Poacher's Son

Doiron examines the ties between fathers and sons and the tensions between contemporary Maine and its past in his outstanding debut thriller, featuring compelling characters, exceptional nature writing and an intricate plot. Doiron is editor-in-chief of Down East Magazine.

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 featuring Mike Bowditch.

Edgar- and Anthony-nominated author Paul Doiron is the editor-in-chief of Down East: The Magazine of Maine. A native of Maine, he attended Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in English, and he holds an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College.  Paul is a Registered Maine Guide and lives on a trout stream in coastal Maine with his wife, Kristen Lindquist.

“[Doiron’s] first novel comes with stunning vistas of the dense forests and wild rivers that have impressed visitors to Maine ever since Benedict Arnold passed through on his march to Quebec in 1775. . . . The novel’s eye-popping scenes, idyllic and otherwise, are conveyed by Doiron’s narrator, Mike Boditch.”—New York Times Book Review

 “With precise and evocative prose, Paul Doiron weaves a riveting tale set deep in the wilderness that can be the tenuous bond between father and son. This is a compelling, moving, and utterly impressive debut!”---Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog

“A gripping, original, and literate tale of love and loyalty, betrayal and redemption. You won’t want to put it down.”---John Lescroart, author of A Plague of Secrets

“The Poacher’s Son is one of the best-written debut novels I’ve read in years. This story has it all---a great plot, a wonderful Maine woods setting, and a truly remarkable and believable cast of characters.”---Nelson DeMille, author of The Gate House

“A fast-paced outdoor adventure filled with murder, betrayal, and a terrific sense of place. Welcome aboard, Mr. Doiron.”---C. J. Box, Edgar Award--winning author of Blue Heaven

“The Poacher’s Son is a haunting tale, and Paul Doiron is a powerful and evocative writer.”---Tess Gerritsen, author of The Keepsake

“Paul Doiron is a spellbinding new storyteller whose literate, intelligent novel will have readers begging for more.”---Julia Spencer-Fleming, Edgar finalist and author of I Shall Not Want

“Down East editor-in-chief Doiron takes a provocative look at the ties between fathers and sons, unconditional love, and Maine’s changing landscape in his outstanding debut. . . . Fans of C.J. Box and Nevada Barr will appreciate the vivid wilderness scenes. Equally a story of relationships and an outdoor adventure, this evocative thriller is sure to put Doiron on several 2010 must-read lists.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A Maine Game Warden [Mike Bowditch] fights to clear his no-account father of murder charges in this deeply felt actioner. . . . His decision leads to a series of disastrously self-destructive actions that Doiron makes perfectly credible, all interspersed with a series of flashbacks to Mike’s childhood that are both tender and chilling. C.J. Box goes East. Like Box, Doiron will have his hands full trying to top his accomplished debut.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

 

“A richly imagined portrait of the vanishing wilderness in New England’s farthest reaches, Doiron’s well-written debut is also a taut thriller and thoughtful examination of the complicated relationship between father and son.  Of a piece with Castle Freeman Jr.’s All That I Have about a Vermont sheriff, this will also appeal to fans of CJ Box’s Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett.”—Library Journal (starred review)

 

"With realistically flawed characters and a strong sense of place—both on the coast and in the woods—the novel avoids tourist stereotyping, of Maine itself and its citizens. As a game warden, Mike is devoted to upholding the law, and as a conflict appears to develop between that responsibility and his love for his estranged father, he finds himself with both his job and life on the line. One hopes this fine novel is the first in a series starring Warden Bowditch, who could quickly become the East Coast version of C. J. Box’s game-warden hero Joe Pickett, who patrols the range in Wyoming.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Impressive. . . .  The setting is wildly atmospheric, the pacing swift and the characters well drawn. The Poacher’s Son is easily one of the best debut novels in recent memory.”—BookPage

“[An]impressive debut . . . there are plenty of twists and surprises to keep the reader guessing until the very end.”—Romantic Times (four stars)

“I’ve never been to Maine, but now I feel like I have. Twigs were cracking underneath my feet as I settled in to read this one. Doiron creates great scenery to surround an impressive debut. Well done, sir.”—Library Journal “Book Cheer” column, editor's choice

