girlfriend, Danny, doesn't want kids and he really does so that's probably the direction that Doiron want to take him.  He's 31 now, and ready to settle down, I think.  Well, it'll be another year before we discover the next episode.  I wish I'd liked this one a little bit better than I did.

Goodreads synopsis:  A sudden disappearance reveals a startling connection to a 15-year-old cold case in the new thriller from bestselling Edgar Award finalist Paul Doiron.

          “Never trust a man without secrets.” These are the last words retired game warden Charley Stevens speaks to his surrogate son, Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch, before the old man vanishes without explanation into a thousand miles of forest along the Canadian border. Mike suspects his friend’s sudden disappearance has to do with an antique badge found at a flea market — a badge that belonged to a warden who was presumed dead fifteen years ago but whose body was never recovered. On a mission to find Charley before he meets a similarly dark fate, Mike must reopen a cold case that powerful people, including his fellow wardens — one of whom might be a killer — will do anything to keep closed.

71. Almost Midnight by Paul Doiron

#10 Mike Bowditch
listened on Audible
narrated by Henry Leyva
Unabridged audio (9:02)
2019 Minotaur Books
310 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Series
Finished 4-30-20
Goodreads rating:  4.10 - 1660 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting:  contemporary Maine

First line/s:  "I passed the morgue's meat wagon on my way up the hill to the prison."

My comments:  "My life would never be the same, I realized.  Why do we always come to these recognitions too late?"  Those are the very last words in this book, after he had uncrated Shadow into his acre and a half pen.  But so much had happened that it was hard to tell exactly what he was referring to, thou it seems it would be about how he had figured out how to allow the wolf to live out the rest of his life?  This was an interesting story with Billy Kronk and the Maine prison system being front and center, with Mike tracking down Shadow's shooter being the other half.  It was fascinating to read about the tiny community of Amish in the mountains of Maine.

Goodreads synopsis:  In this thrilling entry in Edgar Award finalist Paul Doiron's bestselling series, the death of Maine's last wild wolf leads Game Warden Mike Bowditch to an even bigger criminal conspiracy.
          Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch already has a troubling mystery on his hands: finding the archer who mortally wounded Maine’s only wild wolf. Then he learns his best friend, Billy Cronk, has been released from prison after heroically defending a female guard from a stabbing. Mike comes to believe the assault was orchestrated by a wider criminal conspiracy. When the conspirators pursue Billy's wife and children to a “safe" cabin in the woods, Mike rushes to their defense only to find himself outnumbered, outgunned―and maybe out of options.

119. Stay Hidden by Paul Doiron

#9 Mike Bowditch
Listened on Audible
narrated  by Henry Leyva
Unabridged audio (10:34)
2018 Minotaur
320 pgs.
Adult Murdery Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 11/30/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.88 - 2055 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting:  Contemporary Maquoit Island, off MDI, Maine

First line/s:  "There were two hunting deaths in Maine that day. And the deer season had barely begun."

My comments: For some reason I didn't like this one as much as I have liked the others, and I really should have because it was set on an island off Mount Desert Island, and referred to Ellsworth and surrounding communities - my home - many, many times.  But somehow the way that all the residents were portrayed left me with a sour stomach.  It was an interesting mystery, but once again Mike Bowditch gets in trouble for things that seem stupid to me.  Even though Henry Leyva misprounces words - he HAS gotten a little closer to the correct pronunciation of Bangor than in previous books - he still doesn't quite have it.  I DO enjoy listening to him, though!

Goodreads synopsis:  A woman has been shot to death by a deer hunter on an island off the coast of Maine. To newly promoted Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch, the case seems open and shut. But as soon as he arrives on remote Maquoit Island he discovers mysteries piling up one on top of the other.
          The hunter now claims he didn’t fire the fatal shot and the evidence proves he’s telling the truth. Bowditch begins to suspect the secretive community might be covering up the identity of whoever killed the woman, known as Ariel Evans. The controversial author was supposedly writing a book about the island's notorious hermit. So why are there no notes in her rented cottage?
           The biggest blow comes the next day when the weekly ferry arrives and off steps the dead woman herself. Ariel Evans is alive, well, and determined to solve her own “murder” even if it upsets Mike Bowditch’s investigation and makes them both targets of an elusive killer who will do anything to conceal his crimes. 

