SKIN AND BONES And other mike bowditch short stories

Doiron (Pitch Dark) presents eight top-shelf mysteries featuring Maine game warden Mike Bowditch--including the previously unpublished "Sheep's Clothing"--in this exciting collection. Two of the strongest entries center Mike's colleague and future father-in-law, Charley Stevens. In "Backtrack," Charley and Mike try to find a doctor who went missing from his hunting party during a snowstorm; "The Caretaker" sees them help the vacationing Baker family identify a home invader who's been leaving behind cryptic photographs of an old doll. Both stories illustrate Doiron's gift for character development and emotional stakes: the Bakers come into focus over the course of a few paragraphs, and "Backtrack" employs a poignant framing device that tracks the case's long impact on Charley's psyche. "Sheep's Clothing" is excellent, too, a quasi--New England gothic about Mike investigating a murder-suicide in a misfit rural family. Throughout, Doiron's evocative prose ("A shadow swept across the dooryard now, and when I looked up, I saw the first of the dozen turkey vultures that would eventually assume a holding pattern above the scene of the crime") and clever plotting work as well in the short story form as they do at novel length. This will delight existing Bowditch fans and newcomers alike. (May)