Dead by Dawn is the 12th book in the Mike Bowditch series. Any series that goes on this long deserves its credit. While not for me, this definitely has a space in the genre.

This book was fine. It wasn’t anything amazing but it wasn’t awful either. I’m not sure I would read another Mike Bowditch story, but it was just okay. I didn’t really care for the main character, and the switching from past to present really threw off the flow for me. Maybe I would have liked it more if I read the other 11 books, but I’m not sure.

Dead of dawn is an absolutely captivating novel that will have you quite literally at the edge of your seat. It’s a book that you absolutely must read!

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* This wasn't bad, not sure if i would have liked it more had i read the previous book or not but it was just really hard for me to get into this book despite all the action

If i knew this was book 12 of a series, i would have made sure not to request it. Really like the cover and wished i could go back and read the other 11 books so i could fully enjoy this one

Oops- I missed reviewing this one upon publication, and I just noticed it’s now due out in paperback! I’m a fan of C.J. Box’s Joe Pickett, the Wyoming game warden character who solves mysteries, usually murders, sometimes linked only partially to game and wildlife issues. Now I’m taken to the eastern edge of the country, to wintry Maine, where game warden Mike Bowditch faces down death as he investigates a murder. The author has created a character and well-developed plot that will engage readers as they wait for the next Joe Pickett installment!

Another in the highly enjoyable series featuring Mike Bowditch, Maine game warden. Doiron changes up the narrative style in this one, heightening the suspense and guaranteeing that you'll race to the end, even if that means staying up half the night (as I did). Doiron is a Registered Maine Guide, so he weaves a lot of naturecraft and trade knowledge into the plot. The dialogue and characterizations feel authentic -- local slang, character types you'll recognize, etc. - and plots often feature current or past events/issues in Maine.

Aptly named, a thriller about a game warden with a mostly wild wolf as companion. I didn’t love the back and forth timeline chapter style, but it did give some relief between harrowing, violent encounters with a raging river and homicidal killers intent on their mission to kill Mike Bowditch.

Road trip! Man and wolf are off to visit the vet and afterward, conduct a cold-case inquiry. Maine game warden Mike Bowditch’s cold-case is “the suspicious drowning of a wealthy professor.” The death was deemed accidental, but the professor’s persistent and unconventional daughter-in-law is sure he was murdered. After speaking with her, Mike interviews “a reclusive survivalist and conspiracy theorist,” who went duck-hunting with the professor the day he died. Like dominos, one interview flows into another. The sun is setting when Mike asks “a sinister local family” uncomfortable questions. At the end of a long day, Mike’s Jeep is forced off the road, plunging him into a frozen river. Death by Dawn is so viscerally suspenseful it must be inhaled in short spurts. The plot weaves seamlessly between Mike’s perilous situation and the events that preceded it. It’s December 21st, the Winter Solstice aka the shortest day of the year. Death by Dawn references many earlier books, characters, and experiences and Paul Doiron ties everything together beautifully.

Shadow, his half-wild, canine/wolf is Mike’s companion for the day. Mike can’t let him loose to run around in a city park because Shadow is a hungry carnivore. Mike wonders if he would eat his “fellow canines” or their owners?

It was necessary to have a sense of humor around the half-wild animal. Otherwise his captivity afflicted me with too much sadness and guilt.



“How’re you doing back there, big guy?”



He answered with a grunt.

Doiron provides some clever snippets that foreshadow the troubles ahead. What does one wear for a dunking in a frozen river? Possibly only a professional grade wetsuit would provide protection in freezing waters but what’s the verdict on wearing blue jeans while doing strenuous outdoor activities? Mike knows.

Beneath my blue jeans (admittedly not a good choice for a day with a forecast high of twenty-five degrees), I wore merino long johns and heavy wool socks.

Much of the activity of Dead by Dawn takes place on, under, alongside, and over the mighty Androscoggin River. The glory days of the Androscoggin are firmly in the rearview mirror.

For centuries, the hydraulic muscle of the Androscoggin had powered dozens of mills, making paper and shoes, textiles and electricity. Communities had grown up along its banks and prospered, until the end of the twentieth century, when seemingly overnight, the world had gone topsy-turvy. The factories had been closed and the pulp machines had been sold and shipped to third-world nations in the Global South.

Today the Androscoggin is known primarily as the home of the perpetual Division III NCAA women’s rowing champion.

