Hatchet island by Paul Doiron

The eerie, windswept Hatchet island, off the coast of Maine, becomes the site of a double murder and disappearance in this thriller.

I enjoyed reading about police procedures. And about the rare birds on this island. Mike and Stacey go sea kayaking and cfind a doublec murder. I recommend this book.

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

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Mike Bowditch is a Maine Game Warden Investigator a job that he was made for.

Mike and his girlfriend Stacey are finally able to take a break and have a weekend away from their jobs. Their plans are to Kayak out to an island and camp. On the way they want to stop at Hatchet Island and see an old friend of Stacey's. It seems there has been some trouble on the island and the leader of the research project has gone missing. Mike and Stacey have no idea what they are getting into only that secrets abound.

I have loved this series since the beginning. this one took a bit to get going but once it did? Wow!! Dorion has a great depth with his main character and with each book we are seeing the layers of immaturity fall off. Now that he's an investigator Mike is evolving and it's fun to read.

If you're a fan of CJ Box or William Kent Kruegar then you will surely love this series as well.

This crime thriller is a must-read for any fans of police procedurals. The plot kept me on the edge of my seat and the characters were incredibly well-written. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery. 5 stars!

I really enjoyed this nature thriller it was engaging and I was able to finish in pretty much one sitting. This story follows Mike and Stacey as they go to help some friends out on a nature reserve that is breeding puffins. The island they go to is restricted not only because of the birds but also unexploded bombs on the island from ww2. After helping chase off some annoying people and finding out that Stacey’s mentor the head of the puffin reserve wasn’t acting herself. Mike and Stacey go to camp on another island for the night when they heard gunfire coming from the puffins island. Unable to get to the island they had to wait till morning when they found 2 people dead. We follow Mike as he works with police to figure out what happened. This was a quick fun thriller and the first book I have picked up in this series. I really enjoyed it as a quick beach read and definitely plan on starting this series from the beginning ! I would like to thank the publishers and Net galley for a chance to read this book for an honest review.

What is supposed to be a restorative sea kayaking trip turns out to be a dangerous situation for Maine game warden investigator Mike Bowditch and his girlfriend Stacey Stevens. Called by Stacy's friend and former colleague from a island sanctuary for endangered seabirds, where she spent summers interning, the pair are taken aback by the biologists being threatened and stalked by a mysterious boatman. Additionally, the sanctuary’s founder has gone missing. When the early hours of the morning turn deadly, can Mike figure out what is truly happening before the danger turns personal?

I have read all of the Mike Bowditch novels and I was not as much of a fan of the last few novels, including this one. I would have liked a little more background about endangered birds and fewer side plots.

Overall, Hatchet Island could be an ending to the series, as it felt like the closing of a chapter. I do like the characters and the setting, but I would like to see what the author can do with another main character. Readers new to the series should not start with this one, as they might not want to continue.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy by NetGalley and the publisher. The decision to read and review this book was entirely my own.

I was given a copy by NetGalley for my honest review of the book. This was a mystery/thriller taking place on an island off the coast of Maine. Investigator Mike Bowditch and his girlfriend go the island as Mike was called to investigate. They come across three women who are there to investigate rare birds. Two of the three are brutally murdered and the search is on for who would be on this remote island murdering people and why. It is a page turner and the ending is a surprise. A great start to a book series.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. I have not read others in the series and I think I did okay. When the location and weather work against you, it always make the mystery that much more intense.

Date is made up. I feel behind on reviews.

Mike is back with Stacy which adds something to the story. They go on a trip and end up in a murder mystery. It’s a standard addition to the series.. solid but not amazing.

Readers have grown up with Maine game warden investigator Mike Bowditch, a seasoned warden with a preternatural talent for doggedly ferreting out the truth. It’s a trait that has made him enemies in and out of law enforcement. Mike and his longtime off-and-on girlfriend Stacey Stevens are back together; she’s his soul-mate but they’ve had some bumps along the road.

The pair are sea kayaking over to Baker Island, a sanctuary for endangered sea birds. It’s a spot that is very familiar to Stacey: she interned there as a college biology student. Kendra Ballard, Stacey’s college roommate and former colleague, has asked her for help. Someone is stalking her and her colleagues. Also, Maeve McLeary, the sanctuary’s founder, is missing.

