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. 

8. Girl in the Glass - James Hayman

McCabe & Savage #4
read on my iPhone...
2015 Witness Impulse
373 pgs.
Adult murder mystery
Finished 2/12/16
Goodreads rating:  3,81
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Portland, ME

My comments:  In this fourth-in-the-series, Hayman uses the islands off Portland, Maine, to showcase how the rich and "beautiful" live - and fall, just like the rest of humanity.  Rich private school, Maine's wealthy and elite, spoiled high schoolers, tarnished adults, and a beautiful summer setting all enrich a really good mystery.  Intermingled with the contemporary happenings are bits and pieces of memories from 1904 and a mystery linked to the Whitby family in almost-believable ways.  Okay, so you have to use your imagination a bit and not roll your eyes, but when you do it becomes a truly enjoyable reading experience, especially if you LOVE anything written about the state of Maine!

Goodreads synopsis:  New York Times Bestseller!
     Two identical women.
     Two identical murders. Two lives brutally cut short
     108 years apart
     June 1904.
     Aimée Garnier Whitby, a beautiful French artist and wife of one of Maine's richest and most powerful men, is found near death on the Whitby family's private summer island, the letter "A" mysteriously carved into her chest.
     June 2012. 
     Veronica Aimée Whitby, the eighteen-year-old descendant and virtual double of the first Aimée, becomes the victim of a near perfect copycat murder. With another beautiful, promising young Whitby woman slain, the media begin to swarm and pressure builds for Mike McCabe and Maggie Savage to bring the killer quickly to justice. But the key to solving Aimée's death just might have been buried with her beautiful ancestor.

MOVIE: Moonrise Kingdom

Quirky.  Deadpan.  Funny.  In that order.
PG-13 (1:34)
Released 5/25/2012
Watched at El Con, hot Sunday afternoon 7/8/12, full house
RT Crit: 94 RT Audience:  92
Director:  Wes Anderson
Focus Features

Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, a small part with Harvey Keitel (!)

Setting:  a small island off the coast of New England circa 1965

Edward Norton is the leader of a small troop of "Khaki Scouts" who discovers one of his charges has run away. Sam has gone to meet Suzy, a fellow 12-year-old he had written to since the previous summer.  They are in love.  They take off together to camp on a remote part of the island.  However, a huge hurricane is brewing. The story goes back and forth from the island police chief (Bruce Willis) who has some sort of affair/relationship going with Suzy's mother (Frances McDormand), Suzy's home where her three brothers and father (Bill Murray) live their own weird lives, the Khaki scouts and their leader, all looking for the runaways.  The entire movie is tongue-in-cheek, deadpan, and very funny.  Odd and weird, yes, but different and a lot of fun.  Some of the audience even clapped at the end of the movie! (I didn't like it quite THAT much, myself...) It was a fun flick to see on a hot summer afternoon, and I love watching Bill Murray doing ANYTHING.... The Suzy and Sam actors were really great.

29. Touch Blue - Cynthia Lord

2010, Scholastic paperback
186 pgs.
for:  middle grades
Rating:  4.5

I was able to obtain six copies of Touch Blue for the last literature circles of the year, but offered it without having the time to read it. I’d read ABOUT it, and enjoy (very much) Cynthia Lord’s blog. I know – and trust her – as an author. And it’s set in Maine, for crying out loud. Six kids were in the group. Six kids loved the book

Well now I just finished reading it myself. It’s a perfect book for fourth graders. It covers all sorts of things to talk about: living on an actual island that is only accessible by boat, what a “family” is, believing in superstitions, good luck/bad luck, and how it might feel not to be able to live with your own parents. It has a token bully to ponder. Content-wise, music and lobster fishing also have big parts in the novel. Monopoly, talent shows, irritating little sisters and the Boston Red Sox….I could go on and on.

When a family with many kids moves from Bethsaida Island to the mainland, the state of Maine decides there aren’t enough children to keep the island school open. So some of the families decide to take in foster kids. Tess’s family gets Aaron, a red-headed, 13-year-old gifted musician who has already been shuffled around in Maine’s foster care system. Tess’s dad, a lobster fisherman and her mom, the school’s only teacher, open up their home and their hearts; and both Tess and her little sister, Libby, are greatly looking forward to having a brother. Of course things are very rocky. Small town gossip and the local bully don’t help matters, either.

Since the story is told in the first person by Tess, the reader can get inside her head and see what her fears, her hopes, and her miseries truly are. It’s a lovely story with an ending that looks to the future and might give kids a reason to look beyond the surface in the lives of other kids and not always take everything at face value.

(‘Course, it doesn’t hurt that I lived for 30 years on an island – the kind you can drive onto – on the coast of Maine.)
 Loved this:

“Summer is short and changeable in Maine – like the weather can’t make up its mind. One day it can be ninety degrees, so hot in the sun that rivers of sweat trickle down my spine and my rubbersized hauling pants stick to my skin wherever they touch it. A week later, it can turn so chilly and foggy that I’ll need jeans and a sweatshirt. The talk at the store is always the weather and the Red Sox – starting with whichever one is doing worse.”

“Yup, it’s a good one, Burt…..”

Cynthia Lord’s website
Cynthia Lord's blog (She includes lots of photos she takes wherever she goes, I really enjoy it.)

The Circus Ship - Chris VanDusen

Candlewick, 2009
$16.99
40 pages
Rating: 5
Endpapers: 2-color yellow, wide vertical stripes - very subtle.

This is the picture book my grandkids are getting for Christmas. With clever rhyming, snazzzy words, bright, fun illustrations, and rhythm shouting from every page, any kid would enjoy this. That it takes place on an island off the coast of Maine (home sweet home for much of my family) is an extra special touch. This island is SO Frenchboro or Islesford or Great Cranberry - and has its roots in a true tale from 1836!

A circus ship, loaded with animals, hits a ledge while heading south to Boston. Fifteen animals escape and swim to a nearby island. A sparsely, yet cozily inhabited, island. When the exceedingly mean circus owner comes to reclaim the animals, they are nowhere to be found. At least, not by him - but a bit of pouring over the two-page sperack and careful young eyes will find them all!

Wonderful in every way.

Check out Chris VanDusen's website.