The Poacher's Son: A Novel

Written by Paul Doiron

Narrated by John Bedford Lloyd

Set in the wilds of Maine, this is an explosive tale of an estranged son thrust into the hunt for a murderous fugitive—his own father.

Game warden Mike Bowditch returns home one evening to find an alarming voice from the past on his answering machine: his father, Jack, a hard-drinking womanizer who makes his living poaching illegal game. An even more frightening call comes the next morning from the police: They are searching for the man who killed a beloved local cop the night before—and his father is their prime suspect. Jack has escaped from police custody, and only Mike believes that his tormented father might not be guilty.

Now, alienated from the woman he loves, shunned by colleagues who have no sympathy for the suspected cop killer, Mike must come to terms with his haunted past. He knows firsthand Jack's brutality, but is the man capable of murder? Desperate and alone, Mike strikes up an uneasy alliance with a retired warden pilot, and together the two men journey deep into the Maine wilderness in search of a runaway fugitive. There they meet a beautiful woman who claims to be Jack's mistress but who seems to be guarding a more dangerous secret.

The only way for Mike to save his father now is to find the real killer—which could mean putting everyone he loves in the line of fire.The Poacher's Son is a sterling debut of literary suspense. Taut and engrossing, it represents the first in a series by Paul Doiron featuring Mike Bowditch.

A Macmillan Audio production.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio
• Release date: May 11, 2010
• ISBN: 9781427208972

Paul Doiron

A native of Maine, bestselling author PAUL DOIRON attended Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in English. The Poacher’s Son, the first book in the Mike Bowditch series, won the Barry award, the Strand award for best first novel, and has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity awards in the same category. He is a Registered Maine Guide specializing in fly fishing and lives on a trout stream in coastal Maine with his wife, Kristen Lindquist.

Reviews for The Poacher's Son

[master275 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great first book from author Paul Doiron! Mike Bowditch, a Maine game warden, has his life torn apart when his estranged father is accused of murder. Mike puts his relationships and his job on the line to try and help clear his father - who has been on the run since escaping from the cops right after the murders took place.
This book was extremely well written and literally left you guessing to the very end! Very Good Read!!

[plunkinberry · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was only OK. Slow to develop and more drawn out than I'd have liked.Mike is a compelling character but I don't know if this was good enough to give the second book a try...

[jepeters333 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Game warden Mike Bowditch returns home one evening to find an alarming voice from the past on his answering machine: it belongs to his father, Jack, a hard-drinking womanizer who makes his living poaching illegal game. An even more frightening call comes the next morning from the police. They are searching for the man who killed a beloved local cop the night before - and his father is their prime suspect. Jack has escaped from police custody, and only Mike believes that his tormented father might not be guilty.

[dorie.craig · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was an okay book for the most part but had several flaws. The characterization was a bit weak. I felt I got to know Mike a little bit but most of what I knew didn't make sense. He made bad decisions for absolutely no reason. He gave up his marriage for a career as a game warden, then made the decision to throw his career away without any effort at all. Like I said, didnt' make sense to me. Initially I thought this was going to be a pretty good book about the often complicated relationship that exists between fathers and sons. And about a son proving himself to his father. That hope eventually dwindled. The ending left me flabergasted -- although it had suprise on its side, it wasn't necessarily a welcome one. I do think Doiron has talent, and hope to see better from him in the future.

[jbreedlove_6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great surprise. Well written, good characters but not over the top. He notes a darker Maine that is not often discussed. His descriptions of the Maine woods matched my experiences and memories evoking a longing to go back.If he would of killed off Stevens at the end he would have been entering darker JD MacDonald terrain but who's perfect. A good read for sure looking forward to th enext one.

