Review: "The Precipice: A Novel" by Paul Doiron

The area known as the “Hundred Mile Wilderness” is some of the most remote land, not just in Maine, but along the entire Appalachian Trail system. Two young women, recent graduates from Pentecost University, who were hiking the entire trail have failed to check in with their families as expected. Hikers that have been hiking the entire system in a trek up from Georgia and were

experienced by this point on the trail as well as known to check in on a regular basis. It is September and it has been over ten days since they last checked in with their families who finally alerted law enforcement to the problem.

Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch is on a romantic weekend with Wildlife Biologist Stacy Stevens. Called back to duty to help with the search and rescue operation, Bowditch is troubled by Stacy’s reaction to the news. He gets the sense that something really bad to her years ago when she hiked another part of the trail. He also knows what can happen on the trail by way of nature as well as mankind and does not hold out much hope that either of the young women are still alive.

As Bowditch expected the bodies of the hikers are eventually found. The recovery quickly turns into a media circus thanks to the remote possibility that a pack of rampaging wolves caused the deaths of the hikers. While there is not any question that Bowditch saw a wolf behaving strangely when he was on the search, the idea that wolves could be at fault is something Stacy does not want to hear or accept. Instead, she blames a human killer and launches her own private investigation and further distances herself from Bowditch.

The Precipice is the sixth in the series that began with The Poacher’s Son. While this one could be read first, earlier events in the series are mentioned briefly in the backstory. The hallmarks of this series are once again evident --- multilayered characters, a complex mystery, and a love for the Maine woods. The result is another engrossing and very satisfying mystery from the very talented Paul Doiron. 

The Precipice: A Novel

Paul Doiron

http://www.pauldoiron.com

Minotaur Books (St. Martin’s Press)

http://www.minotaurbooks.com

June 2015

ISBN# 978-1-250-06369-4

Hardback (audio and e-book available)

333 Pages

$25.99

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

Kevin R. Tipple ©2015

Review: "The Bone Orchard (Mike Bowditch Mysteries) by Paul Doiron

It is late May and Mike Bowditch has recently done what some in the Maine Warden Service have long wanted---he quit. These days he is working as a fishing guide. That decision had many consequences some of which were obvious and some that were not. One of the not so obvious ones, at least to Mike, was the fact that he wasn’t available when his friend and mentor Sargent Kathy Frost needed him the most. Instead, she was with a rookie officer when dealing with the call about a troubled veteran who might be suicidal.

Unfortunately, things escalated quickly when Sargent Frost and Danielle “Dani” Tate arrived on scene. Fearing for their safety they were forced to shoot Jimmy Gammon. The same Jimmy Gammon Mike had known before he was deployed to Afghanistan where he would suffer severe wounds thanks to an IED.  Jimmy died in his parent’s barn and the officers are on suspension and being investigated.

The family is outraged as are many other people and both officers are receiving threats. Somebody may have decided not to wait for the investigation into the shooting to conclude. Who fired the shots at her home that killed her dog, Pluto, and gravely wounded Kathy Frost is one of the many questions Mike Bowditch intends to answer. He faces an uphill battle because of his status as a civilian and numerous complications via various secondary storylines. Sticking in his nose in things and being his normal obstinate self is going to cost--- the real question is just how much.

Fifth in a great series that started with The Poacher’s Son author Paul Doiron continues to bring the beauty of the Maine woods alive for readers in ways that few authors can achieve. He also mixes in plenty of mystery, adventure, and humanity making all the characters-- major and minor-- fully fleshed out people and not caricatures. Award winning Paul Doiron has crafted another very good book in an excellent series that shows no sign of stopping. Like all really good ones, this is a series that is best read in order.

The Bone Orchard

Paul Doiron

http://www.pauldoiron.com

Minotaur Books

http://www.minotaurbooks.com

ISBN# 978-1-250-03488-5

Hardback (also available in e-book

$25.99

306 Pages

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

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014

Review: "Massacre Pond" by Paul Doiron

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

http://www.pauldorion.com

Minotaur Books (St. Martin’s Publishing Group)

http://www.minotaurbooks.com

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
 

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