October so far has been
unseasonably warm in Maine and Game Warden Mike Bowditch
wonders what exactly
is going on because nature certainly isn't behaving herself. Neither is man
because Bowditch's friend Billy Cronk has found a nightmare at the expansive estate
of Elizabeth Morris where he works. Ms. Morris is incredibly wealthy and has
been quietly buying in significant numbers various adjoining parcels of land. In
a highly controversial move she has fenced off the land, evicted those who
lived there and didn’t have land rights, and announced her intention and desire
for the entire area to become a national park. The backlash from the timber
industry and others who need the jobs and income that access to the land provides
has been intense.
It is one thing to write a
hate filled letter promising death and worse to Ms. Morris. It is another to
get past her fences and gates and gun down a moose. At least a poacher would
have taken the meat. Whoever did this didn’t bother to take the meat and
instead left it to rot in the woods. The first dead moose that he leads Game Warden
Mike Bowditch to is the not the only one Billy discovered dead and left to rot. What
Billy found is just the first of several moose that were senselessly
slaughtered in what will become a legendary crime for the Warden service as
well as a major media incident.
Award winning author Paul
Doiron once again takes readers on a suspenseful mystery ride in the Maine
woods. As he did from the very beginning with The Poacher's Son (reviewed here) he combines
a powerful mystery with the actions and duties of the men and women whose job
it is to protect nature in all its forms from the misuse and abuse of mankind.
Much like what C. J. Box has done for Wyoming; Paul Doiron has done for Maine through four very good books to date.
At its core Massacre
Pond is an intense mystery that has human as well as animal victims.
The massacre of the moose is just the first point of a complex case that will
result in a number of deaths and complications as other events come to light. Human
frailty is a major point in the book through primary and secondary storylines,
as is economics, politics, and access to power thanks to money and social
standing. These Maine woods may be lovely, dark, and deep, but they also are full
of danger in many different ways.
Massacre Pond
Minotaur
Books (St. Martin’s Publishing Group)
July
2013
ISBN#978-1-250-03393-2
Hardback
(available in e-book and audio)
315
Pages
$24.99
Material Supplied by the good folks of the Plano Texas
Public Library System.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2013
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