5 stars out of 5
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.
One Last Lie by Paul Doiron (Minotaur Books, June 2020); 320 pp.
4 stars out of 5
If Bad Axe County really existed, I'd never go near it. And based on the characters in this story (which, BTW, there were far too many of for my aging brain to keep straight), I'm happy to not live anywhere near any of these downright detestable folks. That's not to say the book isn't well-written; it is - and no doubt many readers will love it. But I disliked the people and places so much that it was hard to work up much enthusiasm for the plot.
Heidi Kick is the new interim sheriff in Bad Axe County, Wisconsin - the first female in what's clearly old-boy territory. She's married to Harley, who in his younger days was a star baseball player (and who is the only character in this story who has redeeming social value, IMHO). More than a decade earlier, Heidi's parents were found dead on their farm, and the police ruled it a murder-suicide. Heidi never believed that, though, and has tried ever since to figure out what really happened to them.
She's also got a job to do, though much of it seems to be an uphill battle against the seedy folks in the backwoods county who don't want her to do it. So bad is the situation that she's not even totally sure she'll run for the upcoming election that, should she somehow win, would give her a more permanent status.
As a real storm brews, a storm of another sort pops up in the local library involving an unidentified man, a young girl and a years-earlier baseball game that nobody - including Heidi's husband - want to talk about. That, in turn, leads to Heidi's learning about secret "stag parties" attended by all sorts of locals and an assortment of young girls, not all of whom were there of their own volition (think: human trafficking). One, in fact, has been missing ever since the party that followed that secretive baseball game; now, Heidi fears that the girl in the library may be another unwilling victim (one who, hopefully, she can save).
The nasty weather and roiling rivers take their toll as Heidi investigates up and down very run-down properties like a salvage yard and a restaurant/bar, both of which are operated by characters even a mother couldn't love. Can Heidi find the missing girl before it's too late? Will she learn whose hand really killed her parents? And will her marriage survive the secrets her husband has been keeping from her? All are questions that aren't for me to reveal; you'll just have to read it for yourself. Do so only, I might add, if you don't mind graphic language and really, really rough guys and gals (the language does fit the characters, but even though that usually doesn't bother me much, in this case it made me like them all even less).
Bottom line? While I appreciate the quality of the writing, this one is just too dark and gritty for me. In other words, I got through it intact, but I admit I'm now looking forward to diving into a cozy mystery (and if you know my opinion on those, you know that speaks volumes). Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an advance copy.
Bad Axe County by John Galligan (Atria Books, July 2019); 336 pp.
