Paul Doiron’s ninth Mike Bowditch novel, Stay Hidden, is scheduled to hit bookstores on July 3, 2018. It’ll follow the events of Knife Creek (2017), and features a newly promoted Bowditch who investigates the death of a woman on an island off the coast of Maine.
A supposed hunting accident becomes a dangerously complicated murder investigation in this intricately-plotted new thriller featuring Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch.
A woman has been shot to death by a deer hunter on an island off the coast of Maine. To newly promoted Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch, the case seems open and shut. But as soon as he arrives on remote Maquoit Island he discovers mysteries piling up one on top of the other.
The hunter now claims he didn’t fire the fatal shot and the ballistic evidence proves he’s telling the truth. Bowditch begins to suspect the secretive community might be covering up the identity of whoever killed Ariel Evans. The controversial author was supposedly writing a book about the island’s notorious hermit. So why are there no notes in her rented cottage?
The biggest blow comes the next day when the weekly ferry arrives and off steps the dead woman herself. Ariel Evans is alive, well, and determined to solve her own “murder” even if it upsets Mike Bowditch’s investigation and makes them both targets of an elusive killer who will do anything to conceal his crimes.
Paul Doiron is often compared to C.J. Box, and for good reason–their characters are both game wardens, and they do tackle similar subject matters. However, Doiron’s series and style are a tad darker than Box’s, and the tone is perhaps more in line with, say, Ace Atkins’ Quinn Colson books. If you like either Box or Atkins and haven’t picked up Doiron’s books, you should.
Mike Bowditch is a really well-developed character, and his promotion (similar to how Box’s Joe Pickett became the “range rider” for Wyoming’s governor) should open the door for different types of storylines in the future. Stay Hidden sounds fantastic, and Doiron, one of the more underrated crime writers working today, is a safe bet to deliver another great read. Fans anxious to pre-order his next book can do so here, or anywhere else books are sold.