[mainrun · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the book, but had some problems with it. The lead character was not reliable. What he thought was completely wrong. I get that type of story-telling, and maybe I just don't like it. The lead character didn't seem clever to me. He had a theory and wanted to prove it. He didn't think things through, and do things with a plan. He just ended up in the right place at the right time, though things got a little exciting for him. I guess his major thought was to be where the action is. Not because he knew what he was looking for. He just hoped he would recognize it when he saw it. That is how I would do things, but I want to read about people who are smarter than me.

[wearylibrarian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I saw a lot of my dad in Mike's father so maybe that is why I enjoyed the book. There were a few sections I skimmed through because it read as filler, not really needed to move the book along. It kept me guessing until the end, which shocked me.

[jenzbaker · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Warden Mike Bowditch gets involved with a cop killer and forestry baron's death, trying to clear his renegade poacher-dad's name. Great emotional integrity Mike/Dad, motives, anger. Good dialogue and timing. Clever, moving realistic. Goo d pacing, immediacy, Intricate plot, wilderness setting

[cathyskye · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Oh my. The further this story unfolds, the more flawed and quirky Mike Bowditch's character becomes. In many ways Mike puts me in mind of another game warden: Joe Pickett out Wyoming way in C.J. Box's series. There's one major difference between Mike and Joe, however. Mike's conflicted relationship with his parents has made him a bit passive aggressive. He's as stubborn as they come, but shows very little initiative in actually getting out there and finding clues. His investigation has no strategy and a wherever-the-wind-blows-me mentality. By book's end, I think a lot of that has been knocked out of him.And not just by the action. As much as I liked Mike Bowditch, it was the character of former warden Charley Stevens that really caught my eye. Charley's a bit of a legend in those parts. There's little he hasn't seen or done, and he knows when to be a bull in a china shop and when to use the charm of a snake oil salesman. He sees something in Mike and goes out of his way to help the young man. I'm looking forward to seeing how the relationship between these two men develops in future books. The third character in this book that caught my imagination was the Maine wilderness. It's a part of the world to which I've never been, but Doiron's descriptions of it remind me of many of my favorite wild places here in Arizona. Doiron has a lot to say about the wilderness and what's being done to it, and it defines Mike Bowditch's character in a way nothing else in the book can. I can only nod in heartfelt agreement when Mike says, "Nature will forgive humankind just about anything, and what it won't forgive I hope never to witness." I've come to love certain crime fiction writers for their love of wild spaces... Nevada Barr, Pamela Beason, Craig Johnson, C.J. Box. Now Paul Doiron joins this group. I'm looking forward to watching Mike Bowditch mature in those deep, beautiful Maine woods.

[labdaddy4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Unfortunately I started reading Doiron's books with his 5th novel in the Mike Bowditch series. I enjoyed this one as well. With this his first novel I learned valuable information in the back story of the primary character. Easy read - quick read - entertaining - and full of references and descriptions of nature - specifically the Maine woods. Now it is on to #2 !

[bookswoman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a new, to me, author and series. Mike Bowditch is a mid-20's man who is just starting to develop his career as a Game Warden in the northern part of Maine. When a cop and a big land owner are killed, Mike's father is the prime suspect. Mike is convinced that his father is innocent and sets out to help him. In the process he puts his career and his life on the line.There was a bit more violence in the book than most I read, but it was gratuitous so I didn't stop reading. The character of Mike is young but determined and very much feels the emotions of a lot of children of divorced parents. I enjoyed the book and will be reading more in this series.

[lewilliams-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an outstanding debut novel set in the Maine woods. Mike Bowditch is a Maine game warden. His dad is a a poacher and the key suspect in a double murder. Mike's. temper gets him suspended but he can not keep out of the investigation.. I will be reading the next book in this series.

[pmaurer_11 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

New author that I really enjoyed. Story well plotted with a plot line that flows well, without extraneous distractions. The son is a Maine Park ranger, new to the job, that is by nature a solitary individual. He is drawn into working with other police officers in an attempt to protect his bar-brawling father. Son and father seldom connect with each other, but when the father is wanted for a murder, the son feels compelled to try to capture him first. The father is a woodsman, and easily escapes his pursuers. I will be reading more of this author.