Mike’s intuition, his spidey sense, comes into play when they get close to the island.

Just then, I felt a chill go through me.



I share my home with a 145-pound wolf hybrid. His name is Shadow, and living with him has taught me that the superstition of being watched, especially by a predator, really can induce a physical sensation of fear.



I let the pounding waves turn the kayak counterclockwise until I was facing the Ayers Island and saw a gray figure standing motionless atop the cliff.

Stacey is the lead kayak and even if Mike wasn’t recuperating from a dislocated left wrist, she’d be outpacing him.

In addition to being a bush pilot, a biologist, an emergency medical technician, and a gifted photographer, she was a kayaking guide, too. Stacey Stevens was so good at so many things it made lots of men feel inadequate. I found it sexy as hell.

That said, Mike’s no slouch, sometimes fearless to the point of idiocy. What’s the “musky odor” in the air? It’s “both pleasant and nauseating, like the perfumes one encounters in certain church pews.” Stacey tells him that petrels “spit out this funky-smelling oil to waterproof their feathers.” You don’t have to be a member of the American Birding Association to enjoy Hatchet Island but curiosity will have you googling the birds Mike and Stacey encounter.

As they near land, they’re greeted by an “improbably beautiful woman” holding a Remington V3 Sport. She isn’t exactly pointing it at them but Mike’s perturbed: “As a game warden, I had dealt with too many jittery, impaired, and untrained gun handlers.” Even when Kendra appears, Hillary Fitzgerald reiterates that no one can step foot on the island if they’re not approved by Maeve McLeary.

“But Maeve isn’t here,” said Kendra. “Which is why I called my friends. We need their help, Hillary. You know how desperate the situation is. Please cut me some slack. I’m clutching at straws.”

Stacey lightheartedly says, “If it’s any consolation, Ken, we brought four pints of Ben & Jerry’s for you in our cooler.” Chunky Monkey and Cherry Garcia pave the way. Kendra tells Stacey that “Maeve is going batshit crazy.” In the off-season someone “shot up the observation blinds” and short-tailed weasels were deliberately brought to the island. The “sadistically vicious” animals kill birds by tearing out their throats.

“It had to be more retribution for Maeve’s involvement in the whale stuff,” I said. “The hope is that the weasels will wipe out the entire seabird colony.”

Maeve recently went off-island, possibly to drum up money. Their second biggest donor recently died and didn’t leave the sanctuary funding. Kendra doesn’t know the identity of their largest donor who prefers to remain anonymous. Lastly, the trio is “being threatened and stalked by a mysterious boatman who they suspect is trespassing on the refuge late at night.” The third biologist is Garrett, a young Black man from Philadelphia. Garrett points at the boat that’s stalking them and asks for help. It’s a tricked-out Chris-Craft that refuses to answer his hails. When they also ignore Mike, he shouts you must be in trouble and that he’ll call in the Coast Guard and the Marine Patrol to help; then “the launch’s engine roared to life.” Mike’s hands are tied: “I can’t pinch him for harassment unless he’s been warned to stay away from you and defies the order.”

“Pinch him?” said Garrett, pushing his glasses up his nose. “That’s a colorful turn of phrase.”



“It’s old police lingo.”



“Is it Maine lingo?”



“I don’t honestly know.”



“I’m curious, because, in case you haven’t guessed, I’m not originally from around these parts. I need to learn the local patois if I’m going to blend in with you Mainers.”



I had only known Garrett Meadows for five minutes, and I already liked him.

Garrett’s ironic comment about blending brings a whiff of the story of the Black birder in Central Park to the mix. Later that afternoon, as the two men sit in a blind counting birds, a lobster boat comes by cranking up rap music and flying a Confederate battle flag, specifically to rile up Garrett. Mike is aghast to learn they do this “every damned day.” Stacey’s afternoon is also problematic: Kendra tells her about a brilliant young intern, Evan Levandowski, who committed suicide: “Three weeks before he was supposed to return to Baker Island, he jumped off the Penobscot Narrows Bridge.” Something is very wrong on Baker Island.