87. A Borrowing of Bones by Paula Munier

(#1 Mercy Carr & Elvis/ Vermont)/
listened to audio / Chirp
read by Kathleen McInerney
Unabridged audio (11:58)
2018 Minotaur Books
342 pgs.
Contemporary Adult Mystery/Murder Mystery
Finished 9/10/2019
Goodreads rating: 3.96 - 908 ratings
My rating:3.5
Setting: Contemporary southern Verment

First line/s:   "Grief and guilt are the ghosts that haunt you when you survive what others do not."

My comments:   Greatly enjoyed the setting, contemporary small town southern Vermont.  The two protagonists, a fresh-out-of-the-service in Afghanistan army vet female and a male Vermont game warden both own K-9 dogs and much of the story revolves around their partnerships.   Another central character, Mercy's grandmother, is the local vet.  It's just all a little to doggy for me.  It was an interesting mystery, though a little unbelievable in places.  I enjoyed listening to it.  It's the same narrator that reads the Kate Burkholder Amish mystery series, a wonderful reader.

Goodreads synopsis:  First in a gripping new mystery series about a retired MP and her bomb-sniffing dog who become embroiled in an investigation in the beautiful Vermont wilderness
It may be the Fourth of July weekend, but for retired soldiers Mercy Carr and Belgian Malinois Elvis, it’s just another walk in the remote Lye Brook Wilderness—until the former bomb-sniffing dog alerts to explosives and they find a squalling baby abandoned near a shallow grave filled with what appear to be human bones. U.S. Game Warden Troy Warner and his search-and rescue Newfoundland Susie Bear respond to Mercy’s 911 call, and the four must work together to track down a missing mother, solve a cold-case murder, and keep the citizens of Vermont safe on potentially the most incendiary Independence Day since the American Revolution.
          A Borrowing of Bones is full of complex twists and real details about search-and-rescue dog training that Paula learned through the training of her own dog. With its canine sidekicks and rich, dramatic story, this debut will be a must-have for mystery fans.

61. Knife Creek by Paul Doiron

#8 Mike Bowditch, Maine Game Warden
listened on Audible, borrowed from TPPL
read by Henry Leyva
Unabridged audio (9:45)
2017, Minotaur Books
352 pgs.
Adult murder mystery
Finished 7/7/2019
Goodreads rating:  4.20 - 1763 ratings
My rating:  5
Setting:  Int the woods near and around Fryburg and the Saco River in Maine, contemporary

First line/s:  "The pigs were coming.  I could hear the sows and the piglets squealing as they moved toward us in the underbrush."

My comments:  Every one of these Mike Bowditch mysteries are just as good as the last.  The very best part, for me, is to be out and about  in the state of Maine, looking at wildlife and nature through the eyes of someone who loves it.  Mike Bowditch is an incredibly likable, smart guy.  I do not understand his taste in women, though, and I am looking forward to the ending's possibilities to come.  As far as the plot goes, there are a lot of bad people in this one -- you just have to remember that there are loads more good people than  bad!

Goodreads synopsis:  When Maine game warden Mike Bowditch is tasked with shooting wild boars that are tearing up the forest and farms in his district, he makes a horrific discovery—the body of a baby buried in a shallow grave. Even more disturbing: DNA tests link the infant to a young woman who has been missing and presumed dead after she disappeared from a group rafting trip four years earlier.
          As he assists the reopened investigation, Bowditch begins to suspect that some of his neighbors aren’t who they seem to be. When violence strikes close to home, he realizes that his unknown enemies will stop at nothing to keep their terrible secrets. Mike Bowditch has bucked the odds his whole career, but this time the intrepid warden may have finally followed his hunches one step too far

25. Widowmaker by Paul Doilron

#7 Mike Bowditch, Maine Game Warden
listened on Audible - from TPPL
read by Henry Leyva
Unabridged (10:00)
2016, Minotaur Books
306 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished March 5, 2019
Goodreads rating:  4.03 - 1668 ratings
My rating: 5
Setting:  Contemporary Maine Woods

First line/s:  "On my first day as a cadet at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, the instructors showed my class the most disturbing video I had ever seen."

