St. Martin's Minotaur 2017
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Knife Creek
When Maine game warden Mike Bowditch is tasked with shooting invasive feral hogs that are tearing up the forest in his district, he makes a horrific discovery — a dead baby buried in a shallow grave. Even more disturbing: evidence suggests the infant was the child of a young woman who was presumed to have died four years earlier after she disappeared from a group rafting trip. As Bowditch assists the reopened investigation, he begins to suspect that some of his neighbors aren’t who they seem to be. When violence strikes close to home, he realizes that his unknown enemies will stop at nothing to keep their terrible secrets. Mike Bowditch has bucked the odds his whole career, but this time the intrepid warden may have finally followed his hunches one step too far.
Doiron maintains a high level of suspense while adding new insights into the character of his complex lead.
The Washington Post:
As always with a Doiron novel, the characters are so well-drawn you can almost reach out and shake their hands, and the rural landscape is so vividly portrayed that the reader can smell wildflowers, marvel at the swarms of fireflies and feel the sting of the blood-thirsty insects. But the author’s finest achievement is the evolution of Mike Bowditch himself. Doiron’s hero has come a long way since “The Poacher’s Son,” when he was introduced as a hot-headed, insubordinate rookie game warden struggling to keep his personal demons in check. As the series has progressed, Bowditch has gradually matured, coming to terms with his troubled past, finding love and finally earning the respect of supervisors who once longed to be rid of him.
Library Journal:
This eighth series outing (after Widowmaker) is another winner from Edgar Award–nominated Doiron, with the author’s signature trademarks—strong characters and fast-paced action set in Maine’s natural world present.
Paul Doiron’s “Knife Creek” is the best yet in his impressive Mike Bowditch Mystery series. It’s taut, disturbing and consummately told...a gripping, well-plotted tale. [Doiron's] characters are vibrant and unforgettable, and the climatic scene is completely unexpected. Doiron has reached a new level in his craft, putting him, without a doubt, among the best crime writers working today.
To the list of June treats that Mainers have become accustomed to — alongside the first s’mores of the year and the first tolerably warm dip in the lake — add this: Paul Doiron’s annual installment in the Mike Bowditch thriller series. [In KNIFE CREEK] the typical Doiron sensibilities are still in place, with attention given to the setting, allowing the reader to gain a real sense of place; the sucking mud on the river bottom is tangible, and the Saco River itself comes to life through Doiron’s description. And his characters are well-rounded and imperfect, showing their vulnerabilities in ways that help define them. Bowditch is still the hero, but still has plenty of room for improvement. An assortment of other colorful characters crop up, as always, making the identification of the villains — if there are any — a good challenge.
Paul Doiron has written an extremely atmospheric thriller. You can hear the water dripping off the branches and feel the heat causing steam to rise off the roads as summer closes in and the net tightens on the perpetrator of past and present crimes. Doiron has an ability to draw you in to the story with an atmospheric prose and well-rounded characters who work well together. Retribution and justice is eventually served, and to more people than expect it. You won’t see the ending looming in this fine and well-balanced thriller.
The more accurate comparison might actually be to Minnesota-based novelist William Kent Krueger and his Cork O’Connor series. Either way, if you’re a fan of those guys, Paul Doiron should be the next name on your list of must-read authors. After starting off with a bang when he first introduced readers to Mike Bowditch in 2010’s The Poacher’s Son, Doiron has consistently put out top-notch mystery novels, and Knife Creek is one of his strongest entries yet.