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.

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.

71. Generation Loss - Elizabeth Hand

#1 Cassandra Neary series

Read on my iPhone through Kindle

2007 Small Beer Press

265 pgs.

Adult .... Mystery/CRF

Finished Thanksgiving, 2014

Goodreads rating: 3.79

My rating:    3 (Liked It)

Setting:  Fictional Burnt Harbor, Maine (Downeast) and its outer islands

1st sentence/s:  "There's always a moment where everything changes.  A great photographer -- someone like Diane Arbus, or me during that fraction of a second when I was great -- she sees that moment coming, and presses the shutter release an instant before the change hits. If you don't see it coming, if you blink or you're drunk or just looking the other way -- well, everything changes anyway, it's not like things would have been different."

My comments:  There were parts of this book that were hard from me to imagine....because there are a lot of references to photography and processing film, that sort of thing. The setting, in downeast Maine in winter, I can imagine.  It's dreary, poor, bleak.  The protagonist, Cassandra Neary, is one of the most unlikable characters I've come across.  But that makes her incredibly interesting, actually.  I'm guessing she's around 40, friendless, a kleptomaniac, hardly eats, survives on Jim Beam and speed. A real downer.  This was quite a story, somewhat of a mystery, but more of a contemporary realistic fiction that skirts the edge of a really dark, somewhat bizarre (though real, unfortunately) world. (And I will go on to read another, because I liked it more than I didn't....)

Goodreads book summary:  Cass Neary made her name in the 1970s as a photographer embedded in the burgeoning punk movement in New York City. Her pictures of the musicians and hangers on, the infamous, the damned, and the dead, got her into art galleries and a book deal. But thirty years later she is adrift, on her way down, and almost out. Then an old acquaintance sends her on a mercy gig to interview a famously reclusive photographer who lives on an island in Maine. When she arrives Downeast, Cass stumbles across a decades-old mystery that is still claiming victims, and into one final shot at redemption.

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.

31. Available Dark – Elizabeth Hand

Thomas Dunne/ Minotaur Books, 2012

246 pgs.

for: adults

Rating:  Mixed feelings, but I liked it….quite a bit, after much thought

Setting:  NYC for a short time, then Finland for a bit, the rest in Iceland in winter…probably December, when there’s almost no daylight, just gray light for a few hours or total darkness.

First line/s:  There had been more trouble, as usual.  In November I’d headed north to an island off the coast of Maine, hoping to score an interview that might jump-start the cold wreckage of my career as a photographer, dead for more than thirty years.  Instead, I got sucked into some seriously bad shit.  The upshot was that I was now back in the city, almost dead broke, with winter coming down and even fewer prospects than when I’d left weeks earlier.  I dealt with this the way I usually did:  I bought a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, cranked my stereo, and got hammered.”

OSS:  Photographer Cass Neary, user of Jack Daniels and meth and uppers and downers and anything she can get her hands on, goes to Finland to authenticate a series of unbelievable photos; then gets pulled into a series of murders all revolving around Viking mythology and Black Metal music

I figured out that the references to Maine, her bad experiences there, and some other references that she had to stay low, were references to the first book about Cass/Cassandra Neary called Generation Loss.  Because of the island off the coast of Maine setting (! ! !) I do plan to find it and read it this summer.

This was really quite fascinating, incredibly dark, and thought-provoking.  Because I spent 24 hours in Iceland (in August, when the sun hardly went down), I’ve always wondered about winter there. Cheap flights in winter, horribly expensive ones in summer. Well, this is a view that I would never, ever see or think about as an average tourist.  The current punk scene, I guess you’d call it.  But Cass – and all her acquaintance’s fascination with death and its mythologies, is a pretty dark trip for someone who thrives on sunshine…..(me)……  This is one of those books that teach you, make you think outside the box, helps you make connections you might never have made, ever.  And, ultimately, I liked it.

12. After Obsession - Carrie Jones & Steven E. Wedel

Bloomsbury, 2011
HC $17.99
308 pgs.
for young adults
Liked it a lot (4)

Setting:  a small community on the Union River, near Ellsworth, Maine
OSS:  Two voices alternate as this story unfolds - Aimee and Alan - who know that an evil force (the River Man) is trying to possess a friend, the same evil force that took the life of Aimee's mother and countless others through the past centuries.
1st sentence/s:  You are mine.  You are all mine.  These are the words I hear every single freaking morning since my friend Courtney's dad died. They slither around inside my brain all day until I think I'm going crazy, and today is no exception.

I enjoy reading Carrie Jones' novels....the setting is where I lived for so many year.  This time, in her acknowledgements, she mentions Amilie Bacon, one of my past students at MDES.  That was pretty exciting.

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.)

Fire Up With Reading - Toni Buzzeo

Illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa
Upstart Books, 2007
32 pages
Rating: 4
Endpapers: White

Mrs. Skorupski, the Liberty School librarian, has come up with a great idea to get the whole school reading - a 6-month competition to end on March 2nd, Read Across America Day. Her theme is based on fire-spouting dragons. Kids earn a dragon scale for every 30 minutes of reading...and the whole school starts to read, read, read, including Patty Lee and her 4th grade class.

Colorful, fanciful, simple illustrations cover the entire page. But do you like the cover? I don't.