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This collection of eight original short stories features Mike Bowditch and his colleague, retired game warden Charley Stevens, a duo made popular in a series of novels penned by this author, and the first this reader has come to experience. Reminiscent of Robert B Parker’s Jesse Stone, Mike Bowditch is a Maine Game Warden and investigator, whose brushes with crime involve colorful characters populating the isolated North Woods of Maine. Dripping with trailers and rifles, poverty and suspicion, these woods are not for the feint of heart, as Mike and his sometimes mentor root out evil with a nose for justice, and the aid of Shadow, Mike’s huge and mostly wild wolf-dog.

A rule breaker with a penchant for making simple investigations more complex, Mike is a wonderful character, rubbing shoulders with both the downtrodden and the criminal in a series of adventures that echo with the grisly primitive voice of “Deliverance”, melded seamlessly with our narrators – Charley, a sort of folksy uber-observant Sherlock Holmes who has seen it all; and Mike, young, already cynical, with a bull-in-a-china shop attitude to diving in and getting the job done.

A terrific bit of fun, I enjoyed each of these stories and find myself now eager to read the entire series.

A great big thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.