By Paul Carrier
Mike Bowditch, a Maine game warden, was a man on the rise in previous novels by Paul Doiron.
After starting out in the Warden Service as a callow, reckless guy with a knack for breaking the rules, Bowditch matured enough to win a promotion to inspector, the Warden Service term for a detective.
But then his better angels abandoned him when he chased a suspect into Canada without authorization from his superiors or the Canadian government. That got him demoted. To make matters worse, a review board later decided to place him on paid leave for several months, because of his infractions.
So Bowditch is not, at least for the time being, a working warden when Storm Tide, the latest novel in the Bowditch series, kicks into high gear. But he still has a lot on his plate.
Bowditch being Bowditch, getting sidelined doesn’t stop him from investigating a suspicious and catastrophic fire that kills a husband and his wife. The widely reviled husband, Brian Malloy, had been accused of abducting and murdering a son he had with another woman.
Heading into rural Washington Couny, Maine, with his pregnant wife Stacey so she can be with her parents for a home birth, Bowditch quickly gets drawn into a second case, this one involving a man who dies when a train runs over him. The train’s crew could not see the victim until it was too late, and there’s reason to believe someone deliberately placed the man on the rails.
Were all three deaths — at the house and on the tracks — linked vigilante killings? How did the killers (or killer?) decide whom to target? Will the culprits/culprit be identified and apprehended before the death toll rises?
In the midst of all this mayhem, Bowditch gets unsettling texts and phone calls from a man who refuses to identify himself but seems to know Bowditch. A mysterious white van keeps turning up in Bowditch’s orbit. So does a dangerous-looking hulk who seems to be up to no good.
Bowditch’s life really takes a turn for the worse when he is abducted by a crazed scallop diver. The kidnapper, who may be conspiring with the mystery caller/texter, imprisons Bowditch aboard a boat and tries to drown him. (It's a close call, but Bowditch survives.)
And that’s just for starters.
The propulsive plot races along at a breakneck pace as Bowditch’s seemingly endless adventures/misadventures continue apace. Doiron has a knack for pulling readers along at warp speed, and Storm Tide is no exception.
Fortunately, there are occasional breathers. The birth of the Bowditchs' son, for one. And the always appreciated wit and wisdom of Stacey’s parents, especially her father, Charley Stevens, a retired Warden Service pilot whose statewide connections allow him to gather intel and pull strings for his son-in-law from time to time.
Then there’s the potentially risky but entertaining relationship between Bowditch and Shadow, a wolf dog he adopted quite a while back. Bowditch allows Shadow to sleep in the house before his son is born. Despite his wolfish ways, Shadow is very protective of Stacey during her pregnancy.
The wolf-dog hybrid even travels with Bowditch on occasion. “I climbed behind the wheel while Shadow stuck his big head through the space between the front seats,” Bowditch says at one point. “He lapped my unshaven check with his obscenely long tongue. His breath was rank. I pushed his muzzle away only to have him thrust it back at me, undeterred.”
A Maine native, Doiron is a registered Maine guide who knows his way around the Pine Tree State, including its wilder corners (human and otherwise). But here's a piece of advice. Once you crack open Storm Tide, get ready to set your other priorities aside for a while. You’ll be far too busy flipping pages.
After starting out in the Warden Service as a callow, reckless guy with a knack for breaking the rules, Bowditch matured enough to win a promotion to inspector, the Warden Service term for a detective.
But then his better angels abandoned him when he chased a suspect into Canada without authorization from his superiors or the Canadian government. That got him demoted. To make matters worse, a review board later decided to place him on paid leave for several months, because of his infractions.
So Bowditch is not, at least for the time being, a working warden when Storm Tide, the latest novel in the Bowditch series, kicks into high gear. But he still has a lot on his plate.
Bowditch being Bowditch, getting sidelined doesn’t stop him from investigating a suspicious and catastrophic fire that kills a husband and his wife. The widely reviled husband, Brian Malloy, had been accused of abducting and murdering a son he had with another woman.
Heading into rural Washington Couny, Maine, with his pregnant wife Stacey so she can be with her parents for a home birth, Bowditch quickly gets drawn into a second case, this one involving a man who dies when a train runs over him. The train’s crew could not see the victim until it was too late, and there’s reason to believe someone deliberately placed the man on the rails.
Were all three deaths — at the house and on the tracks — linked vigilante killings? How did the killers (or killer?) decide whom to target? Will the culprits/culprit be identified and apprehended before the death toll rises?
In the midst of all this mayhem, Bowditch gets unsettling texts and phone calls from a man who refuses to identify himself but seems to know Bowditch. A mysterious white van keeps turning up in Bowditch’s orbit. So does a dangerous-looking hulk who seems to be up to no good.
Bowditch’s life really takes a turn for the worse when he is abducted by a crazed scallop diver. The kidnapper, who may be conspiring with the mystery caller/texter, imprisons Bowditch aboard a boat and tries to drown him. (It's a close call, but Bowditch survives.)
And that’s just for starters.
The propulsive plot races along at a breakneck pace as Bowditch’s seemingly endless adventures/misadventures continue apace. Doiron has a knack for pulling readers along at warp speed, and Storm Tide is no exception.
Fortunately, there are occasional breathers. The birth of the Bowditchs' son, for one. And the always appreciated wit and wisdom of Stacey’s parents, especially her father, Charley Stevens, a retired Warden Service pilot whose statewide connections allow him to gather intel and pull strings for his son-in-law from time to time.
Then there’s the potentially risky but entertaining relationship between Bowditch and Shadow, a wolf dog he adopted quite a while back. Bowditch allows Shadow to sleep in the house before his son is born. Despite his wolfish ways, Shadow is very protective of Stacey during her pregnancy.
The wolf-dog hybrid even travels with Bowditch on occasion. “I climbed behind the wheel while Shadow stuck his big head through the space between the front seats,” Bowditch says at one point. “He lapped my unshaven check with his obscenely long tongue. His breath was rank. I pushed his muzzle away only to have him thrust it back at me, undeterred.”
A Maine native, Doiron is a registered Maine guide who knows his way around the Pine Tree State, including its wilder corners (human and otherwise). But here's a piece of advice. Once you crack open Storm Tide, get ready to set your other priorities aside for a while. You’ll be far too busy flipping pages.
