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Published Jun 2021
304 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
Maine game warden Mike Bowditch finds himself in a life-or-death chase in this next thriller in the bestselling mystery series by Edgar Award nominee Paul Doiron, Dead by Dawn.
Mike Bowditch is fighting for his life. After being ambushed on a dark winter road, his Jeep crashes into a frozen river. Trapped beneath the ice in the middle of nowhere, having lost his gun and any way to signal for help, Mike fights his way to the surface. But surviving the crash is only the first challenge. Whoever set the trap that ran him off the road is still out there, and they're coming for him.
Hours earlier, Mike was called to investigate the suspicious drowning of a wealthy professor. Despite the death being ruled an accident, his elegant, eccentric daughter-in-law insists the man was murdered. She suspects his companion that day, a reclusive survivalist and conspiracy theorist who accompanied the professor on his fateful duck-hunting trip―but what exactly was the nature of their relationship? And was her own sharp-tongued daughter, who inherited the dead man's fortune, as close to her grandfather as she claims? The accusations lead Mike to a sinister local family who claim to have information on the crime. But when his Jeep flies into the river and unknown armed assailants on snowmobiles chase him through the wilderness, the investigation turns into a fight for survival.
As Mike faces a nightlong battle to stay alive, he must dissect the hours leading up to the ambush and solve two riddles: which one of these people desperately want him dead, and what has he done to incur their wrath?
"Doiron builds tension by alternating between his lead's battle to survive and the inquiry into Chamberlain's death, which he effectively doles out in small segments. This entry stands as the best yet in a superior series." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Brilliant characterizations and a compelling narrative…this series just keeps getting better." – Booklist (starred review)
"Game warden Mike Bowditch's 12th adventure sends him hurtling through the Maine woods into the past, just like his first 11...A tour de force whose detective chapters pale beside its escape-from-certain-death chapters." - Kirkus Reviews
"Part survival story, part mystery-suspense, Doiron's narrative is fast-paced and engaging." – Library Journal
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Mark Fleming
Paul Doiron is the author of the Mike Bowditch series of crime novels, including The Poacher's Son, which won the the Barry Award and the Strand Critics Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for an Edgar Award, an Anthony Award, a Macavity Award, and a Thriller Award for Best First Novel, and the Maine Literary Award for "Best Fiction of 2010." PopMatters named it to its Best Fiction of 2010 list.
His second book, Trespasser, won the Maine Literary Award, was an American Booksellers Association Indie Bestseller, and has been called a "masterpiece of high-octane narrative" by Booklist. The third novel, Bad Little Falls, was a Bookscan Bestseller and a nominee for the RT Reviewers Choice Award and the Maine Literary Award. Massacre Pond, the fourth in the series, was an Indie Next...
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Paul Doiron's Website
Name Pronunciation
Paul Doiron: DWAHR-uhn. First syllable rhymes with "R"
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