Books
“The Poacher’s Son” by Paul Doiron (Minotaur Books, 324 pages, $14.99)
Here is a book for Father’s Day. Paul Doiron’s debut novel, “The Poacher’s Son,” is a story of a complicated relationship between a father and his son. Jack Bowditch is the father and the poacher in the title. The elder Bowditch has spent a lifetime hunting and trapping in the North Woods of Maine.
Jack served a couple of tours of duty in Vietnam. When he returns, something about him has changed. His neighbors in the remote logging town “said they no longer recognized him as the same sweet and shy Jack Bowditch he’d once been.”
Jack claimed “he was a poacher out of necessity; he took game whenever and wherever the opportunity presented itself because he was too proud to accept food stamps.” Maine’s game wardens suspect that he is poaching but he skillfully evades their efforts to apprehend him.
In an interview, the author explained the tense personal dynamic which developed between a man he describes as a “violent, womanizing poacher” and his son, Mike: “Mike reacts to his father, who’s this lawless guy, by doing the opposite — he becomes a law enforcement officer, a Maine game warden, as a way to make up for his father’s sins, to the extent that he can.”
Doiron continues: “At the same time, he craves his father’s respect, and even affection, because they are estranged. He knows what his father is, he thinks, which is a violent, abusive sort of reckless person. But he doesn’t think his father is capable of some of the brutal crimes that he ends up being accused of in ‘The Poacher’s Son.’ ”
As the story begins, the younger Bowditch is dealing with a black bear that is creating a nuisance in the area. While he is out on patrol, his father leaves a phone message for him. Mike is puzzled: “I didn’t know why my father had called me, but if he was coming back into my life after two silent years, trouble was sure to be close behind.”
“The Poacher’s Son” is a study in conflicts. There’s the cat and mouse game of poachers and game wardens. There are escalating tensions between large landholders and people who are being forcefully evicted from lands that they have occupied for generations.
Maine is the northernmost region in Appalachia. Some residents there are barely eking out an existence in the shadow of expensive summer homes occupied by out-of-state visitors. In “The Poacher’s Son,” simmering injustice breeds violence. Jack the poacher vanishes into the forest under a cloud of suspicion.
Mike is well aware of his dad’s propensity for violence. While the police pursue his father, he is left to struggle with the turmoil of wondering if his dad has been falsely accused or if he is truly guilty of these crimes. This tightly plotted murder mystery is the first book in a series featuring game warden Mike Bowditch. The second book, “Trespasser,” comes out this week.
Vick Mickunas interviews authors every Friday at 1:30 p.m. and on Sundays at 11 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/BookNook.html. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.