Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for the copy of Pitch Dark, the newest entry in the Mike Bowditch series. It took me a little while to get interested in the story, but once it got going it was action-packed, even if the story itself wasn’t very compelling. I noticed in the last book how Mike was an implausible ‘hero’ because he knew everything and could do everything, even things he admits he wasn’t taught. I think now he and Stacey are married and possibly expecting a baby she will be even more of a minor character, which is fine if you love the Reacher kind of main character but not fine if you think women, even wives, can be equal partners or even sometimes have the expertise to take the lead. That being said, this could be a popular movie or even a series based on the success of Reacher.

Pitch Dark is the first book I have read by Paul Doiron and, honestly, will probably be the last. Don't get me wrong. The book is excellent. It's full of twists and turns and the unexpected. The description of the beautiful main countryside as well as Canada had me longing to travel north. Characters were so well written that I could actually see them. My only concern was the violence. There was never a moment where I could just relax and read without waiting for something to happen. I felt like I was holding my breath through most of the book. And it was a book that was difficult to put down because there was no stopping point. I had to keep reading to see what was going to happen next. Sometimes I enjoy books like this but this one was way too intense for my personal taste. But if that type of writing is what you love, then I could definitely recommend Pitch Dark. I voluntarily received a copy of this book from netgalley.

Pitch Dark is a suspenseful thrill ride through the Northwoods of Maine and Canada! Game Warden Mike Bowditch embarks on a search for a missing man who has disappeared while hunting for a reclusive builder and his young daughter, who is rarely seen and does not attend school. Mike discovers his friend and bush pilot Josie, has contracted the builder to construct a home for her, and she introduces Mike and his father-in-law to the builder and his 12-year-old daughter. But all is not as it seems, and the investigation into the builder and the still missing man takes a dangerous and deadly turn. Paul Doiron has written a fast paced, exciting chase through the Northwoods of Maine, full of surprising plot twists, hidden identities, long buried secrets, and murder. It is an edge of your seat thriller, that is complex, sometimes dark, with fascinating characters that gripped me from beginning to end. It is the first book I have read in this series, but it will not be the last! I thoroughly enjoyed the book!

This is my first Mike Bowditch Mystery. I was truly surprised by how much I liked this book and the fact that I never have read any of Paul Doiron’s books in the series. In this installment, Mike, now a seasoned 10-year veteran Game Warden in Maine, learns about a man who has disappeared in the area while offering huge sums of money to locate another individual. Being a game warden and a detective he is suspicious about all this and out he goes to investigate. Full or many moral issues, twists and turns- what seems obvious is not so. On my kindle it said 6 hrs. to read, I think it did take me that long to read but it seemed to fly. This series is a keeper, but my only criticism there a few too many coincidences need to bring the caper to a conclusion.
Thanks to net galley and St. Martin’s for providing this.

Pitch Dark is a fast pace, full of action and twists and turns that had me racing to the final page.

Mike Bowditch is someone you would want on your side as he stops at nothing and I mean nothing to get justice.

He just breaks a few rules along the way . Thankfully.

We are once again in the Main Wilderness and Mike is determined to catch up with Mark Redmond and his daughter after a friend is murdered.

Father and daughter are not who they appear to be and Mike is out to protect the young girl.

An exciting and dangerous chase through the woods and stormy weather has you sitting on the edge of your seat.

Pitch Dark might be Book 15 but its my favourite to date: until Book 16.

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press, Minotaur Books for another exciting installment in the series.

I generally like Mike Bowditch books but this one didn't grab me. Without spoiling anything, I really don't think that a rational Mike Bowditch would pursue the bad guy all alone as he does. I believe that law enforcement agencies in Canada and the US would capture the fugitive despite the buddies who are shielding him. I also don't believe that the bad guy would do what he does.

If you can put these caveats aside, it's a very exciting story with a twist at the end.

had never heard of Paul Doiron or his Mike Bowditch series, which is set in the North Woods of Maine. So, when I started book number 15, I wasn’t sure what I was in for. No worries! I did just fine - more than fine - reading Pitch Dark as a standalone.

