Trespasser

This is one of those series where the central character hooks you right from the start and you always want to be reading something with them in it. Mike Bowditch is one of those guys. Young, impulsive, a troubled past but a skilled game warden with amazing instincts and detective skills. Instincts and skills which tend to get him into trouble when he strays out of the lines of his warden duties.

Trespasser is just as riveting as the first book in the series, The Poacher’s Son. Author Paul Doiron makes the Maine woods scarily real and the danger Bowditch finds himself – puts himself? – in nerve-racking and believable. In addition to his search for a missing woman, Bowditch has to deal with the usual folks breaking the rules and the show more ever-present dissatisfaction he feels from his superiors

A fast-paced, enthralling mystery that will put you right in the middle of the dangerous forest and take you along with Mike Bowditch for an adventure that may well end with him losing his life.

A great continuation to what promises to be a very satisfying series, and one I hope lasts for a long time. I voluntarily leave this review and all opinions are my own. show less

It's a scant few months since the action in Doiron's first mystery, The Poacher's Son, and Mike Bowditch is fighting the backlash of local opinion. It's mud season in Maine and the author skillfully turns this fact into an extremely evocative setting. (I'm still fighting the urge to run out to the porch and clean my boots.)

Doiron has written a very strong mystery, and at its heart is the complicated twenty-five-year-old Mike Bowditch. Mike is quite observant, at one point telling someone who's trying to pull the wool over his eyes, "You can't have it both ways." But he's also emotionally stunted, due in part to his childhood. This causes him to behave like a teenager occasionally, so it's an interesting-- and sometimes frustrating-- mix show more of intelligence, determination, and adolescent angst. He certainly keeps this reader on her toes.

And he will continue to do so. I've become hooked on Doiron's storytelling ability and his love of wild spaces, so I'm happy to report that it's on to the next book in this series. show less

I like characters who have a gift for making the wrong decision. Whether it's the guy who always picks trouble or the woman who just grabbed an opportunity and is digging in deeper and deeper to make it work, I find it all fascinating. Usually, the person making the wrong life choices is the bad guy, but here that guy is Mike Bowditch and he's a game warden in Maine, the guy trying to solve the crime and rescue the girl. Bowditch is hard work. He's insensitive and deliberately rude, self-righteous and a terrible boyfriend. He's got a chip on his shoulder that he refuses to deal with and he's prone to tunnel vision. He's dealing with some destructive off-roaders when he's called to haul a dead deer off the highway. When he arrives, the show more car that hit the animal is there, but both deer and woman are gone. A state trooper shows up and takes charge of the scene, sending Bowditch home. Bowditch leaves, but something about the situation bothers him and he finds himself going back to the scene and trying to find out what happened long after he's been told to leave it to the officers assigned to the case. He's also increasingly bothered by the scofflaw off-roaders and his attempts to deal with them grow more extreme.

This was a good, quick read where the plot made sense and the author created a vivid setting in coastal Maine during March, the "mud season". Bowditch is a wonderfully conceived character. I'd never want to know him personally, but he's great fun to follow through a book as he alienates everyone around him. I did want to yell at him a few times - self-righteousness is never a good trait and being inside his head could be aggravating. That said, the supporting characters were a bit thin, from his mentor who likes to call him "young feller" to the people Bowditch dealt with as part of his job - the hardscrabble locals were rendered as caricatures in a political ad, there was not much more than an outline to any of them. show less

Another hit for Paul Doiron!

Game Warden Mike Bowditch still reeling from the events in The Poacher’s Son (If you haven’t read it what are you waiting for?) and once again steps into an investigation he should be staying out of, the murder of a young woman which has similarities to a decade old case for which someone is already serving time for. Is the right man in prison? Is this a copycat? And why does Mike seem to find trouble everywhere he goes??!!??

I so enjoy Paul’s writing he kept me guessing all the way through this one, I didn’t know who did it until the reveal! It was so great to be back in touch with the characters from the Poacher’s Son including Charley & Ora. This is going to be a series I will stick with till the show more end because Mike Bowditch has a lot of work to do on himself, his relationship with Sarah and to try to stop getting in trouble with his superior officers so he keeps his job, but that’s what makes this a great series, the characters are flawed and human ,he has so much growing to do it will be great to see his progress!

I highly recommend starting with the Poacher’s Son before you read this one just for the character background you will be hooked on this series just as I am!

Full Disclosure: I received this from the GoodReads Giveaway Program

5 Stars show less

I picked this up on a whim at the library and I am glad I did. I thought it was a great book, quick easy read! I had my suspicions on who did it and was correct but there was still a twist I hadn't seen coming. I will be looking to read more books by this author.

I got this one as part of a goodreads giveaway. I'm glad I did. Solid characters (I think I liked the various bad guys more than the protagonist :) ), great plot with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing, and fantastic climax. Wonderful read that I'd recommend to anyone who likes mysteries/thrillers.

In this second installment of the (mis)adventures of Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch, Paul Doiron has given us a protagonist who is still recovering from the events in the first book of the series, The Poacher's Son. While this one could stand alone, I think readers will not grasp the full extent of Mike's inner turmoil, and the demons he is still wrestling with unless they've read the first one.

The book opens when Mike is called by a demanding and irate citizen who cannot understand why the warden must follow certain procedures before just barging off to "arrest those dirt-bags." At the same time, he is called to the scene of a car-deer encounter on a dark, foggy road (an not uncommon occurence in Maine), only to discover that the deer show more (presumably dead) is gone, and the driver of the vehicle is missing. When an obnoxious state trooper finally appears on the scene (he should have been the one to handle the case to begin with) and dismisses the missing driver with a remark that she was probably trying to avoid an OUI, Mike is outraged but too tired and muddy to stick around and challenge the other officer.

Once at home, the niggling clues that don't fit the trooper's assessment begin to bother him, and his rebellious and hard-headed nature once again kicks in. What happened to the girl? Is she OK? When he tries to find out, he meets roadblocks at every corner, while his inner radar continues to pick up vibes that something is definitely wrong. When the girl is found dead, the town and local cops are spooked by the resemblance to another murder seven years ago. From there on, we watch as Mike becomes a self-destructive one man posse bent on proving everyone else wrong.

Girlfriend Sarah has returned, but doesn't appear inclined to make their relationship more permanent until Mike agrees to counseling. Mike's boss Kathy has only a cameo appearance in this one, as do his old friends the retired game warden Charley and his wife Ora. Once again, the book is replete with lush descriptions of Maine's natural settings, its wildlife, and its citizens; it shows us again the very intense and necessary role the Game Wardens play in law enforcement in Maine. There are bodies, bad guys, suspects, and bosses galore. Doiron shows us the close relation between the local sheriffs, police departments, the state police and the game wardens. His portrait of Maine continues to enlighten and delight, and his mystery plotting is spot-on.

I do hope that Mike and Sarah can get their relationship back onto a positive track and begin moving forward. Mike is young (he's only been a warden for two years) and he has a lot to learn in the life department, but readers have become invested in getting this young man to adulthood, and look forward to the next novel in the series. show less