My comments:  Mike Bowditch, much like Harry Potter did through each of the continuous novels about him, grows up and learns and becomes more and more of a thinker, better and better at his job and his impetuousness, as the years pass. He's really grown on me, and these stories - both the complex plotting and the much-loved setting in the woods of Maine, make these mysteries one of the very best series I've ever read.,

Goodreads synopsis:  In Paul Doiron's Widowmaker, When a mysterious woman in distress appears outside his home, Mike Bowditch has no clue she is about to blow his world apart. Amber Langstrom is beautiful, damaged, and hiding a secret with a link to his past.. She claims her son Adam is a wrongfully convicted sex offender who has vanished from a brutal work camp in the high timber around the Widowmaker Ski Resort. She also claims that Adam Langstrom is the illegitimate son of Jack Bowditch, Mike’s dead and diabolical father. He is the half-brother Mike never knew he had.
          After trying so hard to put his troubled past behind him, Mike is reluctant to revisit the wild country of his childhood and again confront his father’s history of violence. But Amber’s desperation and his own need to know the truth make it hard for him to refuse her pleas for help.
          In search of answers, Bowditch travels through a mountainous wilderness to a place hidden from the rest of the world, where the military guards a top-secret interrogation base, sexual predators live together in a backwoods colony, and self-styled vigilantes are willing to murder anyone they consider their enemies.
          Mike Bowditch must exorcise the demons of the past before the real-life demons of the present kill him first. 

14. The Precipice by Paul Doiron

#6 Mike Bowditch, Maine Game Warden
listened to Audio (9:23)  borrowed from TPPL
read by Henry Levya
2015 Minotaur Books
322 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 1/28/2019
Goodreads rating: 4.01- 1998 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: Appalachian Trail area in Northern Maine, September

First line/s:  "There is a sign at the southern entrance to the Hundred Mile Wilderness.  It is made of rust brown wood and painted with white letters, and it sends a stern and unmistakable warning to all who enter:"

My comments:  Excellent mystery, wonderful setting, with all sorts of well-written description. The Appalachian Trail has always fascinated me, and Steve and I used to take many Sunday or weekend drives to the areas near the setting - Monson, Greenville, Dover-Foxcroft.  Love the area.
           I'd forgotten how disconcerted I was last time I listened to one of these, because of the many mispronunciations the reader had.  I can't believe that these aren't corrected/edited - either by a thoughtful editor doing their job, or even the author.  Perhaps he's never listened to his works read aloud?  I think he'd be really annoyed!   Piscataquis, coyote, Bangor, Augusta, and even BOWDITCH are said wrong over and over and over again.  So frustrating for a Mainer to hear, yuck!  But, alas, not the author's fault, so I won't take ratings points off.
          My only criticism about the story itself is that Stacy Stevens is so unlikable to me.  Ordinarily it wouldn't be a problem, but Mike seems to be head over heals in love with her.  Not my favorite part of the story.  She's pushy, egotistical, moody, and not nice enough not only to others, but to Mike, too.  He'll never see it, though.

Goodreads synopsis:  In this riveting new novel from Edgar finalist Paul Doiron, Bowditch joins a desperate search for two missing hikers as Maine wildlife officials deal with a frightening rash of coyote attacks.
          When two young female hikers disappear in the Hundred Mile Wilderness—the most remote stretch along the entire two-thousand mile Appalachian Trail—Maine game warden Mike Bowditch joins the search to find them. The police interview everyone they can find who came in contact with the college students and learn that the women were lovers who had been keeping their relationship secret from their Evangelical parents in Georgia.
          When two corpses are discovered—the bones picked clean by coyotes—rumors spread that the women were stalked and killed by the increasingly aggressive canines. Faced with a statewide panic, Maine’s governor places an emergency bounty on every dead coyote, and wildlife officials are tasked with collecting the carcasses.
          Despite some misgivings, Bowditch does his grisly job. But he finds his complacency challenged by his new girlfriend, the brilliant but volatile biologist Stacey Stevens, who insists coyotes merely scavenged the bodies after the women were murdered. When Stacey herself disappears on the outskirts of the Hundred Mile Wilderness, Bowditch realizes that locating her means he must also discover the truth behind what happened to the two hikers. Were the young women really killed by coyotes or, as Stacey insisted, were they murdered by the most dangerous animal in the North Woods?