“An outstanding gripping debut . . . Doiron skillfully melds an outdoor adventure with a personal story of families. The Poacher’s Son moves at a brisk pace with unpredictable but realistic twists that reach a crescendo at the shocking finale. The Poacher’s Son is proving to be one of the best debuts of the year. Doiron will likely be compared to C.J. Box and Nevada Barr.”—Sun Sentinel

“Paul Doiron's debut novel explores the strange territory between fathers and sons with this tale of a game warden who refuses to believe that his ne'er-do-well father is guilty of a double murder. Doiron also paints an all-too-familiar picture of corporations profiting from destroying a way of life - this time, in the wilds of Maine. It's an engaging story, with a flawed hero whose childhood issues overwhelm his good judgment over and over again.”—Charlotte Observer

“Debut novels often show weaknesses in characterization, in dialogue, in plotting. But Paul Doiron has written a seamless thriller in The Poacher's Son. . . . This is a debut novel that never takes a wrong turn.”—I Love a Mystery newsletter

“I’ve never been one for the outdoorsy sub-genre, although I certainly understand the attraction of CJ Box and his ilk. Yet somehow Paul Doiron’s debut novel The Poacher’s Son transcends its setting, lending a bleak austerity to its milieu while simultaneously infusing its main character with Steinbeckian humanity. . . . The author, who devoured Sherlock Holmes as a kid and Raymond Carver and Tim O’Brian as a younger man, has managed to craft a novel that lies somewhere between the two, a crime novel that encompasses the full range of human emotion.’”—Bookslut.com

“The Poacher's Son is stocked with excitement and trepidation . . . pure nail-biting fun. Paul Doiron expertly takes hundreds of miles of largely uninhabited terrain and pares them down to a veritable base camp providing readers with easy access to both the thrill of the story and the breathtaking beauty of Maine's northern exposure. Loaded with unexpected twists, The Poacher's Son takes you to the edge and leaves you begging for more. . .”—BookBrowse

“Doiron does an excellent job of establishing the setting and using its attributes in a way that leads to escalating suspense. The descriptive passages are beautifully rendered; I was often swept away by the power of his prose . . . the writing is very literate and smooth flowing. . . . As a crime fiction fan, it’s really a great bonus to come across a debut author who clearly has the writing chops to sustain a long career. Hopefully, this first book will establish Doiron as an author to watch.”—Deadly Pleasures

“Engaging . . . Doiron could do for Maine what the late Tony Hillerman did for the Southwest in his mysteries featuring Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee . . . the author takes readers into ‘the real Maine’ from their armchairs.”—Bangor Daily News

“Books like The Poacher’s Son are not to be read but cherished. The Poacher’s Son, Paul Doiron’s debut novel, is pure, unadulterated literary suspense. Beautifully crafted and perfectly paced . . . Doiron’s writing is exceptional . . . The Poacher’s Son is a great read with a fantastic ending.”—PopMatters

