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Trespasser    by Paul Doiron Amazon.com order for
Trespasser
by Paul Doiron
Order:  USA  Can
Macmillan Audio, 2011 (2011)
Hardcover, CD, e-Book

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* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Trespasser is the second (following The Poacher's Son) in Paul Doiron's appealing series starring rookie Maine game warden Mike Bowditch. As it opens during mud season, Mike is called to the scene of a car's collision with a deer on a coast road. There's blood on the road, but the driver (a young woman) is no longer there, and a state trooper takes over, banishing Mike from the scene.

Something about the case continues to bother Mike though, so that he and his old friend Charlie follow up by heading to the house the girl was apparently visiting. There they find her corpse, with an ugly word cut into her. The condition of the body resembles that of a young waitress/college student killed seven years before. Lobsterman Erland Jefferts has been serving time ever since for her rape and murder, though he has a large group of supporters proclaiming his innocence at every opportunity.

Soon Mike is in trouble with his bosses, state prosecutors, and his possibly pregnant girlfriend Sarah for digging into what isn't his business. But he's obsessed, driven by guilt that he didn't look harder for the missing girl that first night. He finds another body and, despite a serious injury that leaves him vulnerable and should keep him at home, keeps on investigating. It almost kills him.

Though I somehow missed The Poacher's Son, I enjoyed Trespasser very much, for the Maine scenery (which is described beautifully in all its chill glory) as much as the mystery. I listened to the unabridged CD audiobook (8 CDs, 9.5 hours) brilliantly narrated by Henry Levya, who does justice to the local accents and discriminates characters (by age and sex) much better than most of his peers manage to do. Highly recommended!

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