Under the surface of a frozen river, Mike has none of his equipment available, but he fights his way out to ensure that he and Shadow don’t perish in a watery grave. Almost everything is lost, but he still has the Beast, a folding knife given to him on his thirtieth birthday by Billy Cronk, his friend and neighbor. The Gerber 06 Auto is no ordinary knife—Billy carried it “on his tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan and survived while thousands of his fellow warriors perished.”

“A man without a knife is a man without a life,” Charley Stevens always says. I don’t know if it’s some old proverb or a rhyme of his own creation. But the wisdom behind the saying reminds me to keep a tight grip.

It wouldn’t be a Mike Bowditch mystery without a quote from his mentor, retired game warden Charley Stevens.

Earlier that day, Mike questioned Marc Rivard about the case of the drowned professor. Marc hasn’t changed much from the days when he was Mike’s second sergeant: “he was a taskmaster, a bully, and a politician.” In Mike’s opinion, he was a sociopath, or at least “he came close enough for discomfort.” Rivard despises Mike and always has. According to Rivard, he’s not the only one.

“How much time do you spend looking over your shoulder?”



The question brought me up short. “What do you mean?”



“You’ve made a lot of enemies over your career.”



I shrugged. “Most of them are in prison—or dead.”



“But not all of them. And even the dead ones have brothers and sons eager for payback.”



I couldn’t help but wonder if he grouped himself into this category of enemies.



“Paranoia isn’t my style, Marc.”



“I always said your cockiness was going to get you killed.”



“It hasn’t yet.”



“Just wait.”

That’s some scary foreshadowing—and when “unknown armed assailants on snowmobiles chase him through the wilderness,” Mike scours his past for clues as to who might hate him so much they want him Dead by Dawn. The long dark night sees Mike shifting through memories and recollections, with a wide cast of characters in his personal ether chiming in. Everything we’ve learned about Mike Bowditch comes to the fore—he’s “a young man with an old soul” and that colors his perceptions frequently. It’s not easy being “a temporal fugitive from the age of the Klondike Gold Rush when men literally bet their lives against nature.” Readers have learned not to bet against Mike’s tenacity and courage—Dead by Dawn is a brilliant mystery that will inspire a massive re-read of Paul Doiron’s mystery series, starting with The Poacher’s Son, an Edgar Award finalist.

Mike Bowditch is fighting for his life against the elements, after being run off the road into the icy waters below. As a game warden in Maine, Mike often confronts individuals regarding their wrongdoings in his jurisdiction, but who wants him dead? Has an innocent second glance into the closed investigation of a drowned professor brought Mike a heap of trouble?

Having read the other eleven Mike Bowditch books, I was pretty certain that the game warden was going to find some trouble. As always, Mike pushed the right buttons to incur the wrath of another assailant. I liked how Dead by Dawn was more of a survivalist novel, with more of the landscape of Maine and the harsh conditions in winter given center stage. The case that set off Mike's radar was more like window dressing, a way for the author to give Mike a reason to end up fighting the elements. That being said, Dead by Dawn was better than some of the previous novels and one I would recommend to others.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy of Dead by Dawn from NetGalley and the publisher, Minotaur Books. The decision to read and review this novel was entirely my own.

Dead By Dawn by Paul Doiron

Maine game warden finds himself in a life or death chase in this thriller.

This was an action packed mystery thriller. Many different characters. It was a wonder the main character survived. This b0ok took you down many roads until the end. I recommend this book.

Thanks to Net Galley for sending me an advanced reader’s copy for my review.

I really liked the premise of this story and I think I will try to get into it again, but this did not hold my attention. So for now, this is a dnf…

It's always a risk to jump into an established series, but I am so glad I jumped into this one! This book is the twelfth in the Mike Bowditch series. Mike is a Maine game warden who finds himself ambushed and thrown into a situation fighting for his life in the harsh Maine December winter. Told in alternating timelines of the same day, Mike is left to puzzle out how to stay alive and why he is put in this position in the first place. If Jack Bauer were a Maine game warden, 24 would have had a season based on this book. It is that intense and layered and interesting. Now I want to go back and read the whole series.

