One Last Lie

I absolutely love this series and it just keeps getting better and better. The characters are believable, the setting is beautiful, and the story line grips you from the very first chapter. I love a book like that!

This one gets personal for Mike as he searches for his surrogate father, Charley Stevens, who has disappeared without an explanation. It all seems to relate to a former game warden and his disappearance from an uncover assignment that Charley was a part of. Plus Mike's old girlfriend shows back up in his life while his current girlfriend is dealing with a situation Mike wishes he could be there for.

The book is amazing and the ending....well you just have to read it! You won't be disappointed. I can't wait for the next one!

Maine game warden Mike Bowditch is sent to Florida to do a background check for a perspective new pilot. He quickly gets home to find his long time mentor and best friend is missing or run off. Mike finds a note and delves in.
Doiron has developed a wonderful and original series and his writing is top notch. This book more then ever describes the beauty of Northern Maine. Great who dunnit but a wonderful travel guide too. Keep this series going it’s simply wonderful.

As a Mainer,Paul Doiron is one of my favorite authors. Having read all of his prior books, I have to say that the series gets better with each book. I will be anxiously awaiting the next installment to see how Mike works out his predicament with Dani and Stacy.....such a cliffhanger ending. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy. Cannot wait to recommend the next book to everyone.

Paul Doirion never disappoints. The latest book in the Mike Bowditch series is also the best. It's definitely a page turner that kept me guessing until the end. Bowditch grows personally & professionally in each book, & I've loved seeing his evolution. As someone who works in this field, it's clear that Doirion does his research, which is greatly appreciated & rarely carried out to such detail. He doesn't hesitate to inject humor, & my favorite line of the book was "emergency ass surgery," about which I'm still laughing. I'm anxiously awaiting the next chapter of Bowditch's story.

This is another one I love by this author. I just love warden Bowditch and his cast of characters and the Maine setting. Keep them coming.

The Maine woods come alive once again in Paul Doiron’s latest Mike Bowditch mystery. Charley Stevens, Mike’s mentor and father-figure, is missing and Mike must follow the scant and cryptic clues in order to locate him. Along the way, he is hindered by unsavory characters who will do everything in their power to prevent him from reaching his goal.

Doiron’s characters are always well-drawn and the wilderness descriptions bring readers right into forest. I could feel the mosquitos and hear the black flies buzzing. He is an excellent writer and is adept at drawing the reader in and holding interest throughout. I’ve enjoyed all of the books in this series, but this might’ve been my favorite because of the way the mystery developed and because Charley Stevens is one of my favorite characters. If you have not read this series yet, now’s the time start!

Many thanks to Netgalley, Minotaur Books and Paul Doiron for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Paul Doiron is one of my favorite writers, and his books just keep getting better. This particular story is about his mentor Charlie's disappearance, and Mike Bowditch uses his detective skills to unravel a complicated mystery concerning the past death of another game warden. Excellent storytelling keeps you guessing how the whole situation adds up to finding Charlie.

One Last Lie was an excellent addition to the Mike Bowditch series. Highly recommended to those who enjoy a some nature in their mysteries.

Okay, I get excited when I learn that one of my favorite authors has completed a new book. When it's part of a favorite series, I get even more excited. By the end of the first chapter of this one, I had a big smile on my face. Now I've finished - and I want another one. The sooner the better, please and thank you.

Honestly, I don't know why I love the series so much. Of course, the writing is outstanding and the stories are complex enough to be hold my attention every page of the way but simple enough that my aging brain doesn't get lost. The setting of this, the eleventh book, is mostly in relatively remote parts of Maine - appealing on its own but more so to me because my husband and I have spent some quality time there (far too little, sorry to say). The author weaves historical information throughout, adding even more interest.

The main character, game warden investigator Mike Bowditch, is a man I'd love to meet - a bit reminiscent of C.J. Box's game warden Joe Pickett. The stories are full of action and straightforward - no chapter flipping from one time frame or one character to another that tends to drive me up a wall. This one opens with Mike in Florida to do a background check on an Air Force veteran who has applied for a Maine Warden Service job. While there, he runs into the woman who was his significant other for a couple of years; they're still friends and Mike now has a newer love back in Maine, but there's a hint that old flames never burn out completely.

