“Dead Man’s Wake” by Paul Doiron
Excellent Read !!
Never a boring moment in this story. There were more twists and turns than a bowl of well tumbled limp linguine. A tasty treat for stretching your who-done-it muscles for certain sure. Happy Reading ! !
Note: This review expresses my honest opinion.
I received an ARC of the story from the publisher via NetGalley.

I’m late in discovering Paul Doiron and his well written, straight forward police procedural series based on Mike Bowditch, a Maine game warden. The author hails from Maine and his love of the area shines through his main character.
Interesting fact - in rural Maine, game wardens have the same arrest powers as sheriffs, and serve as an auxiliary police force when no other officers are available. So, it’s not a leap of faith to have Mike helping in an investigation following the death of a man on the Great Pond.
The story begins with Mike and his fiancée, Stacy, visiting his stepfather and his new wife for an engagement dinner. They hear the sound of a crash on the lake. Investigating, they find a severed arm. They end up finding not only the rest of the body, but a dead female. Turns out the two were having an illicit affair. Mike is working with two homicide detectives, one of whom seems determined to pin the murders on the husband. But the facts don’t point that way. Mike’s soon to be father-in-law retired as a game warden and I liked that he was still capable of teaching Mike more than one trick. Think of him as the Yoda of the story. The entire book is told from Mike’s POV, which I appreciate. I like it better when I learn facts along with the main character.
This is an entertaining book. It moves at a pretty brisk pace and stays believable. Doiron writes in a clear cut style that makes it easy to envision each scene.
This could easily be read as a stand-alone.
My thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book.

In the 14th Bowditch installment by Paul Doiron, Mike & Stacy are celebrating their engagement at his stepfather’s lake home. Hearing a loud crash out on the lake they rush to investigate and come across a floating arm. Mike is only supposed to look into the crash but as the suspects pile up he can’t help but get involved. Another good fast paced mystery!

Dead Man’s Wake by Paul Doiron is the fourteenth book in the game warden series featuring Mike Bowditch.
Mike and Stacy are at Great Pond celebrating their engagement at his stepfather’s home. There is a boat crash, and they find an arm and then the rest of the body. It is murder.
This mystery was good and the story engaging. I enjoyed it even though I had not read any of the previous books so did not know much back story. The characters and mystery were particularly good.
I will go back and read the rest of the series.

“Dead Man’s Wake” is another riveting, fast-paced Mike Bowditch thriller from Paul Doiron. One of Maine’s most popular tourist attractions, Great Pond, becomes the scene of a bloody double homicide. Bowditch’s thorough investigation makes him the walking bullseye for a psychotic assassin who will kill anyone in order to protect his/her dark secrets.

For my complete review, please see the June edition of Gumshoe Review at www.gumshoereview.com.

This is an interesting story with a lot of moving parts. there are a lot of suspects and the protagonist is not your usual detective. The characters are likable and believable. There is suspense and romance- everything you need for a good story.

Loved all the interesting moves in this novel. The characters are great and grow on you. Would like to see more from this author.

Dead Man's Wake
By Paul Doiron

This is the 14th book in the Mike Bowditch series. Mike is a Maine Game Warden Investigator, who is celebrating his engagement to Stacey Stevens at a party at the home of his stepfather on Great Pond. Suddenly the sound of a boat crash is heard, and Mike and Stacey head outside to see what's happened. Obviously somebody in a boat has hit something – or someone - in the water near Mouse Island. Mike's soon-to-be father-in-law, Charley, is a retired game warden who once mentored Mike – and in fact often still does. They go out to the crash site and find an arm severed by a boat propeller in the water. A subsequent search turns up the rest of the body, and a call goes out to the various law enforcement agencies in the area. But the boater have left the scene – hit and run.

The dead man turns out to be Kip Whitcomb, the philandering husband of the island's owner. It seems he has had a rendezvous at the island with Gina, the young wife of a badass biker dude named Joey Randazza. It's only a matter of time before Gina's body turns up. But she has been murdered, strangled – unlike Kip. So now there are two bodies, a murder investigation (Gina), a water vehicle caused death (Kip) and large issues over legal jurisdiction.

The plot proceeds with all the twists and turns the reader has come to expect from Mr. Doiron. I like these books and keep coming back for more.
If you are a fan, you will like this one as well – if you are a first time reader, welcome to the world of Mike Bowditch. You will probably want to go back and read the previous 13!

I really enjoyed Dead Man's Wake. I have read all the books in the Mike Bowditch series. I really enjoy that most of them are set in Maine.
I did find a few typos as I was reading this version, but not enough to take away from the book.
I would definitely recommend reading this latest book by Paul Doiron

Game Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch has become a favorite character over the half-dozen or so years I've been reading books in this wonderful now 14-book series, and this latest entry doesn't disappoint. Mike and his fiancee, Stacey Stevens, are at a lake house for an engagement party with her parents and his stepparents, when they hear a loud bang - and Mike's certain that there's been a hit-and-run accident on the lake. That's putting it mildly; when Mike gets to the scene, he finds - and carefully fishes out - a human arm. Early the next morning, that discovery is augmented by the discovery of the rest of the guy - plus a female body (both naked). That adds up to an affair gone wrong near a privately owned island in the lake.

