Jack Batten, reviewing The Bone Orchard for the Toronto Star, has written one of the more perceptive takes I've seen on the character of Mike Bowdich:
Bowditch is frequently in an irascible mood, a quality that perversely makes him a more attractive character. “I am a malcontent by nature,” he says early in The Bone Orchard. And then he proceeds to prove it.
His anger, it’s apparent, isn’t of the free-form variety. Bowditch’s rage has a specific focus. What he can’t abide is the dismantling of Maine’s rustic beauty, a process that goes on in full public view. It’s the lumber companies, the careless hunters and other depredators of the environment that get Bowditch so colossally and colourfully steamed.
But the major value of Doiron’s novels still lies in their renditions of Maine’s distinctive society, and in that department, The Bone Orchard doesn’t fail its readers.
Batten also gets an aspect of my novels that don't get as much coverage as I hope: "Doiron’s Bowditch novels, now up to [five], function as Maine chronicles, the sort of accounts that make social history seem the most appealing possible subject."
It's a short review, but a goodie.
