WhoDunnits: “The Poacher’s Son”

This month, WhoDunnits will be reading The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron.

*Note the different meeting day this month due to the Fourth of July!!*

Doiron’s debut crime novel is set on the coast and in the North Woods of Maine, the home of rookie game warden Mike Bowditch. As tensions rise across the state with the impending sale of huge tracts of paper-company forest land to an out-of-state developer, Mike receives a strange message from his father, left on the same night the paper company rep and a state trooper are shot and killed after a heated town meeting. Doiron, editor-in-chief of Down State magazine, is well acquainted with the current political and cultural tensions that crisscross Maine, and his local knowledge drives this fast-paced and twisty narrative. 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.

WhoDunnits is a discussion group devoted to mysteries of all kinds and meets the first Tuesday of every month.