Hatchet Island is the 13th Mike Bowditch mystery by Paul Doiron. Released 28th June by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is a wonderfully written series with an intelligent and honorable protagonist who works as an investigator for the Maine Warden Service (game warden). Although it has more thriller elements than my usual shopfront cozy selections, it's so well written, so redolent of the area and the outdoors, that it was an immersive and enjoyable read. Readers who are already fans of procedural thrillers will be right at home.
The plotting moves along at a good pace and the whole setup is so steeped in a pervasive sense of menace that the tension is ratcheted up continually til the first catastrophic crimes and it doesn't slow down after that. The examination and detection on the part of the protagonist and his colleagues (and girlfriend Stacey) is meticulously written and very cleverly constructed. The final climax, denouement, and resolution were tense and satisfying. Although the mystery is self contained, the entire series is highly recommended and would be a great candidate for a long weekend binge read.
Four and a half stars. This series will appeal very much to fans of Stabenow's Kate Shugak and Box's Joe Pickett mysteries.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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