[she_climber · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted to like this book about a game warden in northern Maine. I love CJ Box's books about a fish and game warden in Wyoming, Joe Pickett, but I've read them all and thought this would be a new source to fill that void. Unfortunately, Doiron's main character, Mike Bowditch, just falls flat. There's nothing about his personality that I could really attach too. Same for the other players in the story, save Charlie and Ora. Bowditch finds out that his father is accused of killing two men and is a fugitive in the wilds of Maine. His alcoholic and violent father, Jack, has lived his entire life as a hunting and fishing guide and trapper (and poacher) in these woods. However, the book never really gets into the woods. There is a lot of time driving and flying from one far off location to another but we never really get to experience the wilderness. The younger Bowditch hasn't even spoken to his father in over 2 years, and very intermittently before that, but he can't believe his father killed two men, which includes a police officer. Mike never tells the investigators that about how little contact he's had with father when they keep insisting that he help find him. Which never made any sense to me. Instead he whines that they don't believe that he's not helping his father. Mike Bowditch isn't even really investigating the truth himself but rather is more like the little brother that mom says you have to take with you when you go play with your friends. He's just tagging along and wants to be like the bigger boys but just is annoying instead. I'm undecided if I'll give the next in the series a try and see if it gets better. Somehow there's at least 7 books in this series at this point so somebody likes it.

[ssperson_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really liked this mystery. The main character is a game warden, which, I have to admit, is a profession I know next to nothing about. The author does a good job near the beginning of the book to explain, within the narrative, what a game warden is and isn't.

The main character is kind of an asshole, but he's also a 24-ish-year-old man, so that sort of comes with the territory. ;) He was endearing enough for me to want to read more of this series, though.

The narrator of this audiobook was pretty good, but he didn't do the women's voices very well. I know that seems like a strange criticism -- why would a man be good at doing women's voices? -- but I've listened to a lot of audiobooks with male narrators who did female voices much better.

[dara85 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mike Bowditch gets a strange phone call from his father on his answering machine. Mike has not spoken to his father in over two years. Mike who is a game warden, learns from his supervisor that a policeman was shot and they have arrested his father. While being taken in to custody, his father escaped and now there is a manhunt. If you find this book enjoyable you might also like books by C.J. Box.

[whybehave2002 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have read this series completely out of sequence and am proof that you can thoroughly love it book by book. :) I've been looking for this book for a while but it was always out of stock. That's a good sign. I started reading whatever book in the series that I could find available. :)

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is the first in a series about Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch. I saw a reference to the latest book in the series on some internet site and thought it sounded interesting but since I don’t like to read mystery series out of order I thought I would check out the first book. Now that I have done so I have another series to add to the growing list that I feel I should read.Mike Bowditch has recently become a game warden for the State of Maine. He grew up in Maine as the son of an alcoholic who worked at various occupations in the north woods but, as the title implies, also poached game. Bowditch senior always said he poached in order to put food on the table. When Mike was nine years old his mother left his father and moved to the city. She remarried and lived in a nice home for the first time. Mike, however, always hankered for the north woods of his youth. He decided to become a game warden in order to spend time there. His girlfriend, Sarah, thought he would soon grow tired of the poor pay and long hours and go to law school but Mike knew he had found the career he wanted. Sarah and he had separated shortly before the story starts because of this dichotomy between their aspirations. When Mike learns that his father is a suspect in a double murder he refuses to believe it. His father is on the run and Mike hopes that he can help clear his name and bring him in before somebody shoots him. Told by his superiors to back off from the investigation he does so initially but he makes some bad decisions in his job and is told to take some holidays. Soon, however, he is back involved with the investigation when his father’s girlfriend asks to speak with him. He is given a lift by airplane up to the town where the girlfriend is being held as a material witness by a retired game warden named Charley Stevens. Charley also has doubts about his father’s guilt and wants to clear things up. Charley and Mike like each other and Mike really respects Charley. Without Charley’s help this book might have had quite a different ending. No spoilers but I will say that Charley is a better father figure than Mike’s real father.Although Doiron isn’t a game warden he obviously researched the life well. He also has a reverence for nature that shows in his writing. I’ll be interested to see where this series goes.