Content Warning: Cursing, Violence, Murder

Just in time for the hottest days of the summer, comes a searing new novel by Edgar finalist Paul Doiron that features a Maine Game Warden named Mike Bowditch who’s fighting for his life in the midst of an arctic-like sub-freezing winter night, trapped on a remote part of the Androscoggin River and pursued by a gang of vicious criminals who intend to kill him. Dead By Dawn begins with Bowditch crashing his Jeep down a steep embankment just as dark is falling and through the ice of the river with an injured full-grown wolf in the back. He manages to escape the sinking vehicle, but is left soaking wet in the twenty degree darkness with hypothermia, and certain death setting in.
Then the novel flashes back to earlier in the day, when Warden Bowditch met with a woman named Mariëtte Chamberlain, who wants her husband’s father’s accidental drowning death to be reopened and re-examined, because she thinks he was murdered. Her father-in-law, a former British diplomat and college professor named Eban Chamberlain, fell out of his duck hunting boat and perished in the river without a life jacket on . . . something Mariëtte claims is a lie, saying, “He never went on the water without his flotation devices. Never.” Bowditch, who has a reputation for solving cold cases says, with reluctance, that he’ll take a look at the evidence.
Thereafter, the story unfolds in alternating chapters between the present—where Mike Bowditch is trapped in the dark on an island in the Androscoggin River. He’s wounded, weaponless, without backup or means of calling for help, while being hunted by a family of backwoods criminals with snow machines and high-powered rifles—and earlier in the day, when Mr. Dorion tells the how, why, who and what that put the indomitable Game Warden into a situation he might not survive. Then the author goes on to weave a compelling and electrifying yarn that combines unrelenting suspense and ceaseless action. Those who read Dead By Dawn will be up ‘til dawn . . . engrossed and relishing this unforgettable novel!

This installment of the Mike Bowditch series has our favorite game warden fighting for his life after his Jeep goes off the road through the ice of a frozen river. The story opens with Mike struggling to breathe as he fights to escape submerged the vehicle and then finds himself trapped under the ice at the water’s surface. That’s the first chapter--and the danger only increases from then on, as bad guys with firearams pursue Mike in the dark, icy woods. This thriller alternates between Mike’s immediate quest for survival in the Maine woods and the events from earlier that day leading up to his predicament. The suspense is compelling, and it’s not an easy book to put aside for trivial things like work or sleep. Even more noteworthy than the story is Paul Doiron's beautiful writing—startlingly perfect word choices, evocative descriptions of the wintry Maine landscape, and a completely distinct voice for every character. I am happy to have discovered the author and even happier to have a backlog of Mike Bowditch books to read.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for a digital advance review copy.

This is my second time visiting the wilderness of Maine with Mike Bowditch and what a ride!

Mike, a game warden investigator, is called in to reopen a cold case of drowning. He heads out on the winding roads of Maine to see some likely suspects and unexpectedly runs over a chain of spikes in the road. What an ambush…his Jeep ends up in the river and he is in for the fight of his life. No sooner does he get out of the water, with the help of his wolf, than armed persons snowmobiling start shootings.

A fast-paced book with plenty of action that puts you on the edge of your seat. Very intense. A fight for survival. Loved the part the wolf played in the story.

Don’t miss this one if you enjoy the wilderness with plenty of atmosphere!

5 out of 5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Minotaur Books for the ARC of DEAD by DAWN in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date - June 29, 2021

I had heard good things about the Mike Bowditch mystery series and been meaning to dive in for quite a while. Although I was hesitant to start with book twelve of the series, I took the opportunity to request an ARC of Dead By Dawn and boy am I glad they said yes! I was worried that I would be lost, not having read the previous books and seen the character development. It takes a skilled writer to weave the facts you need to know into the story without feeling like the story has paused to fill you in, but author Paul Doiron seemed to do this effortlessly. At no time did I feel disadvantaged not having read the previous books, other than that when I finished this one I can't wait to go back to the series beginning and get more of this Mike character. Because here's what I found, I have not been so excited about discovering an author for their beautiful writing and skilled story telling since I discovered James Lee Burke over fifteen years ago.

Dead by Dawn draws you into the story from the first sentence. I knew I was intrigued by the end of the first paragraph. By the end of the first chapter I was all in! This is a heart pounding, thrill a minute story, and although there is a lot of action and some violence it never felt overdone (outside the limits of the story) or gratuitous. And this from a woman who dislikes guns intensely! I admit what first got me interested in the story is the setting of Maine. Many moons ago my husband and I took our children on a multi-day guided trip on the Penobscot River and I was awed by the vast and wild spaces. It was easy to imagine coming across the characters described in the book, hidden away from the world doing their nefarious business.