75. Open Season by C. J. Box

#1 Joe Pickett, Wyoming Game Warden
listened on Audible
2001, Putnam
278 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished  8/7/18
Goodreads rating:  3.92 - 17,043 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting:  Contemporary Wyoming

First line/s:  "When a high-powered rifle bullet hits living flesh it makes a distinctive -pow-WHOP- sound that is unmistakable even at a tremendous distance."

My comments: Joe Pickett is a game warden in Wyoming, a "family man" with a wife and two kids.  He's a pretty ordinary guy, thoughtful and good at his job, although bad luck seems to follow him around.  This first in a series of 14 or 15 so far is about endangered species and the possibilities of what might happen to a huge hunting area if this sort of ecological/environmental dilemma enters the picture.  It's a little bit Mike Bowditch and a little bit Walt Longmire!

Goodreads synopsis:  The first novel in the thrilling series featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett from #1 New York Times bestselling author C. J. Box. 
          Joe Pickett is the new game warden in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming, a town where nearly everyone hunts and the game warden—especially one like Joe who won't take bribes or look the other way—is far from popular. When he finds a local hunting outfitter dead, splayed out on the woodpile behind his state-owned home, he takes it personally. There had to be a reason that the outfitter, with whom he's had run-ins before, chose his backyard, his woodpile to die in. Even after the "outfitter murders," as they have been dubbed by the local press after the discovery of the two more bodies, are solved, Joe continues to investigate, uneasy with the easy explanation offered by the local police.
          As Joe digs deeper into the murders, he soon discovers that the outfitter brought more than death to his backdoor: he brought Joe an endangered species, thought to be extinct, which is now living in his woodpile. But if word of the existence of this endangered species gets out, it will destroy any chance of InterWest, a multi-national natural gas company, building an oil pipeline that would bring the company billions of dollars across Wyoming, through the mountains and forests of Twelve Sleep. The closer Joe comes to the truth behind the outfitter murders, the endangered species and InterWest, the closer he comes to losing everything he holds dear.

73. The Bone Orchard by Paul Doiron

#5 Mike Bowditch, Maine Game Warden
listened to Audio/Overdrive  borrowed through Pima Country Library
2014 Minotaur Books
306 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished August 4, 2018
Goodreads rating: 4.06 - 1923 ratings
My rating: 5 - Doiron keeps getting better and better
Setting:  Contemporary Maine - back and forth between Portland, Rockland, and Aroostook County

First line/s: "When I think of Jimmy Gammon now, I remember the way he was before the war: a redheaded, freckle-faced kid with a body like a greyhound, all arms and legs, with a jutting rib cage he'd gotten running up and down the hills of midcoast Maine."

My comments:  Paul Doiron keeps on getting better and better.  This installment was wonderfully written, and traveled up and down Route 1 - and Interstate 95 - from as far south as Portland and as far north as Presque Isle.  His Maine descriptions were terrific, as were his knowledge of the flora and fauna of Maine's springtime.  The story was believable and interesting, the mystery unfolding at just the right pace.  Can't get enough!  And it ends with him finally taking his future into his own, more mature, hands.  Yippee!

Goodreads synopsis:  In the aftermath of a family tragedy, Mike Bowditch has left the Maine Warden Service and is working as a fishing guide in the North Woods. But when his mentor Sgt. Kathy Frost is forced to kill a troubled war veteran in an apparent case of "suicide by cop," he begins having second thoughts about his decision. 
          Now Kathy finds herself the target of a government inquiry and outrage from the dead soldier's platoon mates. Soon she finds herself in the sights of a sniper, as well. When the sergeant is shot outside her farmhouse, Mike joins the hunt to find the mysterious man responsible. To do so, the ex-warden must plunge into his friend's secret past—even as a beautiful woman from Mike's own past returns, throwing into jeopardy his tentative romance with wildlife biologist Stacey Stevens. 
          As Kathy Frost lies on the brink of death and a dangerous shooter stalks the blueberry barrens of central Maine, Bowditch is forced to confront the choices he has made and determine, once and for all, the kind of man he truly is, in The Bone Orchard by Paul Doiron.

