Paul Doiron’s Mike Bowditch game warden mystery books are a great find. I loved reading them and have just a few more to read. It’s cool to read a book and recognize the places in the fictional novel.
The plots are really well thought out. Mike Bowditch is a believable character. His job as a game warden seems very exciting and interesting, but I don’t think I could do that type of work. But I can live that life through the imagery coming from the stories written by Paul Doiron. From his Amazon biography section:
About the author
Paul Doiron is the best-selling author of the Mike Bowditch series of crime novels set in the Maine woods.
His first book, THE POACHER’S SON, won the Barry Award and the Strand Critics Award and was nominated for an Edgar for Best First Novel. PopMatters named it one of the best novels of the year. His second, TRESPASSER, won the 2012 Maine Literary Award. His novelette “Rabid” was a finalist for the 2019 Edgar in the Best Short Story category. Paul’s twelfth book, DEAD BY DAWN won the New England Society’s 2022 Book Award for Fiction, as well as his second Maine Literary Award. It was also a finalist for the Barry Award.
Paul is the former chair of the Maine Humanities Council, Editor Emeritus of “Down East: The Magazine of Maine,” and a Registered Maine Guide specializing in fly fishing. He lives on a trout stream on the Maine midcoast.
His novels have been translated into 11 languages: German, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian, Hungarian, Czech, and Finnish.
When you scroll through these Paul Doiron books, if you click on the Amazon affiliate link, notice that you can get the books in different formats, such as Kindle, paperback, hardcover, or Audible. Choose the format that works for you.
The Poacher’s Son (2010)
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Game warden Mike Bowditch returns home one evening to find an alarming voice from the past on his answering machine: his father Jack, a hard drinking womanizer who makes his living poaching illegal game. An even more frightening call comes the next morning from the police: they are searching for the man who killed a beloved local cop the night before―and his father is their prime suspect. Jack has escaped from police custody, and only Mike believes that his tormented father might not be guilty.
Now, alienated from the woman he loves, shunned by colleagues who have no sympathy for the suspected cop-killer, Mike must come to terms with his haunted past. He knows firsthand Jack’s brutality, but is the man capable of murder? Desperate and alone, he strikes up an uneasy alliance with a retired warden pilot, and together the two men journey deep into the Maine wilderness in search of a runaway fugitive. But the only way for Mike to save his father is to find the real killer―which could mean putting everyone he loves in the line of fire.
Trespasser (2011)
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In Paul Doiron’s riveting follow-up to his Edgar Award–nominated novel, The Poacher’s Son, Maine game warden Mike Bowditch’s quest to find a missing woman leads him through a forest of lies in search of a killer who may have gotten away with murder once before.
While on patrol one foggy March evening, Bowditch receives a call for help. A woman has reportedly struck a deer on a lonely coast road. When the game warden arrives on the scene, he finds blood in the road―but both the driver and the deer have vanished. And the state trooper assigned to the accident appears strangely unconcerned.
The details of the disappearance seem eerily familiar. Seven years earlier, a jury convicted lobsterman Erland Jefferts of the rape and
murder of a wealthy college student and sentenced him to life in prison. For all but his most fanatical defenders, justice was served. But when the missing woman is found brutalized in a manner that suggests Jefferts may have been framed, Bowditch receives an ominous
warning from state prosecutors to stop asking questions.
For Bowditch, whose own life was recently shattered by a horrific act of violence, doing nothing is not an option. His clandestine
investigation reopens old wounds between Maine locals and rich summer residents and puts both his own life and that of the woman he loves in jeopardy. As he closes in on his quarry, he suddenly discovers how dangerous his opponents are, and how far they will go to prevent him from bringing a killer to justice.
Bad Little Falls (2012)
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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.
Massacre Pond (2013)
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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 timberland 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.
The Bear Trap (2015)
The Bone Orchard (2014)
The Precipice (2015)
Widowmaker (2016)
Knife Creek (2017)
Rabid (2018)
Stay Hidden (2018)
Backtrack (2019)
Almost Midnight (2019)
The Imposter (2020)
One Last Lie (2020)
The Caretaker (2021)
Dead by Dawn (2021)
Skin and Bones (2022)
Hatchet Island (2022)
Snakebit (2023)
Dead Man’s Wake (2023)
Pitch Dark (2024)
Amazon affiliate link https://amzn.to/3TpPMtu
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?
If you click on the Amazon affiliate links that I’ve included with some of the books in this post, you can browse and see all of Paul Doiron’s books available. These books are great because the imagery draws you in right from the beginning and it’s hard to put the book down! Those are the best kinds of books!
Are you reading on a Kindle yet? Amazon Kindle ebook reader – The lightest and most compact Kindle, with extended battery life, adjustable front light, and 16 GB storage – Black. Amazon affiliate link https://amzn.to/3VbRUYu I recommend bundling your Kindle with a protective cover. Just scroll down the page on Amazon to see the options.
I’ve also done a blog post about the books written by Ruth Rendell. You can read it on my blog here: https://livingwithdana.com/2024/03/book-review-anything-written-by-ruth-rendell/
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