DEAD MAN'S WAKE

4 stars out of 5

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.

Dead Man's Wake by Paul Dioron (Minotaur Books, June 2023); 320 pp.