Trespasser

by Paul Doiron

Published 21 June 2011

While on patrol on foggy March evening, Mike 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 deer have vanished. The details of the disappearance seem eerily familiar. Seven years earlier, a jury convicted Erland Jefferts of the rape and murder of a college student and sentenced him to a life in prison. But when the missing woman is found brutalized in a manner that suggests Jefferts may have been framed, Bowditch receives a warning from state prosecutors to stop asking questions.

For Bowditch, doing nothing is not an option. And 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.

Praise for The Poacher's Son:

An excellent debut - filled with murder, betrayal and a terrific sense of place. C.J. Box.

A stunning debut...At its heart this is a tale of bitter betrayal, lost hopes and broken dreams. The book has a tautness that is impossible to forget and which left me close to tears. It is also the first in a series. Its successor, Trespasser, also featuring Bowditch, is on the way. Grab him now. Daily Mail.

Stunning vistas...eye popping scenes - The New York Times Book Review.

This is a compelling, moving and utterly impressive debut - Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog.

The Poacher's Son is one of the best written debut novels I have read in years. This novel has it all - a great plot, a wonderful Maine woods setting and a truly remarkable and believable cast of characters. - Nelson de Mille.


The Poacher's Son

by Paul Doiron

Published 1 April 2010
Game warden Mike Bowditch returns home one evening to find an alarming voice from the past on his answering machine: his father Jack, a hard drinking womanizer who makes his living poaching illegal game. An even more frightening call comes the next morning from the police: they are searching for the man who killed a beloved local cop the night before - and his father is their prime suspect. Jack has escaped from police custody, and only Mike believes that his tormented father might not be guilty. Now, alienated from the woman he loves, shunned by colleagues who have no sympathy for the suspected cop-killer, Mike must come to terms with his haunted past. He knows firsthand Jack's brutality, but is the man capable of murder? Desperate and alone, he strikes up an uneasy alliance with a retired warden pilot, and together the two men journey deep into the Maine wilderness in search of a runaway fugitive. But the only way for Mike to save his father is to find the real killer - which could mean putting everyone he loves in the line of fire.