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Book Summary and Reviews of Trespasser by Paul Doiron

Trespasser by Paul Doiron

Trespasser

A Novel

by Paul Doiron

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  • Jun 2011, 320 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

In Paul Doiron' riveting follow-up to his Edgar Award–nominated novel, The Poacher's Son, Maine game warden Mike Bowditch's quest to find a missing woman leads him through a forest of lies in search of a killer who may have gotten away with murder once before.

While on patrol one foggy March evening, Bowditch receives a call for help. A woman has reportedly struck a deer on a lonely coast road. When the game warden arrives on the scene, he finds blood in the road - but both the driver and the deer have vanished. And the state trooper assigned to the accident appears strangely unconcerned.

The details of the disappearance seem eerily familiar. Seven years earlier, a jury convicted lobsterman Erland Jefferts of the rape and murder of a wealthy college student and sentenced him to life in prison. For all but his most fanatical defenders, justice was served. But when the missing woman is found brutalized in a manner that suggests Jefferts may have been framed, Bowditch receives an ominous warning from state prosecutors to stop asking questions.

For Bowditch, whose own life was recently shattered by a horrific act of violence, doing nothing is not an option. His clandestine investigation reopens old wounds between Maine locals and rich summer residents and puts both his own life and that of the woman he loves in jeopardy. As he closes in on his quarry, he suddenly discovers how dangerous his opponents are, and how far they will go to prevent him from bringing a killer to justice.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Doiron delivers another perfectly plotted mystery peopled with multidimensional characters, but, in addition, his writing has matured." - Booklist

"Starred Review. Doiron serves up a tense thriller that stars a memorable main character and brings the rugged Maine landscape vividly to life. Highly recommended." - Library Journal

"Doiron's sense of place, and of the people of Maine, adds lush nuance to this suspense-filled read. Well-paced, with an interesting array of elegantly rounded characters, this effort more than lives up to the promise of Doiron's debut." - RT Book Review

"A complex, heartfelt, altogether impressive piece of work." - Kirkus Reviews

"Compelling." - Publishers Weekly

This information about Trespasser 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.

Reader Reviews

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Lauren

Great mix of Plot, Character Development, and Atmosphere
Most mysteries seem to either have a great story with stereotypical characters or good characters but a weak plot. This book reads like a novel, not like most mysteries. I haven't read Paul Doiron's first book, "The Poacher's Son", but I ordered it as soon as I finished this book.

Mike Bowditch is a young game warden in Maine, who is called to an accident site in which a woman collided with a deer--- only to find no woman and no deer, only an empty car. The state trooper who shows up a short time later is convinced that the woman got a ride from someone she called, that someone else came and took the deer for food, and that everything is fine. Somehow Mike has the (correct) feeling that this wasn't the case.

Doiron does an excellent job of populating the book with a variety of real people (or at least they feel real) living in rural Maine. With just a few sentences he seems to give each character an identity and just enough back story to make everyone come alive without bogging down the mystery. The story moves, and related story lines such as the other cases that Bowditch is handling, his family history, and his relationship with his girlfriend all are covered without ever feeling like the book is going off into tangents or dragging on. This is a very well written, tightly constructed book that I very much enjoyed.

I often get bored of mysteries about two thirds of the way through, but this book held my attention to the very end. I'd definitely recommend it.

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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"

Other books by Paul Doiron at BookBrowse
  • The Poacher's Son jacket

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