Dead Man’s Wake by Paul Doiron
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Mike Bowditch is a Game Warden who is celebrating his engagement with family and friends. When he thinks he heard a speedboat collision on the lake, an investigation discovers a dead body.
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I have not read any of the Mike Bowditch series and it was easy to pick up the story as a standalone.

I enjoyed Mike’s character but I really loved his quirky father-in-law (to be) and fiancée more. 😂

Following Mike while he put the clues together in the investigation was intriguing and fun. The last few chapters were pretty high stakes and had good suspense!
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4⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am more than a couple books behind in this series, but I was glad I dove in and read this when the book arrived at the library. Being back in the gritty world of Maine game warden Mike Bowditch was immersive from the first page. Surrounded by a community of fantastic characters, Bowditch and his fiancée Stacey Stevens witness what at first glance is a hit and run boating accident on the lake that coincidentally purports to be the setting for On Golden Pond. Of course, the arm they find leads to more bodies, a closed camp and remote island getaway for a wealthy family. So good, recommended it to a coworker whose kids go to Colby and can't wait for the next one.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books, Paul Doiron, and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC in return for an honest opinion.

This is the first Mike Bowditch book I’ve read and it did not disappoint. The story was fast paced and sucked me in from the beginning.

The story starts with investigator Mike Bowditch attending his engagement party thrown by his stepfather at his beautiful lake house in Maine. The celebration is cut short when there is a loud noise that sounds like two boats crashing. Mike takes his stepfather’s boat to investigate and finds two bodies in the water - a dismembered man and his married lover. And so begins the investigation in to their lives to figure out who could have brutally murdered them.

Fast paced and full of action, this book was hard to put down. I definitely enjoyed it and 100% would recommend it. 5/5 stars.

I don’t typically read books, written by man or authors position was done so well I felt totally spooked while reading it, and I will continue to read books by this author. I thought the atmosphere was a treasure in itself.

Game Warden Mike Bowditch is back in another installment in the series. This time, he is at a lake when there is an alleged boating accident. However, as Mike investigates, he learns there is way more to this story. He and his fiancée are in danger as an attempt to silence them is made.

This is a great mystery thriller. I love the Mike Bowditch series. I have read most of them over the years. This book works just fine as a stand-alone mystery though. You don't need to know all the backstory to get what's happening.

This book had plenty of action and the plot moved along quickly. I was drawn into the story and did not want to put it down. It was great to see characters from the other books in this one too. But, knowing who they were was not necessary to understand the story, so this book stands on its own.

I love how the author adds the elements of suspense, misdirection of the reader's suspicions, and action, and weaves them all together into a solid mystery. I highly recommend this book, and the entire series.

Dead Man’s Wake opens with a Game Warden Mike Bowditch and his fiancée Stacey Stevens celebrating their engagement with their families when their attention is drawn to a reckless speedboat. They hear it crash into something, circle back, and then disappear. They know something bad has happened. Heading out to check, they discover a severed arm and soon find the rest of the man on the lake bottom. The scene suggests there may be a second victim, a woman who is soon found.

To some it looks like the man murdered the woman and then drowned in his drunkeness, but Mike suspects there is more to the story. As they investigate, Mike is suspicious of one of his law enforcement colleagues, Galen Webb, a local police officer who failed to get hired as a game warden. In a rather stunning breach of professional conduct, Mike was told about this guy’s failure to impress, enough to make him distrustful.

Mike is responsible for solving the death of the man, or at least finding the boaters and determining if they killed him. As the investigation continues, Mike’s suspicion that there is more to the story is confirmed by an attempt to kill him, Stacey, and the lead investigator of the woman’s murder. There is definitely more to understand and there is no shortage of suspects.

Dead Man’s Wake is the fourteenth Mike Bowditch mystery, but the first for me. I was impressed by how well the author brought me up to speed without tediously filling in a mountain of backstory. I didn’t feel lost by the thirteen prior books I had not read. This is a great talent and few authors master it.

I was surprised by the lack of professionalism in the revelations about Galen Webb, the local cop. People are just not supposed to reveal why they didn’t hire someone and drop what is basically malicious gossip. Who knows how the investigation might have progressed if Mike were not distrustful and had not put Webb’s back up with his condescension? It’s important to the storyline that these two not share information, but I wish this had happened without such an egregious breach of professional ethics.

I am unsure whether the mystery meets the Detection Club’s standards for fairness, but it would be a spoiler to explain why I have some doubts. Let me just say, I can make an argument either way, depending on how one defines terms. Fair or not, it is engrossing and original. I also appreciated the finale where Mike did not do the usual thing detectives always do in mysteries. And it was a very good thing for him, too.

I received an e-galley of Dead Man’s Wake from the publisher through NetGalley

Dead Man’s Wake at Minotaur Books | St. Martin’s Press | Macmillan
Paul Doiron author site

This was a different and interesting concept for a murder mystery - the maritime setting and game warden versus your standard detective was very intriguing. But otherwise unfortunately it felt very formulaic. I do love and appreciate when a book in such a large series like this can be read as a stand-alone though. It’s a nice mystery to read if you’re not ready to invest in the whole series without feeling like you’re missing vital pieces of information. My biggest complaint is that at points it felt a little like copaganda but that’s a me problem.