Then, the ex-girlfriend's mother Ora calls Mike - whom they love like a son (more accurately, perhaps, the son-in-law who got away) to say her husband Charley has gone missing. He was last seen, in fact, in a heated argument with a vendor at a local flea market near their home in backwoods Maine. Mike knows Ora isn't a worrier, so he heads back home to try and track Charley down. Problem is, it becomes clear to Mike early on that Charley doesn't want to be found.

Or maybe he does.The old man leaves a cryptic letter to Mike in his seaplane, stressing that Mike shouldn't come after him. But Mike senses that's the opposite of what Charley really means. When he learns that - the flea market fight involved a badge that belonged to a warden who was reportedly killed 15 years earlier, Mike's suspicion that something, perhaps linked to that dead warden, is terribly wrong is strengthened, as is his resolve get to the bottom of things.

The rest of the book follows Mike's efforts to unearth clues and find his old friend and mentor, all the while knowing Charley's life is at stake. But dark forces from the past seem to have made their way to the present, putting the lives of both Charley and Mike on the line. It's a race to the finish with nary a dull moment - and another well-earned notch in the author's belt. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.

Paul Doiron writes so beautifully about the backwoods of Maine in this series, and I was fascinated to see that he could do the same about the everglades in Florida. The book starts with Mike Bowditch, former game warden, now investigator, doing a background check in Florida of a pilot candidate for the Maine warden service. The book is bracketed by this investigation, but the main plot deals with Bowditch using his comp time to come to the aid of his friend Ora in finding her husband, Bowditch's friend, Charlie. The search takes him into the most northern regions of Maine, just short of the Canadian border, and back in time to the disappearance and presumed killing of an undercover warden.

As always in Doiron's series, there are plenty of fast-paced scenes with Bowditch in significant danger. There's also incisive characterization and a bit of a love story. And then there's the evocative writing about the wilderness. While long-time readers of the series will find the emotional growth of Bowditch rewarding, this book could also be appreciated as a stand-alone or as an entry to the series. If you start here, though, you won't be able to avoid heading back to read the previous books in the series.

How do you bite down on a lie and not taste its long-lasting bitterness?

One Last Lie opens the door wide on one of the finest books in this series. Paul Doiron does Mike Bowditch proud in an exceptional panorama of life in Maine through the rugged terrain making up the internal workings of Investigator/Warden Bowditch. This one has a lot of action and uncertainty as we travel throughout multiple counties and small towns at the heels of Bowditch. Doiron knows how to showcase the multi-layered communities and the deep-set history of such a diverse population spread far and wide in Maine. We are certainly aware of the flora and fauna under foot revealing the beauty of its surroundings, yet smudging the footprints of some despicable bad guys on the loose.

But did I mention that our story begins in the Everglades in Florida? A little switcheroo tossed in by Doiron. Mike is down there in an investigator's capacity to do a background check on a candidate for Chief Pilot for the Maine Warden Service. What he uncovers leaves him unsettled. Former Captain Joe Fixico, a Miccosukee Native American, has much to share. And, oh, by the way, there's a mighty Python involved. Yup.

No sooner than Mike returns to Maine, there's trouble brewing. Ora Stevens calls him and reveals that her husband Charley is missing. Charley is a retired pilot for the Warden Service and a solid mentor for Mike over the years. It all has to do with a warden's badge that Charley found on a table at a flea market near the Machias Dike. Something triggered a response in Charley. He was never one to take off on his own. Mike promised to track Charley down. But as Mike investigates, he's coming up with some heavy situations and some heavy-duty individuals in the mix. Looks like they may have to send out the bloodhounds after Mike, too.

One Last Lie strikes all the five bells loudly. Thanks to Doiron you get a feel for the grit and the tilt of the uneven roads. This episode is gonna change Mike for a long time to come.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Minotaur Books/St. Martin's Press and to the talented Paul Doiron for the opportunity.

Wow. A lot of big shakeup s in this latest Mike Bowditch book. Mike's mentor puts him through the hoops, his love life became even more complicated, and he learned a lot of things were different than he thought. ONE LAST LIE seemed to affect Mike more personally than usual. In addition, it was the latest in a string of excellent books in the series. Paul Doiron just seems to get better and better. I never put one down without immediately looking forward to the next book.

I absolutely loved this book! It’s probably the best of the series thus far, which is saying a lot. I think with each new edition to the series I say the same. It’s exciting, the character development is fantastic and it’s just fun!