I recently spoke with Tom Atwell, of the Maine Sunday Telegram, about some of the real-life inspirations for Massacre Pond.
As I mention in my Author's Note at the end of the book, the story was based on two unrelated incidents that had been obsessing me for years. The first was the technically unsolved massacre of nine moose, two deer, and an eagle in Soldiertown Township in 1999. The second was the proposal by environmental groups to create a North Woods National Park that would extend from Millinocket west to the Canadian border. The idea, first advanced by RESTORE: The North Woods and then given currency by the philanthropist Roxanne Quimby, seemed moribund last year as I was finishing the novel, but has recently shown signs of new life.
I had no intention of writing a "ripped from the headlines" sort of story. But as I told the Telegram, I can't say I didn't draw heavily from these two events. You can read Massacre Pond without knowing anything about the real incidents (I hope), but if you enjoy knowing the alchemical process a novelist uses to transform fact into fiction, you might find this Q&A interesting.