Hatchet Island: A Novel

Paul Doiron

Jun 2022 · Mike Bowditch Mysteries Book 13 · Sold by Minotaur Books

About this ebook

The eerie, windswept Hatchet Island off the coast of Maine becomes the site of a double murder and a disappearance in this thriller from bestselling author Paul Doiron.

A call for help from a former colleague leads Maine game warden investigator Mike Bowditch and his girlfriend Stacey Stevens on a sea kayaking trip to a research station far off the coast. Stacey spent summers interning on the island, a sanctuary for endangered seabirds, and they are shocked by the atmosphere of tension they encounter when they come ashore. The biologists are being threatened and stalked by a mysterious boatman who they suspect is trespassing on the refuge late at night. And now the sanctuary’s enigmatic founder, whose mind has been slowly unraveling, has gone missing.

Camped on an islet for the night, Mike and Stacey waken to the sound of a gunshot. When they return to the refuge at dawn, their darkest fears are confirmed: two of the three researchers have been brutally murdered and the third has disappeared, along with the island skiff. Mike’s quest to find the missing man leads to a nearby island owned by a world-renowned photographer and his equally brilliant wife. The inhabitants of this private kingdom quickly close ranks, and Mike increasingly comes to believe that someone in the village knows more about the killings than they dare admit.

With no one to trust and miles from shore, Mike Bowditch must stop a ruthless murderer determined to make sure a terrifying secret never sees the light of day.

Ratings and reviews

relationships, relationship-issues, family-dynamics, friendship, friction, multiple-murder, closed-circle-mystery, island-life, isolation, Maine, malice, action, game-warden, suspense, suspicion, survivor's guilt, crime-fiction, foul-weather, riveting, bird-sanctuary, "the rich are different", mentor, research, sabotage***** Tense and riveting most of the time, information gathering and character study the rest. This one really kept my nose to the page for the entire length. The publisher's blurb is honest and teased me into wanting to read it. I've only read one other in the series so I do think that while this one can stand alone it is one of those insidious books that made me want to go back and binge read all from the beginning! Great read. I requested and received a free e-book from St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

Everything seems to transpire over 2 days, which taxes my ability to suspend disbelief. Also, a tibia is neither a radius nor an ulna🙄

About the author

A native of Maine, bestselling author PAUL DOIRON attended Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in English. The Poacher’s Son, the first book in the Mike Bowditch series, won the Barry award, the Strand award for best first novel, and has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity awards in the same category. He is a Registered Maine Guide specializing in fly fishing and lives on a trout stream in coastal Maine with his wife, Kristen Lindquist.