[wbwilburn5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Really enjoy his writings on Maine and its characters.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This debut mystery novel by Paul Doiron, The Poacher’s Son is both well written and absorbing. The story is of a rookie game warden who has to come to terms with his feelings for his father, while at the same time, trying to clear his father from the suspicion of murder.Mike Bowditch is a rookie game warden in the northern woods of Maine, and strongly identifies with the vanishing wilderness both due to his love of nature and the strong ties his father has with the backwoods country. He and his father have a complicated relationship, and Mike has spent his life trying to gain the respect and approval of a man that just doesn’t seem that interested in bonding with his son.When he learns of a double murder and that his father is the number one suspect, Mike is torn between his law officer status and his conviction in his father’s innocence. Having to make some difficult decisions, Mike follows his belief and ends up alienating his colleagues. Although he knows all too well that his father, a hard-drinker and womanizer who makes his living poaching illegal game, has his demons, he strongly believes in his innocence.I found this to be a page turning mystery and particularly enjoyed the Maine north woods setting. A very good debut that is a combination mystery, outdoor adventure and a story of relationships.

[eenerd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good mystery set in north-western Maine up around the Forks, where a Maine Warden fights to absolve his no-good father of a series of murders surrounding a north woods development scheme--or so everyone thinks. Good action, interesting characters, and you won't figure it out 'till the end.

[mahallett · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

the mystery was quite stupid but the story was ok. the reader was good

[ccayne_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I can't believe no one else has in this in their library. I was looking for a good mystery/suspense novel and checked out the recent Edgar nominees and winners and this came up. I loved it - read it in a night and afternoon. It's very regional, the woods of Maine and very masculine - game wardens and what I would call swamp Yankees - people who live on the edge in rural New England. Mike Bowditch was reared by such a man until he and his mother left when he was nine. Mike became a game warden and a strange message left on his answering machine brings him back in contact with his father's life. This is a real page turner with great characters and great atmosphere. I hope her writes more.

[blockbuster1994 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Game Warden Mike Bowditch investigates a double homicide featuring his father as the prime suspect. This gets Mike into all kinds of sticky situations with his job and his personal life, as well as placing Mike's life in mortal danger. Along the way, Mike grabbles with unresolved father-son issues-- his father being legendarily outlaw that frequently favored drinking and women over Mike himself-- a theme that repeats itself throughout the novel. Paul Doiron writes an entertaining adventure novel about the Maine wilderness. His style is straightforward, reflecting a respect for nature that I admire. He also explores the childlike desire that haunts us as adults to continue to seek parental validation througout our lifetime. I look forward to the next Doiron novel.

[liisa22 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had the privilege to have the opportunity to read "The Poacher's Son" by Paul Doiron as a part of BN's First Look club. I was not sure what to expect, except that it was a mystery. I enjoy mystery's and this one did NOT fail me!! I was a great read and read it all in one day! I thought that "The Poacher's Son" fascinating. The characters and the plot were well developed. The plot had many twists and turns. The setting of camp in the woods of Maine was quite accurate!. A fun week-end read!

[ladybug74 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book alternated between being very interesting at times to being dull at times. Just when I decided to put it down and stop wasting my time, it would get interesting for a while.

[rmacaya_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The reason why I chose this book was that I wanted to know what would happen to the Game wardens father. So far the book has been interesting. I read through the first chapter and I couldn't put it down after that. Each chapter connects so you can't put it down..