59. Massacre Pond by Paul Doiron

listened to on Audible
2013, Minotaur Books
320 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery/Police Procedural
Finished 7/3/2018
Goodreads rating:  4.05 - 1966 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting:  Contemporary Downeast, Washington County, Maine

First line/s:  "The first time I laid eyes on Billy Cronk, I thought he was the biggest badass in the Maine woods:  Six-five, braided blonde hair, a tangled mess of a beard."

My comments:  This was an excellent foray into Washington Country, Maine, WAY "Downeast."  Mike Bowditch is such a likable, smart guy, and the voice of the Henry Leyva was great and would have been wonderful if he'd pronounced Maine state Indian tribes and town names correctly.  This was very off-putting, and lessened authenticity each time it happened.  The story was interesting and I learned quite a bit about what game wardens do.  This is a super series set in my favorite state, and I can't wait to read #5!

Goodreads synopsis: On an unseasonably hot October morning, Bowditch is called to the scene of a bizarre crime: the corpses of seven moose have been found senselessly butchered on the estate of Elizabeth Morse, a wealthy animal rights activist who is buying up huge parcels of timber land to create a new national park.
          What at first seems like mindless slaughter—retribution by locals for the job losses Morse's plan is already causing in the region—becomes far more sinister when a shocking murder is discovered and Mike's investigation becomes a hunt to find a ruthless killer. In order to solve the controversial case, Bowditch risks losing everything he holds dear: his best friends, his career as a law enforcement officer, and the love of his life.
          The beauty and magnificence of the Maine woods is the setting for a story of suspense and violence when one powerful woman’s missionary zeal comes face to face with ruthless cruelty.

46. Bad Little Falls by Paul Doiron

listened to on Audible
2012 Minotaur Books
310 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 8/30/16
Goodreads rating:  3.8 - 1,470 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: Whitney, Washington County, Maine contemporary wintertime

First line/s:  "The last time I saw Lucas Sewall, he left a school notebook under the passenger seat of my truck."

My comments:  Washington County, Maine.  The Sunrise County.  Poor.  Isolated.  Long, cold winters. Beautiful in the summertime.  Jonesport-Beals.  Machias. Lubec.  I know the area well.  This story takes place in Whitney (Whiting?), Maine.  It was a good mystery.  It was quite believable.

Goodreads synopsis:  Maine game warden Mike Bowditch has been sent into exile, transferred by his superiors to a remote outpost on the Canadian border. When a blizzard descends on the coast, Bowditch is called to the rustic cabin of a terrified couple. A raving and half-frozen man has appeared at their door, claiming his friend is lost in the storm. 
          But what starts as a rescue mission in the wilderness soon becomes a baffling murder investigation. The dead man is a notorious drug dealer, and state police detectives suspect it was his own friend who killed him. Bowditch isn’t so sure, but his vow not to interfere in the case is tested when he finds himself powerfully attracted to a beautiful woman with a dark past and a troubled young son. The boy seems to know something about what really happened in the blizzard, but he is keeping his secrets locked in a cryptic notebook, and Mike fears for the safety of the strange child. 
          Meanwhile, an anonymous tormentor has decided to make the new warden’s life a living hell. Alone and outgunned, Bowditch turns for assistance to his old friend, the legendary bush pilot Charley Stevens. But in this snowbound landscape -— where smugglers wage blood feuds by night -— help seems very far away indeed. If Bowditch is going to catch a killer, he must survive on his own wits and discover strength he never knew he possessed.

31. Trespasser - Paul Doiron

Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch  #2

read on my phone through Kindle

2011 Minotaur Books

310 pgs.

Adult murder mystery

Finished 5/30/2014

Goodreads Rating:  3.89

My Rating: 3.5 - I liked it

Setting: Midcoast Maine, in a tiny rural town with a summer colony somewhere near Rockland/Thomaston/Camden

1^st sentence/s: "I found the wreck easily enough.  It was the only red sedan with a crushed hood on the Parker Point Road.  In my headlights, the damage didn't look too extensive.  The driver had even managed to steer the car onto the muddy shoulder, where it had become mired to its hubcaps."

