By Paul Carrier
Life can flip from the absurd to the horrific in no time flat, as Mike Bowditch, a Maine game warden, learns when he almost literally trips over an unbelievable discovery while on a mundane assignment in Knife Creek.
On duty in western Maine, Bowditch has been charged with tracking and shooting a newly arrived herd of feral hogs that are damaging the environment and may be diseased. He and his girlfriend, state wildlife biologist Stacey Stevens, kill two sows and a boar, only to discover that the presumed delicacy one of the sows was consuming right before her death is the corpse of an infant.
Analysis by state forensic experts reveals that the baby, a girl, was not stillborn, and that she was about two weeks old at the time of her death. Who left her in a shallow grave near a hiking path -- and why -- remain mysteries.
While the state police grapple with the few clues they have, Bowditch, who has a habit of playing detective without authorization, discovers that the child may have been the daughter of Casey Donaldson, a college student who disappeared during a canoeing trip on the Saco River.
Bowditch is convinced he spotted Donaldson at a backwoods home while conducting his unofficial inquiries. The young woman appears to be drugged, disoriented and fearful. Donaldson, if that’s who she is, is living with an older woman who claims to be her sister and is verbally abusive toward her.
But far from explaining the infant’s fate, that raises new questions. Bowditch and Stacey found the newborn’s body shortly after it was left in the woods. Yet Donaldson has been missing for four years, and is presumed dead. So either she isn’t the baby’s mother or she’s still very much alive, and possibly being held captive.
Acting on Bowditch’s tip, a state trooper is set to question both women, with Bowditch in tow, when a propane explosion blows their rented home to smithereens. The house seems to have been empty at the time, so the working theory is that Donaldson and her presumed kidnapper fled the scene after Bowditch’s first visit and deliberately destroyed the house to get rid of any evidence about Donaldson’s whereabouts and identity.
Knife Creek is the eighth Mike Bowditch mystery. No longer the callow renegade he was in the early going, Bowditch still has an independent streak, and he doesn’t like sitting on the sidelines while other investigators — in this case, the state police — try to freeze him out. But he’s almost 30 now, so he’s less impulsive than he used to be, and more of a team player. To a degree.
Bowditch’s personal travails figure in the plot as well, providing added depth to what fans of the series already know about this likable character. For one thing, Bowditch is seeking a promotion that he may have trouble getting because of his reputation in the Warden Service as something of a loose cannon. And Stevens, his girlfriend, is talking about leaving Maine, which could spell the end of their otherwise stable relationship because Bowditch has no desire to live elsewhere.
A Maine native, Doiron is a Registered Maine Guide and a former editor of Down East magazine, so he knows the lay of the land in the largest state in New England and conveys it well, both in terms of Maine’s natural environment and its social fabric.
Like the other novels in the series, Knife Creek combines believable characters, a compelling setting and a driving story line, making it hard to put this thriller down once you’re a few pages into it. You don’t have to be a Mainer — or even a visiting tourist — to enjoy Doiron’s latest suspenseful read, which follows 2016’s Widowmaker. If you're a fan of fast-paced, well-crafted mysteries, that's qualification enough.
On duty in western Maine, Bowditch has been charged with tracking and shooting a newly arrived herd of feral hogs that are damaging the environment and may be diseased. He and his girlfriend, state wildlife biologist Stacey Stevens, kill two sows and a boar, only to discover that the presumed delicacy one of the sows was consuming right before her death is the corpse of an infant.
Analysis by state forensic experts reveals that the baby, a girl, was not stillborn, and that she was about two weeks old at the time of her death. Who left her in a shallow grave near a hiking path -- and why -- remain mysteries.
While the state police grapple with the few clues they have, Bowditch, who has a habit of playing detective without authorization, discovers that the child may have been the daughter of Casey Donaldson, a college student who disappeared during a canoeing trip on the Saco River.
Bowditch is convinced he spotted Donaldson at a backwoods home while conducting his unofficial inquiries. The young woman appears to be drugged, disoriented and fearful. Donaldson, if that’s who she is, is living with an older woman who claims to be her sister and is verbally abusive toward her.
But far from explaining the infant’s fate, that raises new questions. Bowditch and Stacey found the newborn’s body shortly after it was left in the woods. Yet Donaldson has been missing for four years, and is presumed dead. So either she isn’t the baby’s mother or she’s still very much alive, and possibly being held captive.
Acting on Bowditch’s tip, a state trooper is set to question both women, with Bowditch in tow, when a propane explosion blows their rented home to smithereens. The house seems to have been empty at the time, so the working theory is that Donaldson and her presumed kidnapper fled the scene after Bowditch’s first visit and deliberately destroyed the house to get rid of any evidence about Donaldson’s whereabouts and identity.
Knife Creek is the eighth Mike Bowditch mystery. No longer the callow renegade he was in the early going, Bowditch still has an independent streak, and he doesn’t like sitting on the sidelines while other investigators — in this case, the state police — try to freeze him out. But he’s almost 30 now, so he’s less impulsive than he used to be, and more of a team player. To a degree.
Bowditch’s personal travails figure in the plot as well, providing added depth to what fans of the series already know about this likable character. For one thing, Bowditch is seeking a promotion that he may have trouble getting because of his reputation in the Warden Service as something of a loose cannon. And Stevens, his girlfriend, is talking about leaving Maine, which could spell the end of their otherwise stable relationship because Bowditch has no desire to live elsewhere.
A Maine native, Doiron is a Registered Maine Guide and a former editor of Down East magazine, so he knows the lay of the land in the largest state in New England and conveys it well, both in terms of Maine’s natural environment and its social fabric.
Like the other novels in the series, Knife Creek combines believable characters, a compelling setting and a driving story line, making it hard to put this thriller down once you’re a few pages into it. You don’t have to be a Mainer — or even a visiting tourist — to enjoy Doiron’s latest suspenseful read, which follows 2016’s Widowmaker. If you're a fan of fast-paced, well-crafted mysteries, that's qualification enough.
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