Note: Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Paul Doiron for the advanced reader copy of the book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

Pitch Dark is the fifteenth book in Paul Doiron’s series about Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch. Much has changed from the first book in the series. While I think you can read Pitch Dark without having read the earlier books, the character’s development in those books makes it easier to understand why he makes some of the choices he does here.

Mike is enjoying a night at home with his wife Stacy when he receives a call from a rookie Warden in the northwest part of the state of Maine. There’s a report of a missing ATV rider from one of the lodges up there. This is unusual because spring season (or mud season) usually isn’t a time when people descend on the state to ride ATVs on logging roads. Before he disappeared, the man was asking around about a father and daughter living off the grid in the area.

Josie Jonson is a bush pilot who has someone matching that description building a log cabin for her in that remote location. Worried that someone nefarious might be looking for the father and daughter and with no other way to get up to them, Mike and his father-in-law Charley, a former Game Warden pilot himself, travel by helicopter with Josie up to the location.

What follows is a gripping, edge-of-your-seat tale that kept me turning the page until I reached the end. Paul Doiron has always been able to craft a tale with twists and turns that had me guessing, incorrectly, what was going on. Here, I can honestly say I did not see the end coming.

Doiron’s descriptions of the Maine Woods in this area is accurate. I’ve been up this way and traveled on the Golden Road, which he refers to frequently. It’s really amazing how desolate it is. He details the spring season with patches of green amidst the brown and the dreariness of the frequent rain as well as the power of the rivers and streams draining off the snowmelt. The story is told from Mike’s perspective, so the descriptions are his observations of what he sees around him as he’s tracking people through the woods. It’s the perspective of someone who notices things others miss and makes for a great setting.

There were a number of times I really had to suspend disbelief. Mike isn’t quite the “Superman” surviving injuries that would kill most, but he does seem to have an unusual amount of good luck as he’s tracking his quarry through the woods at this time of year. Many times I thought he should have turned back or given up, but where would the story be if he had? Although his personal story ends on something of a cliffhanger, the way the pursuit and its consequences resolve itself seems a little too convenient. However, it’s also good to know the series will continue.

Pitch Dark is a great addition to the story of Mike Bowditch. He asks some questions about his future that he’s not sure of the answers just yet. Should he blow his career as a Warden Investigator for one case, even if it means saving the life of a child? The reckless Mike of earlier books definitely would, but here he hesitates. He’s grown and evolved but there’s still that stubborn, headstrong streak that sometimes leads him to make choices most people wouldn’t. It’s this well-developed character that keeps me coming back to the series.

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