St. Martin's Minotaur 2011


United Kingdom: Constable & Robinson

Audio 

Macmillan Audio

Book Club

Book of the Month Club and Mystery Guild

Awards

Indie Bound's Indie Next pick for July 2011

2012 Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction winner

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Other Books by Paul Doiron

Trespasser

Author: Paul Doiron

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.

Trespasser (Mike Bowditch, #2)


Library Journal (starred review):

Doiron (nominated this year for an Edgar Award for his first book about Mike Bowditch, The Poacher's Son) serves up a tense thriller that stars a memorable main character and brings the rugged Maine landscape vividly to life. Highly recommended for lovers of mysteries, particularly those set outdoors or in New England. Fans of C.J. Box and Castle Freeman will not be disappointed.

 

Booklist (starred review):

Doiron, editor of Down East magazine, delivers another perfectly plotted mystery peopled with multidimensional characters, but, in addition, his writing has matured. His descriptions of Maine's midcoast are incredibly evocative of the sights, sounds, and smells of early spring, and the heart-pounding account of Mike's fourwheeling chase through the woods is a masterpiece of high-octane narrative. Suggest this series to fans of C. J. Box and Nevada Barr.

 

RT Book Review (Top Pick, 4.5 stars):

Doiron's second thriller featuring Mike Bowditch makes effective use of Maine's 'mud season,' that time when the weather is unpredictable and new life struggles to emerge from the snow, as a metaphor for Mike's internal struggle to put his life back on track. Doiron's sense of place, and of the people of Maine, adds lush nuance to this suspense-filled read. Well-paced, with an interesting array of elegantly rounded characters, this effort more than lives up to the promise of Doiron's debut. 

 

Shine from Yahoo:

Author (and magazine editor) Paul Doiron does a nice job of keeping his characters, setting, and plot au naturel.  Everything about the novel seems decidedly real, which renders it all the more absorbing. Doiron also thoughtfully addresses the in-the-moment decisions that can haunt a law-enforcement officer's conscience forever -- decisions for which the "collateral damage" can become dire, even tragic. The author proves adept at making a half-dozen characters seem like plausible suspects in a thrilling mystery that's as solid as the rockiest point on the coast of Maine.

 

Mysterious Reviews:

The murder mystery in Trespasser is nicely crafted, and the Maine setting during "mud season" adds an atmospheric backdrop to the narrative, but these are not this novel's strongest selling points. Rather, it is all about character here, and this is one terrific series character. Doiron does a fine job of capturing the impetuousness of youth and the lack of wisdom from experience in Mike Bowditch. He's aggressive in his actions and confident in his abilities ... even when one hand is broken and unusable. Yet he also makes one rash, often ill-advised decision after another, knowing full well that it might not be the right step to take. In a less well-developed character, this might come off as unrealistic, even unbelievable. Here, it seems natural, just Bowditch being Bowditch. This is a strong character, one perfectly suited for his job as game warden of a vast, relatively remote coastal region in Maine, and one that lifts Trespasser into the top tier of murder mysteries published this summer.


GA Book Guy:

A very well told story that is a perfect follow-up to his first book. An unusual look at the State of Maine and its inhabitants.