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Book Summary and Reviews of Dead by Dawn by Paul Doiron

Dead by Dawn by Paul Doiron

Dead by Dawn

Mike Bowditch Mysteries #12

by Paul Doiron

  • Critics' Consensus (5):
  • Published:
  • Jun 2021, 304 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Maine game warden Mike Bowditch finds himself in a life-or-death chase in this next thriller in the bestselling mystery series by Edgar Award nominee Paul Doiron, Dead by Dawn.

Mike Bowditch is fighting for his life. After being ambushed on a dark winter road, his Jeep crashes into a frozen river. Trapped beneath the ice in the middle of nowhere, having lost his gun and any way to signal for help, Mike fights his way to the surface. But surviving the crash is only the first challenge. Whoever set the trap that ran him off the road is still out there, and they're coming for him.

Hours earlier, Mike was called to investigate the suspicious drowning of a wealthy professor. Despite the death being ruled an accident, his elegant, eccentric daughter-in-law insists the man was murdered. She suspects his companion that day, a reclusive survivalist and conspiracy theorist who accompanied the professor on his fateful duck-hunting trip―but what exactly was the nature of their relationship? And was her own sharp-tongued daughter, who inherited the dead man's fortune, as close to her grandfather as she claims? The accusations lead Mike to a sinister local family who claim to have information on the crime. But when his Jeep flies into the river and unknown armed assailants on snowmobiles chase him through the wilderness, the investigation turns into a fight for survival.

As Mike faces a nightlong battle to stay alive, he must dissect the hours leading up to the ambush and solve two riddles: which one of these people desperately want him dead, and what has he done to incur their wrath?

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Doiron builds tension by alternating between his lead's battle to survive and the inquiry into Chamberlain's death, which he effectively doles out in small segments. This entry stands as the best yet in a superior series." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Brilliant characterizations and a compelling narrative…this series just keeps getting better." – Booklist (starred review)

"Game warden Mike Bowditch's 12th adventure sends him hurtling through the Maine woods into the past, just like his first 11...A tour de force whose detective chapters pale beside its escape-from-certain-death chapters." - Kirkus Reviews

"Part survival story, part mystery-suspense, Doiron's narrative is fast-paced and engaging." – Library Journal

This information about Dead by Dawn was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Paul Doiron Author Biography

Photo: Mark Fleming

Paul Doiron is the author of the Mike Bowditch series of crime novels, including The Poacher's Son, which won the the Barry Award and the Strand Critics Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for an Edgar Award, an Anthony Award, a Macavity Award, and a Thriller Award for Best First Novel, and the Maine Literary Award for "Best Fiction of 2010." PopMatters named it to its Best Fiction of 2010 list.

His second book, Trespasser, won the Maine Literary Award, was an American Booksellers Association Indie Bestseller, and has been called a "masterpiece of high-octane narrative" by Booklist. The third novel, Bad Little Falls, was a Bookscan Bestseller and a nominee for the RT Reviewers Choice Award and the Maine Literary Award. Massacre Pond, the fourth in the series, was an Indie Next...

... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Paul Doiron's Website

Name Pronunciation
Paul Doiron: DWAHR-uhn. First syllable rhymes with "R"

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