Stacey and Mike paddle away to their campsite on Spruce Island—reunited at last. In the early morning, Mike “awoke in total darkness to the sound of a distant gunshot.” Because of the “bad vibe” they sensed, they return to Baker Island at first dawn. They find the bodies of Hillary and Kendra, brutally murdered and left in hideous poses by their killers. Garrett is missing. Nor has Maeve returned. The island skiff is gone. The world of Maine law enforcement soon descends on Baker Island. They tell Mike they’ve got it and besides, Garrett has disappeared—that’s a sign of his guilt. Mike can see the law enforcement higher-ups are only too happy to tie a bow on the crime and declare a killer but he has his own theories and he’s not to be deterred. In the immediate aftermath of the deaths of her staff, Maeve throws herself in the sea and dies.

Mike deduces that there’s a connection—financial and more—between Maeve and the “ruler” of a nearby island kingdom which is “owned by a world–renowned photographer and his equally brilliant wife,” Justin and Brenna Speer. The folks who live on the island know much more about the deaths than they’ll let on. Are they bound by a deliberate vow of secrecy? The investigation is taken out of Mike’s hands but no one is naïve enough to think that will stop his inquiries. Mike interacts with all the investigators—most of whom he knows well, including what they were like back in the day and what they’re like now. Men change and their personal circumstances impact their jobs, for good or ill.

Something Garrett says to Mike resonates through this complicated, absorbing plot: “Maeve McLeary is proof of the old adage ‘Never meet your heroes.’’ Maeve was a hero in the birding community, as Justin Speer is to photography aficionados—but sometimes, like Garrett says, loyalty is misplaced. It’s Mike’s job to find out the truth.

Mike Bowditch and his on-again girlfriend Stacey Stevens head off by kayak to spend the night on Hatchet Island, a seabird sanctuary populated by just a few staff members. Stacey once interned on the island, and she has heard that Maeve, the woman in charge, has been exhibiting increasingly erratic behavior. The atmosphere is creepy, and there’s a sense of danger in the rear and inhospitable island, where merely walking around is potentially hazardous due to residual ordnance from long-ago military exercises. Mike and Stacey spend the night on a nearby island, but upon hearing gunfire they head back to the sanctuary to find a grisly double murder. Mike suspects that a nearby island’s inhabitants, who act oddly like subjects of its richest celebrity couple, are keeping secrets. The author does not disappoint—as always, the writing is beautiful, and there is plenty of suspense. We see the complexity of investigating crimes from a remote location, with little backup and potentially hostile locals. The ending ties together the various threads of the story in a satisfying way.

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

Thanks so much to the publisher and to NetGalley for giving me access to this book. I love Paul Doiron's series. It was good in all the ways you want a book to be - character development, setting and plot. This hit all the right marks for me. I will be recommending it to anyone interested in a well written mystery.

The 13th installment in the Mike Bowditch series takes place on several small islands off the coast of Maine. The rugged beauty of the terrain, the unforgiving ocean are integral to the plot development. Populated by diverse and interesting characters, this is a must read for those who enjoy the outdoors and police procedurals. While part of a series this book can be read as a standalone novel.

**I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review of this book.

This was a very enjoyable read, and I enjoyed the virtual visit to Puffin Island and the coast of Maine. The mystery was intriguing, starting with the call from a friend to investigate some strange happenings on the island, which bring Mike and Stacey there in the first place. The drama ratchets up when the couple hears a gunshot in the middle of the night, and they investigate to find several dead bodies.

What's been going on at the bird sanctuary? Who would want to kill the young volunteers and scientists? The path toward answering those questions was twisting, often leading to dead ends. Going along with the team of law-enforcement professionals that Mike and Stacey work with to find out the truth, was a gripping and satisfying trip.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an e ARC of this book.
An interesting book from many standpoint. Maine islands, bird sanctuary, and murder so cruel. Love the main characters who have appeared in other novels. Kept me reading to the end.

This 13th in the series takes Maine game warden Mike Bowditch and his girlfriend, bush pilot/biologist Stacey Stevens, to Baker Island far off the coast, where biologists are first harassed and later murdered.

As we expect, Mike and Stacey do find answers - to all the deaths, including one that opens this story. And, as always, Doiron wrote an engrossing thriller, highly recommended.

I cannot wait until there is a television series for the Mike Bowditch books! I absolutely loved Hatchet Island. My favorite thing about the series is the gorgeous and accurate descriptions of not only Maine but of the people and the wildlife. I’ve lived here my whole life but each time I read a book by Paul Doiron I’m exposed to it in a new way. I also love that many characters make appearances or have large roles in each of his books as well as new characters being introduced. I know eventually every series comes to an end but I hope there are quite a few more of these.

I wanted to read this but didn't realize it was expiring. My apologies for bad time management. Will leave a better review when I can find the book on Libby or something. Appreciate the gifted copy.

Hatchet Island is the thirteenth edition in the popular adventures of game warden turned game warden investigator Mike Bowditch. He and his girlfriend Stacey are kayaking to a remote island off the Maine coast to speak with a friend of Stacey's. She works at a bird sanctuary and there have been some strange goings on.

Very quickly things go really badly, as Stacey's friend and another intern on the island are brutally murdered. There are no shortage of candidates for the bad guy role, and Mike and Stacey work to unravel the mystery.

I enjoy the obvious love the author has for the Maine outdoors in his many references in the book, and I always come away from these books feeling like I've increased my knowledge a little about the wildlife or the terrain of Maine. Doiron's books are non-stop action and really keep the reader glued to the page. I did not enjoy the conclusion quite as much in this book as I have in others, as it left me slightly unsure of why certain events happened. But I still found this a great read and can't wait for the next Mike Bowaditch book!

I've read all of the Mike Bowditch books, and when I reviewed DEAD BY DAWN, the previous book in the series, I felt that Mike and the series were at a crossroads. In HATCHET ISLAND, there is a shift from the high velocity action of previous books to a slightly more contemplative stage in Mike's life. Don't get me wrong, there is still plenty of danger and action and, as always, Doiron writes vividly about nature. But Mike has taken on a more responsible role in Maine's Game Warden Service, he's reconnected with an old love and is thinking about settling down, and this time the nature relates to the ocean and the action to kayaking.

Mike and his ex/new girlfriend, Stacey, have decided to take a romantic idyll on a remote Maine island when an old friend of hers asks for help at a nearby island that serves as a puffin sanctuary. Mike and Stacey stop by on the way to their campsite, finding leaderless staff members worried about their safety. This is nothing compared to what they find when they return the following day. What happened in those intervening hours, and who is responsible, is the source of the action in the book, while what happens at their remote campsite is the source of Mike's relationship ruminations. Mike's responses to these events demonstrate a relatively newfound maturity.

Doiron does a wonderful job of evoking the sights, sounds, and feelings of the ocean setting. Whether it's on top of the water or under it, the dangers it holds feel very real to the reader. And Doiron's descriptions of the birds at the sanctuary are as menacingly evocative as any of his previous writing about Maine's forest and its dangerous predators. Mike and Stacey are center-stage in this book, with Stacey helping Mike more than in previous books. Their characters continue to be well written and ever-evolving. The secondary characters are somewhat less than fully developed, in many cases, and there are a lot of them with occasionally mind-stretching motives. This is a quibble in a hugely engaging book, however.

The Bowditch books always finish their plots within the book, but nonetheless leave the reader wanting more. The ends of this mystery are tied up, but now I'm anxious to see what Mike will be up to in book 14 of the series in the future (hopefully sooner rather than later). HATCHET ISLAND could easily be a standalone, but having developed a relationship with Mike (and Stacey to some extent) over the previous dozen books of the series definitely added to my appreciation. Start here, and then go back to book 1 (THE POACHER'S SON), and you will be fortunate to build your own relationship with Mike Bowditch and the backwoods of Maine.

Hatchet Island by Paul Doiron is the 13th book in a series about Maine Game Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch. Having not read any of the previous books in the series I didn't feel that I was jumping into the middle of anything and actually found the story to be fairly self contained, similar to Robert B. Parker's Spencer novels.
From the description, " The eerie, windswept Hatchet Island off the coast of Maine becomes the site of a double murder and a disappearance in this thriller from bestselling author Paul Doiron. " I expected an isolated murder mystery similar to an Agatha Christy tale, but this story was much more faced paced and used the cliff-hanger chapter endings very well.
Thank you to #NetGalley, #StMartin'sPress, and Paul Door in for the ARC of #HatchetIsland.