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| Click here to buy BAD LITTLE FALLS |
Paul Doiron, Bad Little Falls (Minotaur Books) 320 pp.
ISBN-13: 978-0312558482 Pub date: August 7, 2012
Readers of this blog and the
Literary Mystery Novelists series will be familiar with Paul Doiron since I featured
an interview with him on this blog after his first novel, The Poacher’s Son, was published to rave reviews and a swarm of
award nominations. So for information about this author beyond the short bio given
here, check that out.
Paul Doiron’s third mystery novel
featuring Maine game warden Mike Bowditch offers the virtues readers of this
series have come to expect from the author—evocative descriptions of Maine’s rough
terrain, an appealing yet troubled young protagonist, nail-biting suspense, and
some of the less-picturesque social problems of the state’s remoter areas.
Mike Bowditch is exiled to the most isolated
and undesirable outpost on the Canadian border for the Maine Wardens Service
due to his having embarrassed the powers-that-be in the two earlier books in
the series, The Poacher’s Son and Trespasser. In his new home territory, his
strict interpretation of the law immediately stirs up hostility from local wrongdoers
who nail a coyote pelt to his trailer door as a warning and a sinister reminder
that wardens were killed in this locale in an uprising against game wardens in
the 1880s.
Mike’s supervisor seems as hostile
as the community surrounding him. The only human connections he manages to make
are with the local veterinarian and a beautiful woman with a gifted but
troubled young son. When a deadly blizzard shuts down the whole area, Mike is
called to a secluded cabin where a half-frozen man has appeared out of the night,
deliriously claiming his friend is lost in the blinding snowstorm. The rescue
mission finds a violent drug dealer murdered, and Mike is unable to just assume
that the frozen friend killed him as the state police claim.
As the beautiful woman and her
strange, gifted son grow important to Mike, he realizes that they, especially
the boy, who keeps a secret notebook/journal, are also involved in some way. Under
constant attack himself, Mike sees himself when young in the boy and, fearing
for the child’s safety, tries to protect him from a hostile environment full of
feuding smugglers and drug dealers.
Doiron uses his gift for language
that evokes the environment surrounding his characters to make this northernmost
part of Maine another character within the book. As usual, his plot is complicated
and full of suspense and surprising twists, and his characters are multifaceted
and well-drawn, making sometimes questionable choices due to unfortunate
relationships. One of the real pleasures of Bad
Little Falls is watching the development of Mike Bowditch. In the first
books in the series, Mike was likable, but self-destructively impulsive with severe
anger issues. In this book, he has the same problems, but he’s seriously trying
to control them, not always successfully. Doiron offers a very realistic portrait
of an engaging and troubled young man who is slowly and painfully maturing.
Doiron’s first two books have received
much critical praise justifiably, but this one tops them in the quality of its writing,
plotting, and characterization. Expect more praise and award nominations for
this gifted author.
Bio
Paul Doiron is the author of the Mike
Bowditch series of crime novels, including The Poacher's Son, which
won the Barry Award for Best First Novel and the Strand Critics Award for Best
First Novel and has been 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." His second book in the
Mike Bowditch series, Trespasser, won the Maine
Literary Award for crime fiction, was an American Booksellers Association
Indie Bestseller and has been called a "masterpiece of high-octane
narrative" by Booklist. The Poacher's Son received starred reviews
from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and Library
Journal, and Trespasser received starred reviews from Booklist
and Library Journal. Bad
Little Falls received a starred and boxed review from Publishers Weekly.
Doiron is the editor in chief of Down
East: The Magazine of Maine, Down East Books, and DownEast.com. A native of Maine, he
attended Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in English, and he
holds an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College. Paul is a Registered
Maine Guide specializing in fly fishing and outdoor recreation and lives on a
trout stream in coastal Maine.
