How to Survive Falling Through the Ice

When I was a teenager, a friend and I decided to cross the frozen Scarborough Marsh one winter's day. It had been very cold, and everything was covered in snow. The Spurwink River is backish and tidal so you could see where the rising and falling water had caused ridges to form and collapse—but the ice looked safe enough.

It wasn't. My friend went through about fifteen feet from me. We knew a neighbor family whose young son had died falling through the ice. This looked to be a very bad situation.

And then, suddenly, my friend stood up. Half of his body was submerged, but his feet were on compacted mud. We were lucky it was low tide.

Not everyone who falls through the ice is so fortunate, as I discuss at Maine Crime Writers today.

Surfacing

I've been quiet on the blogging front because I've been working hard on my fourth Mike Bowditch novel, Massacre Pond. Now that I am nearing the end, it feels like I am rising from the depths after having been submerged a long time. I describe the unreality of this experience at Maine Crime Writers today.

In other news, Edgar winner and Associated Press book critic Bruce DeSilva very kindly named Bad Little Falls to his list of the Best Crime Novels of 2012. To say that I am honored and grateful doesn't really do justice to the emotions I am feeling to be included with such great books.

Great Review in the Boston Globe!

Thank you, Hallie Ephron!

Paul Doiron made a big splash with his Edgar Award-nominated first novel, “The Poacher’s Son,” which introduced Maine game warden Mike Bowditch and his extraordinary talent for tracking animals and people through the worst weather that Maine can dish up. When he’s reassigned to the eponymous “Bad Little Falls,” a remote town near the Canadian border where drug abuse, unemployment, poverty, violence, and poaching are rampant, his reputation for disregarding orders precedes him and it looks as if his career has dead-ended. To him, it’s the equivalent of “being exiled to Siberia.”

The story has a strong sense of place and makes palpable the raw power that weather and water can wield. The plot is driven by the elusive possibility that this time Bowditch can redeem his career while saving Jamie and her son. Shelve this book beside the works of Steve Hamilton and William Kent Kruger, stories of strong but not macho men living in godforsaken places, bruised by past relationships, and trying to get it right this time.

"Bad Little Falls" Is a 2012 RT Award Nominee!

You never know what news the Internet will bring. This morning I learned that Bad Little Falls is a nominee in the category of "Amateur Sleuth" in RT's 2012 Reviewers' Choice Awards. It's an interesting and diverse category. I'll be curious to see in which direction the judges go, but as is always the case with awards, it's just an honor to be nominated. (Although winning isn't bad either.)