59. Lost Girls: The Maine Murders by Jon Mills

Ben Forrester series, but I don't see any more yet
Listened on Audible
narrated by Peter Kenyon
Unabridged audio (6:18)
2018
391 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished 4/5/2020
Goodreads rating:  4.23 - 1133 ratings
My rating: 3
Setting:  Contemporary Mount Desert Island, Maine

First line/s:  "For the last two years, Ben Forrester had lived in a small beach house on Mt. Desert Island."

My comments:  I was delighted to begin this murder mystery knowing that it took place in Maine, but was more-than-pleasantly surprised when I discovered it was set on my own Mount Desert Island.  However, the author did some really weird things with some of the facts and locations.  He changed the name of Bar Harbor to Eden Falls, keeping Mount Desert, Southwest Harbor, and Tremont the other three towns, correctly.  Unfortunately, the narrator was never told how to correctly say Tremont.  Oh well, he did nail Bangor, thankfully, which is a huge pet peeve of mine though it shouldn't be.  But Mr. Mills added and changed other things that disconcerted me.  He kept saying Acadia Park (leaving out the National, which isn't done) and added Acadia National Forest, WTF?  He put Blackwoods Campground in Bar Harbor/Eden Falls jurisdiction, when it's in Otter Creek (never mentioned) which is part of the town of Mount Desert and in their jurisdiction.  He gave huge, crazy numbers to the amounts of park rangers at Acadia.  Had cabins and log homes dotted here and there throughout the "forest," which, because it's largely in Acadia National Park is definitely not allowed and therefore nonexistent.  All of this bothered me quite a bit     why change some insignificant details when sticking to the truth would probably garner more positive reception?  It definitely put me off.  The story was okay, to be sure.  I usually, as a rule, dislike stories when the protagonist's family are kidnapped, and this was one of those.  It was also incredibly grizzly - and I can usually take some grizzly, but, spoiler alert!!! I think I've got to draw a line with taxidermy being done on human bodies.  I'll give this one a three, although I will certainly try out any others if Mr. Mills decides to continue this as a series.

Goodreads synopsis:  A serial killer is terrorizing a coastal town…
          When renowned FBI agent Benjamin Forrester suffers a devastating loss while trying to catch an elusive serial killer, he quits the bureau. Years later, after a similar series of gruesome murders trigger an investigation in the coastal town of Eden Falls, Maine, Ben is called upon to assist the rookie police detective, Dakota Woods.
          He soon learns he's being lured into a deadly game of cat and mouse where the only way to stop the murders is to confront his past and face his worst fear.