[pharrm_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"...takes place in the wilds of Maine and recommended to readers of Barr and Box as well. It’s also an inverted father-and-son story in ways I won’t reveal. Game Warden Mike Bowditch is its center, a man marred by his warring parents. His father eventually disappeared. One evening Mike returns home to find a cryptic message on his machine from Jack and the next morning the cops phone to say a beloved local officer has been killed and Jack is their man. With Jack now on the run, Mike moves to clear him…."

[samsattler · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a review of the 7-CD audio book version of "The Poacher's Son," as read by John Bedford Lloyd. Maine game warden Mike Bowditch is not in a happy place. He believes that his girlfriend of four years left him because he refuses to resign his game warden position. Now that she is gone, all Mike has left are the solitary hours he spends watching for poachers and helping injured animals in his section of the Maine woods. Mike made his choice and is willing to live with it. Things are bad now - but they will get much worse when he discovers a phone message from his hard drinking poacher father, the man who deserted Mike and his mother when Mike was just a boy. A phone call to his son is so out of character for Jack Bowditch that his son senses that something is terribly wrong. But even knowing what a disaster his father's life had turned into, Mike Bowditch cannot imagine that he will soon be the only thing standing between his father and the lawmen who accuse him of assassinating a policeman and a paper company executive. Mike refuses to believe that his father is capable of murder and his biggest fear is that, before he can safely surrender, his father will be gunned down by the lawmen searching Maine and southern Canada for him. "The Poacher's Son" explores the strengths and weaknesses of the father-son relationship, a bond that is often strong enough to blind a son to his father's weaknesses and worse. Mike Bowditch convinces himself that, despite everything he knows about his father's despicable behavior and his drinking problems, the man would never do what he is accused of having done. He so much wants to bring his father safely into custody that he is willing to put his own job on the line by interfering in the manhunt despite direct orders from his lieutenant to stay clear of the whole thing. But is his father as innocent as Mike believes him to be? Or, as the authorities believe, is he a killer willing to use his son to cover his tracks until he can escape his pursuers? The isolated woods of Maine make an excellent setting for Paul Doiron's story and he gives the reader a good feel for what life in that part of the country must be like. As Doiron describes it, the locale is a mixture of awesome beauty and isolation, a place the locals fear will be spoiled by the outsiders seeking to exploit its resources for their own purposes. Those woods provide Jack Bowditch with the cover he needs to stay on the run and the isolation they create makes possible many of the twists in Doiron's plot. Mike Bowditch is a young man, a likeable enough hero who knows his way around the Maine wilderness but is still a little too naïve and inexperienced for his own good. His temper, combined with his inability to control his mouth when he is angry, sees him consistently making things rougher for himself than they have to be. Some of the book's other characters tend to err on the stereotypical side of the scale, however. This is the case with Truman (the drunken Indian), the retired game warden (and his devoted wife) who takes Mike under his wing when every other lawman within 500 miles would prefer to chew his head off, and B.J., the brash young woman/slut who grew up in an isolated fishing camp known as Rum Pond. Perhaps these characters seem stereotypical because of the stoic way that John Bedford Lloyd reads the author's characterizations. For most of the book, Lloyd uses the same steady monotone to present the book, only occasionally changing his voice or inflection to add a little life to one of the characters. Unfortunately, it is only toward the end of the book that Lloyd seems to gain any enthusiasm about the story he is telling, when he does a nice job on the book's climax. Despite my misgivings about "The Poacher's Son," Paul Doiron has made me curious enough to wonder how the Mike Bowditch character will evolve over time. I will very likely look at the next book in the series to see how he's doing. Rated at: 3.0

[kylenapoli · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This mystery began with so much promise by offering a new environment (Maine's backwoods) and a new angle on law enforcement (game warden) but did not at all live up to the praise that put it on my wishlist. In particular, the characters are so lightly built that motives for their actions remain opaque even when explanations are written out right on the page.