Hatchet Island: A Novel (Mike Bowditch Mysteries)

by Paul Doiron

A call for help from a former colleague leads Maine game warden investigator Mike Bowditch and his girlfriend Stacey Stevens on a sea kayaking trip to a research station far off the coast. Stacey spent summers interning on the island, a sanctuary for endangered seabirds, and they are shocked by the atmosphere of tension they encounter when they come ashore. The biologists are being threatened and stalked by a mysterious boatman who they suspect is trespassing on the refuge late at night. And now the sanctuary's enigmatic founder, whose mind has been slowly unraveling, has gone missing.

Camped on an islet for the night, Mike and Stacey waken to the sound of a gunshot. When they return to the refuge at dawn, their darkest fears are confirmed: two of the three researchers have been brutally murdered and the third has disappeared, along with the island skiff. Mike's quest to find the missing man leads to a nearby island owned by a world-renowned photographer and his equally brilliant wife. The inhabitants of this private kingdom quickly close ranks, and Mike increasingly comes to believe that someone in the village knows more about the killings than they dare admit.

With no one to trust and miles from shore, Mike Bowditch must stop a ruthless murderer determined to make sure a terrifying secret never sees the light of day.

• ISBN10: 1250235138
• ISBN13: 9781250235138
• Publish Date: 28 June 2022
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 5 April 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Hatchet Island is the 13th Mike Bowditch mystery by Paul Doiron. Released 28th June by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a wonderfully written series with an intelligent and honorable protagonist who works as an investigator for the Maine Warden Service (game warden). Although it has more thriller elements than my usual shopfront cozy selections, it's so well written, so redolent of the area and the outdoors, that it was an immersive and enjoyable read. Readers who are already fans of procedural thrillers will be right at home.

The plotting moves along at a good pace and the whole setup is so steeped in a pervasive sense of menace that the tension is ratcheted up continually til the first catastrophic crimes and it doesn't slow down after that. The examination and detection on the part of the protagonist and his colleagues (and girlfriend Stacey) is meticulously written and very cleverly constructed. The final climax, denouement, and resolution were tense and satisfying. Although the mystery is self contained, the entire series is highly recommended and would be a great candidate for a long weekend binge read.

Four and a half stars. This series will appeal very much to fans of Stabenow's Kate Shugak and Box's Joe Pickett mysteries.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.