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

Since being introduced to his writing by a fellow geocacher, I’ve come to really enjoy Paul Doiron’s series centered on Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch. Skin and Bones is a collection of eight short stories centered around characters readers know from the books. I do think these stories are approachable for someone who hasn’t picked up one of his books before. The stories are usually centered on certain individuals, and he gives the reader enough information to grasp what’s going on. If you haven’t picked up any of the Mike Bowditch stories yet, and you do start here, I’d recommend coming back to it again after reading at least a few of them.

I’d read some of these before, but I didn’t mind revisiting them to write reviews. We get more depth on Mike, his father, and Retired Game Warden Pilot Charley Stevens in these stories. I’d say it was beginning to feel a bit like the stories were more about Charley at times, but it ended up showing not only why Mike gravitated to Charley as a mentor, friend, and, at times, a father figure.

In The Bear Trap , Charley imparts his wisdom on rookie Game Warden Mike Bowditch about the dangers he will face as a warden himself. It’s based on an actual incident in the central Maine woods, and tells an interesting story of dropping out of society and how what may seem like a crime that doesn’t seem to hurt anyone can actually have a devastating effect on some people.

In Backtrack, the focus is once again on Charley. He tells the story of being a young game warden and the idea of doing what’s “right” versus what the law says. Mike does this quite a bit of the time in his own adventures, so Charley is either at the heart of this aspect of Mike’s behavior or reinforcing a part of his character that is already there.

In Rabid, Charley tells another story of something that happened early in his career. It touches on themes of domestic violence and PTSD, and is set in a time when law enforcement was just starting to think about getting involved in situations that were largely considered private.

In The Imposter, Mike deals with someone impersonating him and causing problems. When a body is found in a car in the water in the area where Mike patrols, the only identification in there is Mike’s. There are two ways to look at it, and both of them seem to involve Mike committing a crime. Desperate to clear his name, Mike follows the clues and uncovers a tragic life that could have ended very differently.

The story which gave the book its title, Skin and Bones, fills in some of the backstory between Charley Stevens and Mike’s father, Jack Bowditch. Even a poacher has a moral code, and although I found some parts of it a little implausible, it is a good story about the damage that can happen when people jump to conclusions. The ending is pure Stephen King, though.

In The Caretaker, a couple from Boston shows up at Charley’s house, despite him being a retired Game Warden, and asks him to investigate a series of pranks that seem to be escalating. They have allegedly been laughed at by the local police and turn to Charley as their only hope. Mike investigates alongside him, but is frustrated by Charley’s investigative tactics until they prove fruitful.

In Snakebit, Mike gets a call about a rattlesnake being seen on a trail. The problem is, rattlesnakes haven’t been sighted in Maine in more than one hundred years. What at first seems to be a case of extreme eco-terrorism actually ends up being a much more mundane case, although the trail to figuring out just what’s going on is quite a bit of fun.

Finally, in the only original story in the collection, we have Sheep’s Clothing. Mike is asked to check on some locals who haven’t been seen in a few days. The scene he encounters seems to be a murder-suicide, but his instincts tell him there’s more to it than that. This is classic Mike Bowditch, where the powers that be want a quick answer to close the case, but Mike persistently investigates until he finds the truth.

I think all of these stories give depth to the characters readers know from reading the series, but especially Mike and Charley. I had read a number of the stories previously, but it’s nice to have them all bound together in one book. I do think it’s worth reading if you have read other books in the series. If you’ve been looking for a new series to try, this could be a way of seeing if Mike Bowditch’s adventures intrigue you without having to commit to one of the longer books. I believe the overview the short stories give is a good window into what the series is like.