My comments:  I love the Maine setting and it was a good mystery. But it's hard for me to completely get into Mike Bowditch's head. He IS impetuous (I was rolling my eyes at some of the things he did) but on the other hand I don't understand why he gets into so much trouble for following his gut. He's a cop...sort of....isn't he? I do think I understood him better in the first book, though. Mixed feelings jumping around here. One other note: As much as I love, love, love the setting, it's hard to totally picture it when some of the places are real and some have the names changed. The locale in this book, Seal Cove, is an actual place on Mt. Desert Island, many miles away from the midcoast area where this is supposedly set. So the sense of "place" kept tilting itself for me.....

Goodreads Summary:   In Paul Doiron’s riveting follow-up to his Edgar Award–nominated novel,The Poacher's Son, Maine game warden Mike Bowditch’s quest to find a missing woman leads him through a forest of lies in search of a killer who may have gotten away with murder once before.    While on patrol one foggy March evening, Bowditch receives a call for help. A woman has reportedly struck a deer on a lonely coast road. When the game warden arrives on the scene, he finds blood in the road—but both the driver and the deer have vanished. And the state trooper assigned to the accident appears strangely unconcerned.

    The details of the disappearance seem eerily familiar. Seven years earlier, a jury convicted lobsterman Erland Jefferts of the rape and murder of a wealthy college student and sentenced him to life in prison. For all but his most fanatical defenders, justice was served. But when the missing woman is found brutalized in a manner that suggests Jefferts may have been framed, Bowditch receives an ominous warning from state prosecutors to stop asking questions.
    For Bowditch, whose own life was recently shattered by a horrific act of violence, doing nothing is not an option. His clandestine investigation reopens old wounds between Maine locals and rich summer residents and puts both his own life and that of the woman he loves in jeopardy. As he closes in on his quarry, he suddenly discovers how dangerous his opponents are, and how far they will go to prevent him from bringing a killer to justice.

40. The Poacher's Son - Paul Doiron

2010, Minotaur Books
HC $24.99 (TPPL)
324 pages
Adult Mystery
Rating:  4

Setting:  Contemporary Maine, in the woods between Skowhegan and the Canadian border
1st Sentence/s:  "When I was nine years old, my father took me deep into the Maine woods to see an old prisoner of war camp.  My mom had just announced she was leaving him, this time for good.  In a few weeks, she said, the two of us were chucking this sorry, redneck life and moving in with her sister down in Portland."
Mike Bowditch is a 24-year-old game warden in the state of Maine, working in the Skowhegan area.  He's a diligent worker, serious about his job, and a bit of a loner.  His girlfriend since college has left him, but he feels he's really forced her to....he's not living a life that she's comfortable with.  They still love each other, that's obvious.  Then, one evening, right out of the blue, the father that he's rarely seen but idolizes nonetheless leaves a message on his answering machine.  The next day Mike discovers that his father is on the run, accused of two murders (one being a police officer).  Mike can't believe it could possibly be true, and sets out to try to discover what really happened.  This puts his job, the job he loves, in dire jeopardy.
This is what I wrote on Goodreads: 

"

I love anything that takes place in the state of Maine, where I can follow the geographical information. Doiron inclues a lot of this, which I really enjoyed. And I love a good mystery. At first I was upset with some of the actions that the 24-year-old protagonist takes, but then I realized that the author was fleshing out a completely believable, REAL young man. Mike's love for the alcoholic, abusive father that he really didn't know is entirely believable, as is his on-and-off desire to be alo...moreI love anything that takes place in the state of Maine, where I can follow the geographical information. Doiron includes a lot of this, which I really enjoyed. And I love a good mystery. At first I was upset with some of the actions that the 24-year-old protagonist takes, but then I realized that the author was fleshing out a completely believable, REAL young man. Mike's love for the alcoholic, abusive father that he really didn't know is entirely believable, as is his on-and-off desire to be alone, unfettered by any relationship. I'll be really interested to see how this character evolves in the second book of the series. I look forward to reading it." Paul Doiron is the editor of DownEast magazine and a registered Maine Guide.