Mike Bowditch left the Maine Warden Service. That part of his life is done, but when his mentor Sgt. Kathy Frost is forced to kill a war veteran in an apparent case of "suicide by cop," Mike can't ignore his guilt.

Kathy is under investigation for the shooting, but someone has already found her guilty. A sniper guns down Kathy outside her home and she would have died if Mike hadn't been there. He feels obligated to find the man responsible, but without his badge Mike has little say in the official investigation.

THE BONE ORCHARD picks up after the fallout from Massacre Pond. Mike Bowditch is a wonderful character, not because he's a wonderful person but because he's always compelling to read. He runs from problems, carries too much guilt, and he neglects the people he loves. Because of his flaws and his perseverance, I'm always rooting for him to make the right choice, hoping that he'll be the man he could be if he stopped sabotaging himself.

That perseverance creates a winding mystery full of tension and conflict. Mike needs to fit all the puzzle pieces together. It's not simply the need to figure out who committed the crime, but he also needs to know why the crime was committed. His unwavering search for answers, following clues from one suspect to the next, pulls the reader deeper into Mike's world and into the mystery.

Author Paul Dioron never gives away too much information. He holds back when he needs to and it's the perfect balance of letting the reader solve the mystery alongside Mike and sensing impending doom. I really like that delicate balance where I'm not sure what will come next but I have my suspicions. Whether I'm right or wrong doesn't matter because Paul Dioron has created doubt in my mind. He uses all the best tools of the mystery genre to create a fantastic character, a plot that goes deeper than finding who was behind the shooting, and to create a setting that is integral to the plot. I've never been to Maine, but Paul Doiron's descriptions of the Maine wilderness makes me want to go. The love and knowledge he puts into writing such beautiful and real settings, mosquitoes and all, connects the reader to the story and to Mike because Mike is defined by his love of Maine and the woods.

If you haven't read any Mike Bowditch mysteries, you can read THE BONE ORCHARD as a standalone book, but I do recommend reading The Poacher's Son and Massacre Pond because they're fantastic. The events in both heavily influence Mike's decisions and his current state of mind in THE BOND ORCHARD, but Paul Dioron does a fantastic job of supplying enough backstory to feel the emotional weight of previous events without detracting from the current mystery.

THE BONE ORCHARD by Paul Dioron brings the reader back into Mike Bowditch's beautifully riveting world. Untamed, dangerous, and rugged can be used to describe both Mike and the Maine setting. Mystery loves will definitely find many reasons to keep coming back for more of Mike Bowditch.