Review: "Bad Little Falls: A Novel" by Paul Doiron

When you annoy the bosses once too many times and you work as a game warden for the State of Maine, you get sent to their version of Siberia. In this case, Warden Mike Bowditch has been sent to Washington County. The eastern most county in Maine is well known for poaching, drug abuse, high unemployment, and a host of other social ills. Not to mention the brutal winter working conditions. Bowditch is being punished and he knows it. Just about everything Bowditch has to deal with in his new assignment is made worse because his considerable reputation precedes him.

The biggest place in the county population wise is the county seat of Machias. The town barely has two thousand people. The small town, as well as the surrounding county, is a place where everyone knows everyone else, looks the other way, and pretends to know nothing. That includes ignoring the actions of a local drug dealer. A drug dealer that soon winds up dead with his friend severely injured by frost bite.

While others believe the friend killed the drug dealer during a snowstorm, Bowditch doesn’t think so. Any shred of credibility he had coming in was shot by his involvement in the case (never get romantically involved with a suspect is rule one no matter what agency you work for),  so he is forced to go it alone to get to the truth.  It isn’t the first time and won’t be the last.

The series that began with The Poacher’s Son and continued with Trespasser just keeps getting better and better. This is a very complicated novel that continues to build on an excellent foundation while bringing further nuance and depth to the Bowditch character. Those efforts do not get in the way of the multiple storylines at work in this complex and multi-layered novel.  Bad Little Falls by Maine author Paul Doiron and well worth your time.

Bad Little Falls: A Novel

Paul Doiron

http://www.pauldoiron.com

Minotaur Books (St. Martin’s Press)

http://www.minotaurbooks.com

August 2012

ISBN# 978-0-312-55848-2

Hardback (also available in e-book)

310 Pages

$24.99

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano, Texas Public Library System.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2012

Review: "Trespasser: A Novel" by Paul Doiron

For Game Warden Mike Bowditch it has already been a very long day when he was told by dispatch about the possible car accident. Dispatcher Lori Williams says a deer was killed in the impact but the driver was not injured. He isn’t sure why he would be needed and with Mr. Varnum yelling at him he is very focused on the immediate problem at hand. Bowditch is on what is supposed to be his last call of the day out at Hank Varnum’s place where all-terrain vehicle riders have been causing an escalating problem. Mr. Varnum was already mad about the damage on his land by the big wheels of the ATV’s and that was before somebody cut down two old oak trees. Varnum is sure some less than desirable nearby neighbors who ride ATV’s are the folks responsible, but can’t prove it.

Once finished with Mr. Varnum and with no sign of State Police response, Warden Mike Bowditch responds to the car crash. He finds a red sedan with a crushed hood, blood on the road presumably from a deer, and no sign of the driver. With blood and chunks of hair in the blood pool on the road and caught under the fender it is pretty clear the driver hit a deer. A deer that is long gone as no doubt somebody came along and took it. That does not explain where the driver is. According to the driver of the wrecker dispatched to help, the driver said she didn’t need a ride.

The State Police finally arrive in the form of Trooper Curt Hutchins. While Warden Bowditch is a bit concerned that the driver can’t be found, Trooper Hutchins is sure she found a ride and is somewhere sobering up. Hutchins makes it clear that Warden Bowditch can go on his merry way as he has no use for him. The fact that he is Jack Bowditch’s son continues to cause issues and this is one of those cases. An exhausted Warden Bowditch leaves and will come to deeply regret that decision in the coming days.

 

In this strong and very good sequel to The Poacher’s Son author Paul Doiron has created another top flight mystery. While continuing to explore the very complicated character of Mike Bowditch, Game Warden and son of Maine’s most notorious criminal in the eyes of some, there are two very complicated mystery treads at work in the novel. Eventually pieces of each merge together as the cases become intertwined while a deep conflict between those who live year around and those that summer guests erupts again. Warden Bowditch isn’t the only one in Maine who can’t escape the mud of his notorious past.

This is a series that definitely should be read in order. If you have not had the pleasure of reading The Poacher’s Son you should rectify that after you read my review at http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2012/07/ffb-review-poachers-son-by-paul-doiron.html

The third book in the series, BAD LITTLE FALLS will be out this month.

Trespasser: A Novel

Paul Doiron

http://www.pauldoiron.com

Center Point Large Print

http://www.centerpointlargeprint.com

2011

ISBN# 978-1-61173-100-2

Hardback

$35.95

440 pages

Material supplied by the good folks of the Plano Texas Public Library System. Again this year the summer reading challenge for adults and kids is now underway. For more information go to

http://www.plano.gov/Departments/Libraries/Pages/default.aspx

Kevin R. Tipple ©2012

FFB Review: "The Poacher's Son" by Paul Doiron

Earlier this week I learned that Paul Doiron has a third book in this series coming out titled, BAD LITTLE FALLS. I had no idea that another one in the series was coming out. I’m currently reading the second book in the series titled TRESPASSER. So, with news that another book was coming out as well as the fact I will soon review the second book, it seemed that is was appropriate to take another look at the debut mystery THE POACHER’S SON. Make sure you check out the entire Friday’s Forgotten Books list over at Patti Abbott’s blog at http://pattinase.blogspot.com/

 

After working a bear sighting case and calming down the irate homeowner, Maine Game Warden  Mike Bowditch comes home late one night to find a cryptic message on his answering  machine left by his father, Jack Bowditch.  They haven’t spoken in two years and the message isn’t much beyond the fact that his dad is clearly in some sort of trouble.  His Father lives off the land in the north woods of Maine and doesn’t recognize that the government can tell him when he can kill what. He is a man that never should have married, or fathered a child, and yet he did both.  Mike never measured up to his dad’s standards and for Mike, the feeling is mutual.

Instead of hearing it from his dad, Mike has to learn from his supervisors that his dad is a suspect in the ambush murder of Deputy Bill Brodeur and Wendigo Timberlands spokesman Jonathan Shipman. Wendigo is buying up the land in the area and generating lots of anger and threats from the locals who are losing their homes and their way of life.  Deputy Brodeur was driving Shipman to a motel after a contentious public meeting and both were gunned down in the police cruiser.  They never had a chance.

 In trying to clear his dad, Mike Bowditch not only risks his professional career and his life, he is forced to deal with his painful past.

While this debut novel has all the usual clichéd stereotypes such as the violent drunkard father committing illegal acts, the son who wound up trying to be different than good old dad by joining law enforcement, the girlfriend who loves him but can’t stand his lack of money or inability to open completely up to her as well as others, author Paul Doiron uses his expertise on the area and his writing skills to make the book work.  Reminiscent of the work of C. J. Boxx, Paul Doiron brings the land and the characters alive in a way few authors can do. Shifting in points of view with Mike Bowditch always primary for readers, the read moves along at a fast clip despite the frequent use of flashbacks to back fill the history of characters.

Sure to appeal to readers familiar with the local color and flavor, this novel also works for those of us who have never set foot in Maine. This novel is a very strong start to what could be a very good and highly entertaining series.

The Poacher’s Son

Paul Doiron

http://www.pauldoiron.com

Minotaur Books

http://www.minotaurbooks.com

April  2010

ISBN# 978-0-312-55846-8

Hardback

336 Pages

$24.99

While the novel is carried in my local library in Plano, TX, I received this ARC by the way of the Amazon Vine Program. 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2010, 2012