Almost as quickly, what early on was suspected to be a gruesome accident turns out to be murder; that puts Mike, whose job it is to identify the pilot of the hit-and-run boat and follow that to its legal end, on the outside looking in while the state police take over the actual murder investigation. Not surprisingly, though, the lines tend to blur more often than not, and happily, Mike has a great working relationship with the cops (well, most of them, anyway). Keeping things stirred up in the mix - and a constant thorn in Mike's side - is a local "lake constable" who refuses to keep his nose out, constantly bemoaning the fact that he wasn't deemed qualified enough to get hired as a "real" game warden.

There's a lot of interaction between Mike and Stacey's retired game warden dad Charley - who's really more of a father to Mike than is his own stepfather, with whom his relationship is rocky at best. There's plenty of action and well-researched details (almost a little too many of the latter, in fact), and the whole thing ends with a scary yin followed by a very welcome yang that makes me eager to read the next installment. All told, well done once again, and I heartily thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for giving me the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

Boasting a compelling premise, I was excited to delve between the pages of “Dead Man’s Wake,” my very first book in the Mike Bowditch series. The Maine Game Warden’s discovery of two corpses and subsequent investigation is undoubtedly both gripping and intriguing. However, the boating references are very detailed and technical, which caused me to disengage from the mystery at hand. Still, the story is complex and suspenseful, and makes for an enjoyable read overall.

Game Warden Mike and his bride to be are attending an engagement party given by his stepfather and stepmother at their lake home. When a boat accident, turned murder happens in the lake Mike assumes his role as Game Warden and goes into investigation mode. Working with the local authorities Mike strives to solve the mystery. As Mike and his future father in law, a retired game warden and his mentor, work together they find their investigation hampered at every turn. Everyone has a story and everyone has secrets they are hiding.
As Mike strives to bring the investigation to s close he also finds some important personal realizations in his own life.
This book is part of a series but can easily be read and enjoyed as a standalone novel.
Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

Dead Man’s Wake – Paul Doiron

Mike Bowditch & fiancée Stacy Stevens are celebrating their engagement and impending nuptials with family lakeside in Maine, when Mike hears the unmistakable sound of a fast-paced boat motor striking some type of object. A Maine Game Warden, Mike knows what the sound means, and he, Stacey & their respective parents head out on the lake to assess for injuries. The boat had fled the scene, but much to Mike’s dismay, Stacey spots a dismembered arm floating in the lake, clearly the casualty of a boat propeller.

As they await further assistance, they attempt to locate the body that the arm once belonged to, and Mike & Stacey, along with the Lake Constable Galen Webb, examine the arm. On its wrist is a high-end Rolex watch, which Galen immediately identifies as belonging to the owner of nearby Mouse Island, a Kip Whitcomb. With further questioning, Mike learns that Kip often brought women to the island, despite being married. After marking the area w/ a buoy, the group heads to Mouse Island to have a look around, quickly finding evidence that there had been a woman with the victim. But where was she?

State Police Detective Roger Finch arrives to assist, and the woman’s body is quickly located, with obvious evidence of homicide. The investigation kicks into high gear as the team looks for evidence – did Kip kill his lover and then go for a swim, only to be struck and killed by a boat, or was there something much more sinister at play? Where is the boat that struck Whitman? Interviews with family members and locals close to the scene, while enlightening, lead to dead ends as obvious suspects are quickly ruled out. Meanwhile Galen Webb seems to turn up everywhere…is he a young deputy who is hoping to prove himself worthy of the Warden’s Service, or is there something else altogether at play??

Another fabulous read from the Mike Bowditch series. As a former, short-term resident of the great state of Maine, I just adore this series, the characters and the familiarity of the areas used as a backdrop for some great fiction! The Belgrade Lake area is absolutely beautiful – and I’d taken that ride more than a few times in my years there. Awesome series, great characters, ingenious plots – I cannot say enough about this series!!

I received this book as an Advance Reader Copy from Netgalley & St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an objective review. Do you love to read?? Visit netgalley.com and start reviewing books today!!

Review will post to my blog on 6/20 🥳

Another great book by Paul Dorian. This series is seriously under rated. Dorian's characters and development are spot on. This series would look great on Netflix.

I am a big fan and have read most of his books. The last couple of books including this one I could not finish. He has just lost his edge.

This book is about a game warden in Maine, Mike Bowditch, and revolves around people living on a lake. For the past 20 or so years, I've vacationed on a lake in Maine, primarily Parker Pond, after having put in some 15 or so years on a lake in New Hampshire, Bow Lake. So, obviously, the setting has great appeal. But, in addition, it's really a rather <em>>Good Read</em>.

Mike Bowditch is celebrating his engagement to Stacey along with his step father, Neil Turner and Turner's new spouse, Jubilee Bartchelder, and also with Stacey's parents, Charley and Ora Stevens. Charley Stevens, it appears was once a sort of mentor for Mike in the warden business.

Some idiot is screaming around to a jet ski in the twilight, a recipe for disaster given that there are also speed boats on the lake and visibility is all but gone. They hear a loud crash, and some other noises and assume some kind of accident. When they investigate, they can't find signs of a crashed jet ski, nor a crashed boat, but they do find a recently severed arm. Eventually, they find the body from which the arm was severed. It belonged to one Kipling Whitcomb, aka Kip, who had been staying at the house on Mouse Island that had been in his spouse's family for a number of generations. When they explore Mouse Island, they discover another corpse, that of Gina Randazza, who had, apparently, been having an affair with Kip at the time. Kip's spouse, Diane Fenton Whitcomb was an invalid and had stayed behind in Massachusetts.

Mike's purview is to investigate boating accidents. Actual cops were brought in to investigate the murders. But, of course, Mike can't keep from following up on the murder side of things, and his future father-in-law, Charlie, also has a penchant for sticking his fingers into the pie from time to time.

Anyway, they have exciting times tracing down the villains, excitement that includes being shot at and being involved in the crash of a small plane whose fuel had been adulterated with water.

I won't go on any longer, but I do want to reiterate that this is a rather fun book. Apparently, it's also the 14th or so in a series about Mike Bowditch. I'm pretty sure that I'll be reading some of his earlier adventures fairly soon. After all, I've got to get in shape for my time in Maine this coming August.


#DeadMansWake
#Net Galley

Thank you to Net Galley and Minotaur Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review. I have read all the Mike Bowditch series and thoroughly enjoy the characters, the varied plotlines and most of all Doiron’s writing style and the way his writing is so descriptive it helps me visualize the landscape and scenery.

Mike and girlfriend Stacey Stevens are finally engaged. His stepfather and his in-laws to be (Charlie and Ora Stevens) have planned an engagement party for them deep in the Maine countryside by the side of a lake. The evening is about to commence and while they are taking in the view, Mike and Stacey witness some type of crash or boating incident on the lake. It’s dark and therefore difficult to see what exactly happened, but by the sound of it – a crash, it wasn’t good. They immediately head to the scene to see if they can help.

Not long after, they spotted a severed arm floating like flotsam and jetsam in the lake that they suspect was caused by the boat propeller. Realizing that this means there is more – they continue searching and come upon not only the body that was once attached to the arm – but the body of a woman as well. Something isn’t right about the entire scene, as it doesn’t seem as if it were a murder/suicide -- more likely a murder. But why? And what about the boater who is now nowhere in sight?

Among the obvious suspects are the wide of the now one-armed man and the biker-gang husband of the woman found nearby. Neighbors who had a view of the lake aren’t cooperating and a lake patrol officer who is a Warden wannabe (he applied but was turned down) is creating a mess.
It was a good book. The plot is a bit dark and to me, the book culminates with a weird kind of out of nowhere conclusion.

Well-executed book, good character build, and a nice, original story! I was pleasantly surprised with this one.

Dead Man’s Wake is the newest mystery in the Game Warden Mike Bowditch series and would probably be best read as part of the series for background information. Mike and his fiancé Stacey are celebrating their engagement with a small party at the lake house of his stepfather. A quiet evening with his stepfather and his wife and Stacey’s parents takes a horrific turn when Mike and Stacey hear a boat hit something in the water. Taking a closer look, Mike finds a dismembered arm floating in the water and a quick dive locates a body. Calling in the local wardens, the constable, and the state police begins an investigation into the murder of a wealthy, philandering home owner. The case twists and turns to bring about a shocking showdown between Mike and the bad guy in an action packed, adrenaline driven mystery. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from NetGalley.

My Thoughts

I learned a valuable lesson this time that I will keep in mind for future invitations from publishers or my requests.

I will remember that diving into a well established book series by accepting the chance to read one this far into it is not a good idea for me anymore.

A book written in a series have never read anything from and so many characters in it that I felt adrift in a sea of information that at times didn’t make sense to me and at others did.

Character Maine Game Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch turns out to be a cross between a pit bull and a terrier both tenacious creatures who have different abilities that include a stubbornness to give up.

That turns out to work in his favor more than not but it also puts him in harm’s way more than normal.

This story had a very different feel to me than expected but it was also filled with so many side characters that I felt out of tune with its flow here and there at times.

I however did enjoy Bowditch as a character whose ability to think on his feet was only surpassed by his ability to find himself in precarious situations.

The final investigation outcome was not a disappointment but also quite quick after such a lengthy buildup to get there.

The end results were satisfactory and our hero did his job well.
[EArc from Netgalley]

On every book read as soon as it is done and written up for review it is posted on Goodreads and Netgalley, once released then posted on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles as well.