Skin and Bones: Mike Bowditch    by Paul Doiron Order:  USA  Can Minotaur, 2025 (2025)      Reviewed by Hilary Williamson Though I'm not generally an enthusiastic reader of short stories, Paul Doiron's Mike Bowditch mysteries have been on my must read list since I opened the first! Skin and Bones includes eight original short stories in the series, including one (Sheep's Clothing) published for the first time here. In The Bear Trap, Mike and his mentor and future father-in-law Charley Stevens (himself a retired game warden) go fishing and Charley tells a tale about an encounter with reclusive, bearded wild man in the woods. In Backtrack, Charley shares another adventure, searching for a doctor (an ex-Marine) missing from a hunting camp. Saving him becomes something Charlie would reverse if he could. An older Charley shares another of his life experiences with Mike in Rabid, this one involving his wife Ora, a bat bite and an abusive veteran with a Vietnamese wife and daughter. The Imposter is about a corpse whose driver's license says he's Mike Bowditch! When Mike investigates the killing of a bald eagle in Skin and Bones, Charley tells him a tale of Mike's disreputable father Jack. In The Caretaker, a couple's holiday cottage is repeatedly vandalized by what appears to be 'a malevolent circus clown' and the damage escalates. Mike and Charley investigate. In Snakebit, a killer uses rattlesnakes as a murder weapon. Finally in Sheep's Clothing, a recently demoted Mike finds two corpses when doing a welfare check. Of course, he takes an interest in the case. In his Introduction, Doiron describes these tales 'as windows - some cracked, others tinted - into the wildness that is Maine.' The view is extraordinary and fascinating and I especially enjoyed seeing more of Charley as well as Mike. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more Mystery books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews