"A Suspenseful Mystery Ride in the Maine Woods"

There has been a lot of talk and cross-talk about how the web is changing the publishing business, but one place where it has already had a profound impact is in the area of book reviews. It used to be that authors were dependent on a handful of print outlets to review their novels (and as newspapers began gutting their book sections, these outlets became fewer and fewer). But the emergence of book blogs like Kevin Tipple's excellent Kevin's Corner has filled a much-needed hole.

Here's his take on Massacre Pond:

 

Award winning author Paul Doiron once again takes readers on a suspenseful mystery ride in the Maine woods. As he did from the very beginning with The Poacher's Son (reviewed here) he combines a powerful mystery with the actions and duties of the men and women whose job it is to protect nature in all its forms from the misuse and abuse of mankind. Much like what C. J. Box has done for Wyoming; Paul Doiron has done for Maine through four very good books to date.
At its core Massacre Pond is an intense mystery that has human as well as animal victims. The massacre of the moose is just the first point of a complex case that will result in a number of deaths and complications as other events come to light. Human frailty is a major point in the book through primary and secondary storylines, as is economics, politics, and access to power thanks to money and social standing. These Maine woods may be lovely, dark, and deep, but they also are full of danger in many different ways.

 

Honestly, I haven't receieved many print reviews that are as well-written or as insightful.

 

The New York Times Raves About Massacre Pond

The August 4 New York Times Book Review is online, and it features a rave review by crime fiction columnist Marilyn Stasio about Massacre Pond:

Nobody knows the woods of Maine like the rugged individuals who eke out a living by hunting, fishing and cutting timber. And nobody knows the region’s inhabitants like Mike Bowditch, the young game warden in Paul Doiron’s manly mysteries set in this “desolate outland where game wardens were hated and oxycodone abuse was epidemic.”MASSACRE POND (Minotaur, $24.99) presents Bowditch with “the worst wildlife crime in Maine history” when 10 moose are slaughtered on the property of a philanthropist who intends to turn her 100,000 acres of prime land into a national park. The locals making a living from this ancient forest are no picturesque yokels: along with the serious woodsmen there are poachers, gun-traffickers and even the occasional pedophile — none of them inclined to yield their ground gracefully. Doiron makes shrewd use of the moose murders to address a larger issue: the standoff between avid environmentalists and the residents of an economically depressed region faced with losing their livelihood.

When you set out to become a novelist, this is one of the moments you dream about.

Where Is Massacre Pond?

I've always loved maps, especially maps of fictional locations. I can't fully express my enthusiasm for this map of Hardy's Wessex or this one of Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County. In the Mike Bowditch series I combine real Maine places (taking considerable liberties with some of them) with creations of my own. This map is a little project of mine to give readers some sense of the approximate locales where my stories take place. Don't take any of the marked locations too literally. It's just fiction, after all.

Massacre Pond Chosen for the Indie Next List!

Indiebound, which is an organization of independent booksellers, has chosen Massacre Pond as one of the new titles for indies to showcase in the month of August. My novel was recommended by Rita Moran of Apple Valley Books in Winthrop who writes:

Paul Doiron just keeps getting better. Open Massacre Pond, and you can smell the sweetness of the Maine woods, you can feel dry leaves underfoot, and hear the birds singing at dawn. But Massacre Pond offers far more than that: real Maine characters who might have just walked out of a local diner, issues that are as fresh as the latest headlines, and the kind of suspense that will keep your lights on far into the night.

I don't know an author who doesn't prize being on the Indie Next List as one of the highest honors a new book can receive.