4 stars out of 5
This one begins as Mike and his significant other, Stacey Stevens, are kayaking to an island that's a sanctuary for endangered seabirds and the site of a research project in which Stacey was once involved as an intern. The project, the Maine Seabird Initiative, is headed by Dr. Maeve McLeary; Stacey's good friend, an intern there, tells Stacey that strange things are happening. Most curious of all, Maeve seems to be missing - and her unexplained disappearance follows on the heels of the death by suicide of a young male intern.
As they camp for the following night, Mike and Stacey are awakened by a gunshot; when they pull up stakes to get to the island, they find a total disaster. Of the three researchers on the island, two have been brutally murdered. The third - now a person of interest - either escaped being a victim or himself was the perpetrator. Several other law enforcement entities are called in to help, including the Marine Patrol and an officer who's got a violent streak. On a nearby island is a community that's dominated by a powerful but secretive photographer and a wife who will do anything to protect her husband. A third island, the rather inhospitable Hatchet Island, is the site of said photographer's "studio," which may hold a few secrets of its own.
The action starts at the beginning and doesn't let up till the end, with Mike and Stacey in the middle and, on occasion, threatened with extinction just like some of the seabirds (the details of which, of course, I won't reveal). In the overall scheme of things, the "big reveal" left me a little underwhelmed, but I will say getting there was a whole bunch of fun. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review it - already looking forward to the next.
Hatchet Island by Paul Doiron (Minotaur Books, June 2022); 320 pp.
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