When game warden investigator Mike Bowditch goes searching for a missing man named Pratt who’s been asking about a stranger and his little girl, he is ambivalent about becoming involved. This stranger might be lost or even dead, but Mike wonders about him, and he’s also curious about the father and his young daughter. He takes his father-in-law Charley Stevens along. Flying is the only way to search because recent rains have washed out roads and felled trees, making travel by road impossible. Charley knows just how to approach the helicopter pilot, Josie Jonson, without ruffling her feathers. Josie lives alone in a home built by the man, Mark Redmond, whose only compensation is that she does not post any photos or advertise his work. He homeschools his daughter Cady and likes his privacy. When Mike and Charley meet Redmond and Cady, they are polite, but something seems off. Cady is “different.” Is she autistic? Mike needs some answers about why Hammond Pratt is searching for them, and as he questions Redmond over coffee, he begins to feel “strange.”

The warden awakens some time later. This begins a whole new saga that will lead him on a treacherous hunt in pursuit of a dangerous fugitive. Doiron describes the quest in vivid detail; I could picture the scenes in my mind’s eye and feel the cold, the dark, and the dampness. There is gun violence and a small amount of foul language. The author writes with keen detail and with great urgency. Mike is an experienced officer, but does he have all the facts?

As he makes his way in the dark, rainy night, Mike thinks about his wife. She thinks she may be pregnant. His own father was a poor role model; he is not sure how he feels about being a father. Stacey is waiting to do the test until he returns.

As the pieces come together, I realized that there were clues that were missed. There is resolution to this chronicle, albeit not necessarily a happy one. Under the circumstances, it is the best one can hope for. As for the pregnancy test, what will that show?

If you’re someone who likes a good mystery and rugged adventure, try Pitch Dark. It’s quite a ride!

I received a digital copy of Pitch Dark in exchange for my honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own. Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books, and Paul Doiron.

4 stars

Thank you to @stmartinspress @minotaur_books and @Netgalley for this e-arc. All thoughts are my own.


Game Warden Mike Bowditch must chase down a cunning and dangerous fugitive in the North Maine Woods.

For investigator Bowditch, there seems to be a bunch of unusual activity in the area. He and his father-in-law fly into a secluded pond to find answers. But it isn’t long before things take a dark turn and they witness a horrific murder and are taken captive.

Mike is able to free himself but has no weapons as he takes off towards Canada in search of the fugitive. Will he be able to play and win this dangerous game of cat and mouse?


I had no idea going into this book that it was number 15 in the series! Wow. I do think that it can be read as a stand-alone, however, I wish that I would have started the series sooner just so I could spend more time with them. I really enjoyed getting to know all the characters, and even jumping in, I felt that I had known them a long time. I checked a few times to see if I had read more of these books because they all felt familiar, and it was a good feeling. This book was a great mix of characters and atmospheric reads. I absolutely loved the setting. I could feel myself being transported to the woods and remote setting with the characters. The pacing was great. It moved along at a nice pace, and while it wasn’t lighting fast, it did go at a nice clip to where I didn’t want to put it down because I just had to know what was happening next.

I think an extra layer of fun for me was that the main character was a game warden and that isn’t a career that I know much about, so it was interesting to get to know more.

The author said on the goodreads page that he had a lot of fun writing this book, and I think that it really shined through in the pages. There was a lot of emotion that came through and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Pitch Dark by Paul Doiron

304 Pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books
Release Date: June 25, 2024

Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Troubled Children

Mike Bowditch is a game warden with the Maine Warden Service. When rookie, Brandon Barstow, calls him to report a possible missing person. The missing man, Ammon Pratt, was looking for Mark Redmond, a cabin builder.

Mike contacts his father-in-law, retired chief pilot warden, Chuck Stevens. Together they go to see Josie, a bush pilot. They ask her to take them to the remote cabin she is having built in the Canadian border. Josie tells them about Mark and his eleven-year-old daughter, Cady. They live off the grid and have little interaction with people. This makes Mike uneasy and makes him hurry to find them.

The book is fast paced, the characters are somewhat developed, and it is written in the first-person point of view. The book takes place over the course of a couple of days. There is a lot of action and adventure during the search. If you like action packed mysteries, you may enjoy reading this book.

This book was good.

This is my second book by Doiron and the second Mike Bowditch book for me. The vibe is very neo-western in these mysteries. There is a ton of action, some lovely setting-building of Maine-Canadian borderlands, and complex character building.

The plotting is solid and there were a few twists and surprises. The second half of the book was completely action packed and the pacing was super fast.