Dead Man's Wake is the 14th procedural thriller featuring Mike Bowditch by Paul Doiron. Released 27th June 2023 by Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook format. Paperback format due out late second quarter 2024 from the same publisher. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is a strong and long running action driven procedural series with appealing characters, believably well rendered. It's easy to identify with Mike and his colleagues and family. They're recognizable and feel real. This installment, written around the weeks before his long anticipated wedding to his fiancé Stacey, sees them investigating a speedboat accident and suspicious deaths on the lake near his stepfather's home.

The plot of this installment is self contained and works well enough as a standalone. It's a long running series with numerous returning characters and as such, there are spoilers for earlier books if read out of order, especially the lead characters.

The dialogue is sometimes a bit simplistic, but it's solidly plotted, engaging, and entertaining overall.

The unabridged audiobook version has a run time of 9 hours 26 minutes and is narrated by series narrator Henry Leyva. He has a gravelly, professionally trained voice which suits the rough-around-the-edges lead character very well. He does a good job of delineating the secondary characters, and there was never any confusion in his narration. Sound and production quality are high throughout the recording.

Four and a half stars. It would be an excellent choice for a mystery book club selection (lots of thorny/interesting ethical and cultural issues), public library acquisition, or a long binge/buddy read. 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.

At Mike and Stacey’s engagement party, the pair hear what sounds like a hit and run motorboat accident. They are thrown into the investigation of cold, calculated murders. Love this series set in Maine.

Dead Man’s Wake is book 14 in Paul Doiron’s Mike Bowditch series about the Maine Game Warden and the predators he encounters. This story takes place on the lake with Mike gathered with close family to celebrate his recent engagement to Stacey and while they are there they overhear a boating incident that leads to the discovery of not one but two bodies in the water near one of the islands. What results is a quick moving investigation uncovering open secrets, deception, and misdirection.

With this being a long running series I do think I missed out on some important background details by having not read the previous books but for the big picture stuff the author did a good job at reminding the reader who someone was or a specific detail. I can see why this is a long running series as the characters are complex and relatable and the adventures of a Maine game warden are certainly thrilling.


Thank you @minotaurbooks and @netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

This story started with a bang! An evening boat crash leaving a severed arm floating nearby propels Paul Doiron’s story into a spellbinding full-blown investigation after a dive team discovers two corpses. A suspenseful ‘who done it’ with complex characters and well-placed drama and clues.

Book 14 in the series and a strong addition! I have loved the character development thought out this series and the addition of Mike’s family in this really added to it. I found the case to be interesting and enjoyed the different setting. I can’t wait for the next book in the series!

First time reader of the author Paul Doiron. I started the series here at #14.
I liked this book, which is about a game warden and a suspicious boating accident that led to two people's death. I think I would have loved it if had I read the first book in the Mike Bowditch series. It was good solid writing and good development of characters. However, it took me quite a while to get through this one though, because it was filled with way more detail than I like in a book. I thought it was mundane and the author drew out the book. I purchased the audio book version to help me get through it faster and that did help. But I found my mind wandering and the book just couldn't keep me interested. I had to re-read or re-listen to the audio book many times because I was lost. I know I'm in the minority of rating it a three (3) out of five stars. Just too much information about the history of family members that did not matter in my opinion, and too many characters added to try and put suspicion on other characters of who commented the crime. In the end, I was surprised who the killer was, and enjoyed the ending. This book was definitely a slow burning mystery/suspense.
A very special thank you to Minotaur Books/St. Martin's Press via NetGalley for the Advanced Readers Copy in exchange of my honest review.

Dead Man's Wake follows game Warden Mike Bowditch as he and his fiance find a severed arm on the lake they are vacationing on to see his Stepfather, his wife, and his fiance's parents. Will Mike go too far this time or will he learn from his past?

This is the second book I have read in this series. This one works as a standalone and does not need to be read as the 14th book in the series (thank goodness). I love the character of Mike and how invested he gets in doing good. I also love that these books are about the Warden service. It is such a nontraditional law enforcement group to use in a novel but it works and it actually made me this of Warden's as more than just looking for poaching. These books are great and I cannot wait to read more!

Great novel and this was my first. Thank you to NetGalley for introducing new novelist to me. I look forward to more by this author

This book was entertaining, but I was definitely confused for a lot of it. There were a lot of characters thrown around and I read this as a standalone. Also, there was a lot of lake talk and I was kind of bored. The murder itself was also kind of boring.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC

This is book 14 in the series and of course I’m coming in late but I had no problem reading as a standalone. It was a bit predictable which probably should not be unexpected at this point, but I really enjoyed it. The audiobook was well done and I enjoyed reading it this way. This is a fast paced read and I liked the twist on the procedural with the game warden instead of traditional police and would recommend this one.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio for the copies to review.

An enjoyable if predictable read. It reads like a movie and is as fast as one two. Even being thrown in an ongoing series I had little trouble keeping up.

This is my first book of this series but that turned out to be no problem. Overall, the book was entertaining even though it felt predictable. I found the story would be better suited for film rather than a novel. If you're looking for a quick, popcorn read then this would be for you.

Great twists in this book! Love the cover! Love how fast it all starts. This would make for a phenomenal movie!