1
A black bear had gotten into a pigpen out on the Beechwood Road, and it had run off with a pig. There were bear tracks in the mud outside the broken fence and drag marks that led through the weeds into the second-growth timber behind the farm. The man who owned the pig stood behind me as I shined my flashlight on the empty pen. He had called me out of bed to drive over here, and his voice over the phone had been thin and breathless, as if he’d just run up a hill.
“Warden Bowditch,” he said, “I never seen nothing like it.”
His graying hair was wet from the rain that had just stopped falling. He wore an old undershirt stretched tight over his swollen belly and a pair of wash-faded jeans that hugged his hips and exposed an inch of white skin above the waistband. He carried a .22 caliber rifle over his shoulder, and he was holding a sixteen-ounce can of Miller High Life. His eyes were as red as a couple of smashed grapes.
It was a hot, humid night in early August. The thunderstorm that had just finished drenching midcoast Maine, five hours north of Boston, was moving quickly out to sea. A quarter moon kept appearing and disappearing behind raggedy, fast-moving clouds that trailed behind the storm like the tail of a kite. Crickets chirruped by the hundreds from the wet grass, and far off in the pines I heard a great horned owl.
The bear had clawed apart the plank fence as if it were a dollhouse, leaving a pile of splintered boards where the gate had been.
“Tell me what happened, Mr. Thompson,” I said, moving the beam of the flashlight over the puddled ground.
“Call me Bud.”
“What happened, Bud?”
“That bear just scooped him up like he was a rag doll.”
I shined the light against the farmhouse. It was a clapboard frame building with a broken-backed barn that looked about to collapse and a chicken coop and toolshed out back. Behind the house was a dense stand of second-growth birch and alder with pine woods beyond. The bear had only to cross thirty feet of open field to get to the pigpen.
“You said you saw the bear attack him?”
“Heard it first. I was inside watching the TV when Pork Chop started screaming. I mean squealing. But you know it sounded like screaming.” He slapped a mosquito on his neck. “Anyhow, I looked out the window, but it was raining, and I couldn’t see a damned thing on account of how dark it was. Then I heard wood snapping and Pork Chop screaming and I grabbed my gun and came running out here in the rain. That’s when I seen it.”
Now that I was close to him I could smell the heavy surge of beer on his breath. “Go on.”
“Well, it was a bear. A big one. I didn’t know there were bears that big around here. It was reaching over the fence with its paw, leaning on the fence, and the boards were just snapping under its weight. And poor Pork Chop was back in the corner, trying to get away, but it wasn’t any use. The bear just hooked him with its claws and pulled him in.”
“How come you didn’t shoot it?”
“That’s the thing of it. I did, but I must have forgot to load the gun.” He rubbed his hand across his wet eyes and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “It wouldn’t have really attacked me, would it?”
“I doubt it.” There are no recorded reports of fatal black bear attacks on humans in the state of Maine, but I’d read of fatalities in Ontario and Quebec, and it was probably only a matter of time until something happened here. “You were right not to provoke it, though. If you’d shot the bear with a .22 you probably wouldn’t have killed it, and there’s nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal.”
Except a drunk with a gun, said a voice in my head.
“I loved that pig.” He swung the rifle off his shoulder and held it up by the strap. “I wish I’d shot that son of a bitch.”
“You shouldn’t handle a firearm when you’ve been drinking, Bud.”
“He was the smartest pig I ever had!”
I raised my flashlight so the beam caught him in the eyes. “Do you live alone here?”
Whether it was the light or the question that sobered him I don’t know, but he blinked and ran his tongue along his cracked lower lip and looked at me with renewed attention.
“My wife’s moved out for a while,” he said. “But she’ll be back before too long.” His expression turned pleading. “You don’t need to talk to her, do you?”
“No. I just wondered if anyone else saw what happened.”
He scratched the mosquito bite on his neck. “I got an old dog inside. But he’s deaf and just about blind.”
“I meant another person. You said you hadn’t seen the bear around here before. Is that right?”
“I didn’t even know there were bears this near the coast. You don’t think it’ll come back here, do you?”
“Probably not, since you don’t have another pig. But I see you keep some hens.” I gestured with my flashlight toward the chicken coop, using the beam to draw his attention. “The bear might come back for the hens, although I doubt it will. Why don’t you go inside and put that gun away. I want to take a look in the woods.”
He glanced at the trees and shivered. “Be careful!”
I watched him shuffle away into the house, head hanging, beer in hand. No wonder his wife left him, I thought. Then I remembered my own empty bed back home and I stopped feeling so superior. Sarah had been gone exactly fifty-five days. Earlier, I’d gone to bed thinking that it would be fifty-six days when I woke up, but that was before Thompson called. So here it was fifty-five days again.
I got to work measuring the paw prints in the mud. They resembled the tracks a barefoot person might leave walking along a beach. Judging by the distance between the front and hind feet, I figured it was a medium-sized bear, two hundred pounds or so.