I enjoyed this book; I would read him again.

It was a dark, stormy, dangerous night!

A missing person search leads Mike Bowditch and his father-in-law to fly-in-cabin in the woods near the Canadian border. Mike will have to use every last ounce of his game warden skills to capture a fugitive and rescue a young girl during a massive storm. Heavy winds and flooding have blocked roads making travel dangerous with falling trees. But even more dangerous may be the man he is pursuing. Can he catch him in time? Can he save the young girl? Will this pursuit lose him his job or his life?

As always, Paul Doiron is a deft hand at ratcheting up the tension! The camaraderie between Mike and Charley Stevens is ever-present. This time Mike is mainly on his own in his pursuit. His dogged persistence and mule-headed determination may be the death of him yet. As usual, Mike’s methods may land him in hot water with the brass, on both sides of the border!

Fast-paced action and a killer read! A very entertaining addition to the Mike Bowditch series! Highly recommend.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for access to a digital ARC on NetGalley.

Mike Bowditch returns in Pitch Dark which aptly describes the conditions in the North Maine woods where most of the action takes place. There is a lot of action. Actually, there's an awful lot of action which even extends into Canada. Doiron entertains us with another gripping adventure. While I personally liked Dead Man's Wake better, this is still a good addition to the series. The supporting cast of characters is strong. There is a worthy adversary for Bowditch and a bounty hunter who, to be frank, was my favorite character in the book. My only issue with Pitch Dark is the fact there are several moments where Bowditch is not very likable. "What a jerk," I thought more than once. It wasn't quite to the point where I was cheering for the bad guy, but it was close. Still, that didn't keep me from enjoying the book. Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for the advance reading copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a very suspenseful book, with lots of action. The main character was likeable and interesting. The little girl was a mystery. I keep thinking about her. Very sad about those that died. I would recommend this book to anybody, especially those interested in the Maine woods, and close to the border.

Mike responds to a call to find a missing tourist. The routine call unleashes a game of cat and mouse as he refuses to give up on doing the right thing.

Another heart pounding story.

I have listened to every Mike Bowditch book in the series by Paul Doiron on Audible. I absolutely love them. The narrator is fantastic and I can envision every scene, character, and aspect of the books. This is my first "physical read" of the series. The one book I decide to read was actually very different from his past works. It focused on more of a survivalist's type theme rather than the dramatics and relationships of the usual characters - Mike, Charley, Kathy..... which I really enjoy. Unfortunately, it wasn't one of my favorites. I didn't hate it...but I'm not sure if it's the content or I just prefer the audio version - or both.

Always good writing, wonderful characters, just not my favorite one in the series. A solid 3 stars. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC!

Game warden heroes in wilderness settings have become increasingly popular in the mystery genre. Pitch Dark is the first book I've read in the long-running Mike Bowditch series by Paul Doiron, but the novel works as a standalone. This reviewer was able to connect with game warden Bowditch inside the Maine wilderness in the first few pages. The plot is straightforward and remains in Bowditch's POV, which I especially liked.

This game warden is tough, though he can be as easygoing or hardnosed as the situation warrants. In Pitch Dark we see the gentle love and respect he has for his family, followed by his furious determination to capture a murderer. Despite overwhelming odds, Bowditch moves through the wilderness alone and unrelenting in his quest to stop a criminal. The story tension ratchets higher with each mile Bowditch covers in the rain, the cold, and the muck to track the killer.

Pitch Dark is a crime novel with lots of action and adventure and enough twists and turns to keep readers engaged from the first chapter to the last. The characters are as unique as the setting, the suspense never lags, and the story is brought to a satisfying conclusion.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St Martins Press for providing an advance copy of this book to read and review. This review will post to Bayside Book Reviews at https://baysidebookreviews.com and its Instagram page on release day. Follow us! *NetGalley Top Reviewer*

