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Books In Order

Mystery

Paul Doiron (Mike Bowditch) Books in Order

by Paul Doiron

Maine game warden Mike Bowditch patrols some of the most remote wilderness in the eastern US — and keeps finding himself at the center of murder investigations. Paul Doiron's award-winning series is among the finest in American regional crime fiction.

About the series

Paul Doiron's Mike Bowditch series features a Maine game warden whose beat is the vast, unforgiving wilderness of the state's backcountry. Equal parts rugged outdoor adventure and tightly plotted mystery, each novel immerses readers in the landscape, culture, and wildlife of rural Maine while delivering genuinely surprising crime plots. The debut, The Poacher's Son (2010), won the Barry Award and Strand Critics Award for Best First Novel and immediately established Doiron as one of the finest voices in regional crime fiction.

Recommended reading order

Read in publication order from The Poacher's Son onward. Bowditch's personal life — his complicated family history, romantic relationships, and professional development — evolves substantially across the series, and payoffs are richer when read in sequence. Note that The Bear Trap is a short story set between books 4 and 5.

Reading order

18 books · Ongoing

  1. #1

    The Poacher's Son

    2010

  2. #2

    Trespasser

    2011

  3. #3

    Bad Little Falls

    2012

  4. #4

    Massacre Pond

    2013

  5. #5

    The Bone Orchard

    2014

  6. #6

    The Precipice

    2015

  7. #7

    Widowmaker

    2016

  8. #8

    Knife Creek

    2017

  9. #9

    Stay Hidden

    2018

  10. #10

    Almost Midnight

    2019

  11. #11

    One Last Lie

    2020

  12. #12

    Dead by Dawn

    2021

  13. #13

    Hatchet Island

    2022

  14. #14

    Dead Man's Wake

    2023

  15. #15

    Pitch Dark

    2024

  16. #16

    Sheep's Clothing

    2025

  17. #17

    Blaze Orange

    TBA

    Forthcoming

  18. #18

    Storm Tide

    TBA

    Forthcoming