I followed the drag marks through the field, and the rainwater that clung to the weeds soaked through my pants legs. The trail disappeared into the low bushes—scrub birch and speckled alder and sumac—that grew along the edge of the forest. I directed my light into the wet mass of leaves, half-expecting to see the beam reflected back by the eye shine of the bear’s retinas.
Thompson’s description suggested a curious young bear expanding its diet from berries and beechnuts to the other white meat. Probably the animal was miles away by now, having gorged itself on Thompson’s beloved pig. Still, I found myself listening for anything to indicate the bear might be nearby. A mosquito whined in my ear. Ahead of me and all around, I heard trees dripping in the darkness. Switching the flashlight from my right hand to my left, I reached down to touch the grip of my sidearm. It was a heavy SIG SAUER P226 .357 Magnum that I had never fired except at a practice range.
I pushed my way into the forest. Beaded rainwater spilled off the leaves onto my shoulders and face. I was drenched in an instant.
After a few steps, I was through the green wall of bushes and saplings at the edge of the wood. Beneath the trees the air was still and heavy with the smell of growing things—as humid as a hothouse. I made an arc with the bull’s-eyed flashlight beam along the forest floor, looking for drag marks. But the soft carpet of moss and pine needles had absorbed all traces of the bear’s passing, and I saw no more blood drops. I wandered deeper into the woods, searching.
I found the pig a hundred yards in.
It lay on its side in a puddle of congealing blood. Its throat had been torn out, and its haunches had been chewed to a red pulp. The bear had not attempted to bury the carcass or cover it with leaves. It was possible it had heard me coming.
I switched off the flashlight and stood under the dripping trees, listening. I knew retired game wardens and ancient trappers who could hear the rustle a buck made passing through alders across a stream. Men who were so at one with the woods that they didn’t fully exist among other human beings but were only truly themselves outdoors. Maybe someday I’d be one of those old woodsmen. But for the moment I was still a twenty-four-year-old rookie, less than a year on the job, and my senses told me nothing about where the bear was.
I turned the flashlight back on. Then I went up to the house to tell poor Bud Thompson what I had found.
By the time I got home it was well past midnight. I’d left the light on outside the screen door and moths were swirling about, butting themselves stupidly against the glass.
As I stepped inside, I was surprised again by my empty house. Sarah had taken most of the furniture with her when she moved out. It always startled me, coming home, to see how little I actually owned. Stacks of books and newspapers, a steel gun cabinet, fallen antlers I had collected in the snow.
Moonlight shined in through the windows, bright enough to see by, so I left the lights off as I moved through the house, shedding my damp shirt and boots as I went. I unbuckled my gun belt and put it away, then wandered into the kitchen. Frosty light spilled out of the refrigerator when I swung the door open. I found a bottle of beer and pressed it against my forehead as I made my way out into the living room.
I cracked open the beer and toasted Bud Thompson and Mike Bowditch—two womenless men dousing our loneliness with alcohol. Except that unlike Thompson, I had chosen to be alone. An empty house was what I’d wanted all along, even if it had taken Sarah years to realize it.
She’d hung in there with me from Colby College, where we’d met, through the Maine Criminal Justice Academy and the Advanced Warden Academy and my long weeks of field training. She’d toughed it out, thinking it was a phase I was going through, that eventually I’d go to law school like we’d talked about and become a prosecutor and maybe someday a judge. But it wasn’t a phase, and it was only after I had gotten posted in coastal Knox County that she realized that being a game warden was a twenty-four-hour-a-day, seven-days-a-week way of life, and for reasons neither of us fully understood, I’d chosen it over her.
So she left.
And I missed her—and counted the days since she’d gone away. But I was relieved, too. Relieved that I no longer had to justify my emotions to anyone else. I could spend the night alone in the woods searching for a dead pig and be content in a way that made absolutely no sense to anyone who wasn’t a game warden. With Sarah gone, I could love this solitary and morbid profession without excuses and not have to look too deeply into the dark of myself.
That was when I noticed a small blinking light across the room.
It hadn’t occurred to me to check my answering machine. I’d been gone only an hour and a half, and most everyone I knew had my pager number if they needed to get a hold of me. My first thought was that it had something to do with the bear. Maybe someone else had seen it outside their house, or maybe it had gotten into another pigpen.
When I pushed play there was the raspy sound of breathing on the other end for a while before a man finally spoke: “Mike? Hello? Pick up if you’re there.” There was a long pause. Then, in the background, came a woman’s voice: “Is he there?” The man said: “No, goddamn it! He’s not home!” Followed by a disconnect.
I didn’t recognize the woman, but the other voice was deep and monotone, just like mine, and hearing it again after two years was enough to start my pulse racing. Why was my father calling after all this time? What could he possibly want from me now?
I stood still in the dark while the tape rewound.

Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Distributor: MPS
Publication Date: 05-11-2010
Pages: 336
Measurements: 9.500in X 6.400in X 1.125in