The whole story takes place over a 24-hour period. As I said, there is an edge of the seat opening chapter where Mike is put in great peril. He is being tracked by killers. Will he survive the night, where both the wild and freezing landscape as well as the human hunters are a deadly threat? In the second chapter we jump to the beginning of Mike's day, where he is given the seemingly tame chore of interviewing a woman who thinks her father in law's death four years before was no accident. It is a closed case and ruled an accident, but the deadly unraveling of Mike's day starts with this interview. This past and present literary device has been used a lot lately in books I've read, but here it is a masterful touch. The chapters are fairly short, and although I am immersed in the chapter I am reading, at the same time I can't wait to jump to the next!

I'm not going to go over the plot as other reviewers have done this, and trust me...you just need to read it. I loved the non-stop action and if someone isn't thinking of making this into a movie, they should! But as a woman I appreciate the care the author takes with his female characters. In other hands this story could have been a macho, violent event. I've tried to read many books by men authors where their women are caricatures. Here the women are fleshed out and believable. Even the bad ones breathe with life and he does not condescend when he writes their story. Let me also mention how good the dialogue is. It is so believable and flows effortlessly and does what good dialogue should do, helps to fully flesh out the characters where you can clearly picture them.

Lastly, let me mention the writing again. The story would be enough to make me love this book. It's exciting and the plot is cleverly unraveled, like a puzzle. But what makes it outstanding for me is the skill of the author. There were sentences or paragraphs that stopped me in my tracks, as exciting as the story was, and I had to go back and reread them. I hope the author doesn't mind the comparison to James Lee Burke, but I first experienced that with some of his books and it draws a mystery thriller up into a whole new level. There is a paragraph near the end, where Mike returns to the river to hunt for his missing wolf dog. (I would quote it, but I don't think we're allowed to do that). It is morning, and all the scenery that seemed so threatening during the night is now pristine and beautiful, and it is described so beautifully I can see myself standing there, in Mike's shoes. This is the kind of stuff that makes me love reading.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Paul Doiron for allowing me to ready this ARC. It is a big fat fully deserved five stars from me!

Dead by Dawn tells the story of Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch as he investigates a solved case that the victims daughter in law doesn't think was actually solved. As Mike digs, he may have dug too deep...

This book would be a great winter read. It was hard for me to get super into the setting as I read this book while laying out by the pool (HA)!! The explanation of the Maine countryside in the dead of winter was spot on and I enjoying learning about an area of the country that I am unfamiliar with. The mystery was good but I couldn't help but feel like if I had read the other books in this series I would have understood and been more invested. I liked the character of Mike enough to want to read the series from the beginning so major props to the author for that!!

Dead by Dawn is a well-written and executed thriller that takes the reader on an adventure packed 24 hours as game warden Mike Bowditch is pulled into a cold case that quickly turns in a cat and mouse chase for his life.

Though I didn't personally gel with it, that's a me thing (love thrillers, love books about Maine, guess I am not super interested in the game warden life) and not because of the book so my rating reflects its merit. It's very well done with clever plotting and character writing. Shades of Ozark throughout.

If you're a fan of adventure/wilderness type thrillers, definitely check this series out.

Thank you to Minotaur and Netgalley for the e-copy to read and review. All thoughts are my own.

Am I an idiot for not realizing this book was part of a series (book twelve, nonetheless) when I picked it up? Perhaps, but I'm a sucker for a good cover (and this one is beautiful, reminiscent of Ruth Ware's One-by-One cover), and I liked the blurb. I don't think this really affected my overall thoughts on the book. There were probably some subplots, such as which girl is he going to choose, that I had no interest in due to my lack of backstory, but that wasn't the point of the book, so that was fine.

This book opens with Maine game warden Mike Bowditch's Jeep plunging into the icy river waters and fighting for his life. What a start! Of course, he survives this initial dive, or we wouldn't have the rest of the book, but as soon as he's above water, he remains fighting for his life as he realizes that someone is hunting him. The book alternates back and forth between present time and earlier that day. These switching timelines were extremely confusing at first, as there is no indication of "present" or "past" or "earlier that day" at the beginning of the chapters--I think that would have helped me pick up on what was happening more easily. Otherwise, the book was good. It was interesting, I could see how things were coming together, but it wasn't so obvious I realized it too early. It's a rather violent book, so I wouldn't read if you're squeamish about bodily harm. I thought the ending wrapped things up nicely and tied up all the loose ends, which I appreciate!

Thank you to Minotaur Books for my ARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

4 stars - 8/10