DCL Book Chat

Doiron’s debut novel was recommended to me as a read alike to C.J. Box and I agree that it is. Doiron’s main character, Mike Bowditch, is a warden with the Maine Warden Service and like Box’s character, Joe Pickett, who is a Wyoming game warden, is headstrong, independent, honest and dedicated to his job.  Doiron is also as passionate about the Maine woods as Box is about his beloved Wyoming. 

  In The Poacher’s Son Mike Bowditch gets a brief phone message from the father he has not heard from or seen in two years. The next day Mike hears that a deputy sheriff has been murdered along with an executive of a timber company and that his father is the prime suspect.  Even though his father is a womanizing drunk and a poacher, Mike believes he is innocent while all those around him think Jack Bowditch is the killer. What follows is a fast paced thriller as Mike tries to find his father before he is tracked down by the police. He risks not only his future as a game warden but his life when he defies his commanding officers in his search for the real killer.

This is a great debut novel and has already been named one of the best crime novels of the year by Booklist.

Allison

Lilly Hawkins is having a really bad day. A news photographer (or “shooter”) for her hometown TV station, her job is already hanging by a thread because of a series of misfortunes (and her lack of people skills) when her boss tells her that she’d better deliver amazing video for her next story or else. And Lilly does take amazing shots of a homicide case but when she arrives a the station, it’s completely blank. Soon Lilly is on the run from criminals and the police who all think she has the video. Fast paced, sometimes wacky Lilly will appeal to Stephanie Plum fans.

Dedra

If reading novels about the Tudors has whetted your appetite for historical fiction about powerful, ruthless families, consider a location change to Renaissance Italy. Francesca’s murdered father was the personal poisoner to the powerful Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia before he was brutally murdered. Now Francesca vows vengeance and positions herself as her father’s replacement. But can she perform the brutal murders the evil Borgia demands? Poison is brimming with historical detail, double crosses and fascinating characters.

Dedra

Imagine getting a taunting letter in the mail one day that ends with the simple declaration – “See how well I know your secrets, think of a number.” And when you comply, you discover the letter writer has predicted your random choice exactly. This intriguing puzzle intrigues a retired homicide detective who discovers that this challenge ignites a massive serial murder investigation. This literary mystery has an unusual slow build of suspense that gets more and more frightening as it goes along.

Dedra

Everyone in Starvation Lake, Michigan, is stunned when a snowmobile with a bullet hole in it washes up on the icy shore of Walleye Lake. Could it belong to the town’s beloved hockey coach Jack Blackburn, who disappeared 10 years ago and was believed drowned when his snowmobile fell through the ice on Starvation Lake? How did the snowmobile end up in Walleye Lake? Was Blackburn murdered? Gus Carpenter, the editor of the local paper and a fallen from grace hockey player under Blackburn is determined to find out. What he learns is that many of the people in town have dark secrets. Secrets some of them may have killed to keep.

Gruley, a Michigan native and amateur hockey player, is the Chicago bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. He vividly brings the town and people of Starvation Lake to life in his first novel which was a finalist for a 2010 Edgar Award and was on many 2009 top mystery lists.

Allison

This second book in the mystery series features a precocious 11 year old sleuth, Flavia De Luce. Set in the 1950s on an English family country estate, Buckshaw, our young heroine has a talent for chemistry with a keen interest in poisons. Her wanderings throughout the village of Bishop’s Lacey introduce a cast of quirky characters. The mystery centers around a pair of traveling BBC puppet TV show stars, Rupert and Nia, whose truck breaks down in the village. In need of car repairs, the pair agrees to perform for the village residents to settle their bill. During one of the performances, puppetmaster Rupert dies under mysterious circumstances. Flavia’s keen observations and curious nature help her to solve the plot twists and give local police insight on the case.

Descriptive language, yet ungory handling of death situations make this series appropriate to recommend to young advanced readers who enjoy mysteries.

Kyra

Last book in the Millennium trilogy, this one picks up where The Girl Who Played With Fire left off. Lisbeth Salander clings to life in the intensive care unit with a bullet in her head compliments of a confrontation with Alexander Zalachenko. While Lisbeth grapples with plotting revenge, Mikael Blomkvist keeps busy by rounding up the supporting characters to advocate and prove Lisbeth’s innocence and unravel the conspiracy that ascends to top levels of Swedish government. Another fast-paced, “hard to put down” read that nicely finishes off the trilogy. Due out in the US on May 25.

The Swedish film version of the first book of the trilogy, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was released in April 2010 in independent movie theatres and there are plans for an English-language version in production to come out sometime in 2012.

Kyra

Joe Pickett novels are the best – In this one, Joe is finishing up his Game Warden duties in Baggs, Wyoming and just ready to get back to his family, when he encounters a strange mystery on the mountain. Are the disappearances of cattle, a poached elk and a missing runner the work of evil spirits, or something very real and quite lethal. If you haven’t read C.J. Box – you should start with his series about Wyoming game warden/detective Joe Pickett and you’ll believe in heroes again.

Lisa

If you haven’t yet met Izzy Spellman and her weird, eccentric, hilarious family of private detectives, this may be your last chance. Rumor has it this is the last in the Spellman series. In this story, Izzy’s mother is blackmailing her into dating lawyers because she doesn’t like her boyfriend, her sister Rae is obsessed with freeing a wrongly convicted man and Izzy is trying to solve the case of the missing butler. Readers can start with this book because author Lutz keeps them updated with her comic footnotes but then they’ll definitely want to read all the Spellman books.

Dedra

Celebrity biographer Cece Caruso returns from her honeymoon, alone, to find that she’s being framed for a murder. A quirky, comic, timely mystery. Fans of Janet Evanovich will enjoy this one.

Jill