60. Pitch Dark by Paul Doiron

#15 Mike Bowditch, Maine Game Warden

listened on Audible

304 pgs.

2024
Adult series murder mystery
Finished 7/4/2024
Goodreads rating: 4.28
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Maine woods, Jackman and US/Canada border.

My comments: This book was a bit different than his previous books which had Mike Bowditch out and about doing his investigating in different parts of Maine.  In this one he and his father-in-law are out in the woods tracking a bad guy and his young daughter.  A bit of adventure, some survival skills, pondering clues, and near-catastrophes and very close calls make this an interesting adventure.

Goodreads synopsis:  Legendary bush pilot Josie Jonson can’t believe her luck when a skilled builder just happens to show up after she purchases land near Prentiss Pond. All Mark Redmond asks in return for building Josie’s dream cabin is that he be left alone to homeschool his 12-year-old daughter, Cady.

For Maine game warden investigator Mike Bowditch, the intensity of Redmond's secretiveness is troubling, especially in light of suspicious criminal activity being reported around the area―including rumors of an armed man offering large sums of money in exchange for the location of Redmond and Cady. Josie, though hesitant to violate the trust of her prized builder, eventually agrees to fly Mike and his father-in-law Charley Stevens to the secluded pond in an attempt to protect Redmond and Cady. But hours after landing, the trip takes a dark turn when they witness a horrific murder and are taken captive themselves.

Freeing himself, Mike is forced to set off through the impenetrable Maine forest towards Canada, alone and unarmed in pursuit of a mysterious fugitive. As he navigates a windblown landscape choked with deadfalls and blocked by swollen streams, he marvels at his enemy’s bush craft. The killer possesses skills surpassing his own, and Bowditch can't tell if he is the cat or the mouse in this dangerous game. Can Mike Bowditch stop his adversary in time to save the life of a young girl, or will he be forced to watch another innocent soul die?

75. The Caretaker, a short story/novella by Paul Doiron

#11.5 Mike Bowditch

read on Kindle

2021
51pgs.
Adult mystery
Finished  7/7/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.09 - 241 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Contemporary Maine BOONIES

First line/s: "I was seated on the porch of my old friend Charley Stevens, the two of us enjoying the quiet calm of Sixth Machias Lake and the flutter of southbound warblers in the pines overhead, when we heard a car approaching down the dirt track that led to his house deep in the Maine woods."

My comments: Definitely contemporary, not set in the past like some of the short stories about Charlie Stevens.  Interesting.  Enjoyed it.

Goodreads synopsis:   In this new original short story from bestselling author Paul Doiron, Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch tracks down a sinister prowler turning a couple's dream vacation home into a nightmare.
        New owners of a dream cottage on a remote Maine lake find themselves taunted, then menaced by an unknown figure. When the local authorities refuse to help, they turn to retired Maine game warden Charley Stevens and his young protege Mike Bowditch for protection. But Charley begins to suspect there is more to the mystery than the couple is letting on--and if he and Mike don’t act fast, the situation will explode into violence.

85. The Imposter by Paul Doiron

#10.5 Mike Bowditch, Maine Game Warden
listened on Audible
narrated by Henry Leyva
Unabridged audio (1:29)
2020, Minotaur Bks
60 pgs.
Adult Mystery
Finished 5/25/2020
Goodreads rating:  3.93 - 192 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: contemporary Washington County, Maine

First line/s:  "Twelve-gauge Gaynor had been rowing his skiff from the town landing out to his lobster boat, the Dragon Lady, when he'd spotted a metallic glimmer coming through the blue-green water."

My comments: A very short story, which does not take place after book number 10, but way back, nearer to the beginning of the series.  It takes place in Washington County when Mike as a young game warden.  Short but sweet with a very abrupt ending - we never find out why the imposter took on Mike Bowditch's identity.  Oh well.

Goodreads synopsis:  In this original short story in the bestselling Mike Bowditch mystery series by Paul Doiron, Mike is confronted with a case of stolen identity.
          When the body of a young man is pulled from a submerged car in Roque Harbor, rookie game warden Mike Bowditch is shocked when the man’s driver’s license identifies him as none other than…Mike Bowditch. For weeks, Mike and his colleagues have been fielding reports of a man terrorizing the locals while posing as a game warden, wielding a plastic pin-on badge and claiming to be “Warden Bowditch”. Who is the imposter, and how did he end up dead in the bottom of a harbor? Mike must uncover the truth in order to clear his own name.

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.

41. Rabid by Paul Doiron

#8.5 Mike Bowditch
listened using Audible
narrated by Henry Leyva
Unabridged audio (1:16)
2018 Minotaur Books
50 pgs.
Adult HF
Finished 3/1/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.08 - 282 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting: now with story within story taking place in the 1908s.

First line/s: "It was one of those warm June evenings when you can feel the earth pivoting from spring to summer."

My comments: The short novellas by Paul Doiron in the Mike Bowditch series seem to be stories from the past that Charlie Stevens tells.  This one is from the 80s and is his and his wife, Aura's, retelling of confrontations with a Vietnam vet and his Vietnamese wife.  It was interesting, and a bit thought-provoking.

Goodreads synopsis:  In this original short story in the Mike Bowditch mystery series, Mike is drawn into the story of a gruesome case from his mentor Charley Steven’s past.
          Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch accompanies his old friend and mentor, retired bush pilot Charley Stevens, as he pays a visit to a mysterious woman, the widow of a Vietnam vet, living in isolation in the Maine wilderness. Many years earlier, she had called Charley, then a young game warden himself, for help. She claimed that her badly bleeding husband had been attacked by a rabid bat. But in the succeeding days, despite her husband's increasingly erratic and aggressive behavior, his wife resisted Charley's attempts to help, arousing his suspicions that more was going on than met the eye. Was the husband the victim of rabies, or was he suffering from post traumatic stress disorder? The situation finally erupted into horrific violence, leaving everyone involved deeply scarred. In the devastating finale to RABID, Charley reveals to Mike how he uncovered the awful truth about what actually happened in their home so many years before.

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. 

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?

1. The Bear Trap - Paul Doiron

#4.5 Mike Bowditch
read on my iPhone
2014, criminalelement.com
20 pgs.
Adult Mystery (and in this case, short story)
Finished 1-1-2019
Goodreads rating:  3.92 - 411 ratings
My rating: 4
Setting: Middle-of-nowhere, Maine, contemporary, though the actual story told within the story takes place in the early 1970s.

First line/s:  "The wind moved across the surface of the lake like breath upon a mirror."

My comments:  Short and sweet, a story told by old-time game warden Charley Stevens to his good friend, new game warden Mike Bowditch, when they were out fishing.  The story that Charley tells takes place when he was a new game warden over 35 years previously and had captured a notorious hermit nicknamed "Sweet Tooth" who had been 19 years living and stealing in the Maine woods.

Goodreads synopsis:  Legendary Maine woodsman and bush pilot Charley Stevens tries to convince young Mike Bowditch of the dangers awaiting rookie game wardens.

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.

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.