It's a phrase I can no longer read without thinking of Katniss Everdeen, but I'll take this great review from V. Paul Reynolds and the Lewiston Sun-Journal:
Doiron's tale has all of the ingredients of a tense thriller that kept my attention to the end. Doiron has something else going with his Mike Bowditch series besides good storytelling. He is a master, not only at his ability to portray the real Maine, but in developing characters that are evocative and fascinating in their human foibles and complex personal relationships.
How he manages so skillfully to take real Maine characters and events and weave them so seamlessly into the tapestry of his story is worthy of admiration. For example, the senseless, wanton mass killing of the moose is not a figment of Doiron's imagination; it happened, and to this day has never been solved. Word is that the Maine Warden Service suspects who committed this felony but has insufficient hard evidence to justify the issuance of summons.
Doiron's protagonist, Warden Mike Bowditch, is an endearing, courageous character with his share of personal problems and self-doubts. Personally, I can't wait to see what adventure awaits Warden Bowditch after Massacre Pond.
So far, with this book, the odds seem ever in my favor.