The latest installment in the Mike Bowditch, game warden of Maine, series is called Pitch Dark. I have read all of the Bowditch series. I can't really tell you why as outside of Doiron and Donna Leon I have almost completely given up on the crime/police procedural books. It is a broken genre with a sharply limited literally style and content This 15th installment in the Doiron/Bowditch series is no exception. The book has absolutely nothing to do with game wardens or "game" and is a slugfest and kill fest where the acts and deeds of the protagonist and his many antagonists are unbelievable and seem to be completely out of this world. in truth, a real person would have died by Bowditch's third episode. In this book we have bad guys turning into good guys and good girls becoming very bad girls. One of the bad/good guys is apparently 7 inches taller than Bowditch who is 6 feet 2 inches tall. Making the other guy 6 foot 9 inches. I can hardly imagine that. But that is nothing in comparison to the same guy bulling his way through lakes and unspecified wilderness while being gut shot. We do learn some interesting things about the American/Canadian border, but for all the talk of geography there is little lively description of the landscape. The landscape, like all the characters in the story, are barely etched. Everything is in the propulsion to the end. The book was absurd. And, I'll probably read volume 16 and onwards. PS; one great thing about the book is Doiron has dropped the mawkish sensitivity that permeated previous books. The reason: instead of pining for the girl he should/shouldn't have, he has finally married her.

This is a story of a manhunt by a Game Warden in the North Woods of Maine, near the Canadian border. The woods themselves are dark and sinister, with dripping wet downed trees, described as “widow makers”, blocking Mike Bowditch’s trail to locate a man and his daughter. The pacing is fast, with Mike shoving off the effects of being drugged and lack of sleep to follow the fugitives, even if he has to cross jurisdictional lines into Canada. Mike’s wolfdog made an appearance in the story, as did his father-in-law Charley, which was a nice link to Mike’s backstory. Plenty of twists and turns make this an exciting read.

About a year ago, I came across a Paul Doiron book involving Maine Game Warden Mick Bowditch, <cite>Dead Man's Wake</cite>, and rather enjoyed it. I have a particular attachment to Maine because I have been vacationing on the shores of one or another of Maine's lakes for more than two decades now. So, I enjoy reading Doiron's books on the adventures of Mike Bowditch to get in shape, so to speak, for my next year's vacation. This current book came up on my radar and I couldn't refuse it. It's the latest in a series that covers almost twenty books now. Technically, it's the 15th book of the series, but there appear to be some in-between books that have come out.

Anyway, Mike has recently married Stacey Stevens, the daughter of his friend and mentor, Charlie Stevens. Stacey thinks she might be pregnant, so is contemplating taking a test to find out for sure. They decide to put things off for a day, so of course something comes up and Mike is away and in grave danger for the next several days.

The initial problem appears to be that someone, apparently named Hammond Pratt (actually, it's Ammon Pratt, but someone appears to have "mature" hearing and, like yours truly, doesn't always hear things clearly). Anyway, Pratt had been asking around about a guy named Mark Redmond. Pratt disappeared, but Redmond was found to be out in the wilderness building a custom cabin for a woman named Josie Jonson, who was a helicopter pilot who worked with Maine Wardens, and thus well known to Mike's friend and mentor, Charlie Stevens. Mark was living pretty much off the grid with his 12-year-old daughter, Cady. This got Mike a bit suspicious. Also, he worried a bit about child abuse, because Cady didn't seem to be getting much schooling or socialization with others. In addition, Cady showed signs of self harm, e.g. scarred wrists.

I won't go on much longer, but it turns out that Redmond and Cady are actually named Paul and Chloé Renaud, and they are on the lam from some shenanigans in Canada. As Mike tracks them, they head back to Canada, and naturally, Mike gets into some trouble because of his going off to Canada after them without first clearing things with the proper authorities. As readers of this series will know, Mike tends to cut a few "official corners" now and again, and seems always to find ways to get himself in trouble with the authorities.

Anyway, it's a well-written, gripping story, and well worth one's time. So far, I've read ten of Doiron's books about the adventures of Mike Bowditch, and have yet to find a single one that wasn't a treat to read.

#PitchDark #NetGalley

Game Warden Mike Bowditch becomes concerned when he hears that a stranger is asking the whereabouts of a man and his daughter. He and his father-in-law request the assistance of bush pilot, Josie Johnson to fly him to the sight where the father and daughter are staying as he builds Josie’s dream cabin. When they arrive things are very troubling and suspicious. After all three ate drugged and tied to trees, Bowditch makes his escape but only after Josie dies. Thus begins Bowditch’s pursuit of father and daughter. It is a harrowing pursuit and has dangers and surprises along the way. I enjoyed and recommend this book.