PW on KNIFE CREEK: "Intelligent," "High Suspense," "Complicated."

"Publishers Weekly" is out with its advance review of KNIFE CREEK, and I couldn't be happier: 

“Edgar-finalist Doiron’s intelligent eighth mystery featuring Maine game warden Mike Bowditch (after 2016’s Widowmaker) finds Mike and his girlfriend, Stacey Stevens, in the woods of western Maine, where their job is to kill feral pigs that have migrated into the state and pose a serious environmental threat. To their horror, they discover that one pig has been eating buried human remains belonging to a weeks-old female infant. Mike and Stacey are even more unsettled when they realize that the corpse was likely buried in that specific location in a deliberate attempt to have it consumed by the pigs, eliminating any evidence of its existence. When Mike, who’s hoping for a promotion to investigator, starts looking into who might be responsible for the burial and the possible infanticide, he encounters someone long believed dead and triggers a wave of violence. Doiron maintains a high level of suspense while adding new insights into the character of his complex lead. Agent: Ann Rittenberg, Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency. (June)”

— http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-250-10235-5

Stay tuned for more!

Follow Me on Facebook

As Facebook has grown, I have found it easier to publish updates — news and reviews — on my Paul Doiron Books page rather than keep this section of my website constantly updated too. I realize that not everyone has a Facebook account. (I admire your firm resistance) so I will do my best to publish important news here as well. But I would encourage those of you on Facebook to Like my page. 

What Really Happened to Geraldine Largay?

The Bollard, an alternative newspaper in Maine, has published an article about the disappearance of Geraldine Largay, the retired nurse who vanished on the Appalachian Trail two years ago this month, that puts into print a rumor that that I have only heard before in conversation.

Largay's disappearance was an important influence on my decision to write The Precipice — although I took pains to separate my novel from her story. I didn't want to exploit what is very much an ongoing missing persons case with family and friends still mourning the loss of someone they loved. If you are unfamiliar with what happened to Gerry Largay, the best place to start is Kathryn Miles's great Boston Globe piece.

The Bollard article, written by Hutch Brown, takes the story into the realm of conspiracy theory:

“Largay vanished along a section of the trail bordered, to the north, by a secretive military facility where trainees are left to fend for themselves in the woods, then hunted down and tortured in a mock prisoner-of-war camp. Operated by the U.S. Navy, and located in Redington Township, the facility is one of our country’s notorious SERE Schools. The acronym stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, though very few students have ever managed the last part.”

“Is it just a coincidence that the baffling vanishing of this person took place a stone’s throw from a place closely associated with programs designed to make people disappear? SERE instructors, SERE tactics and, perhaps most controversially, psychologists involved with SERE training have all been linked to the torture of detainees abducted abroad and sent to clandestine “black sites” run by the military and the C.I.A. For the first 11 years of its existence, The Redington facility was essentially a domestic “black site” for the torture of our own troops.”

I have heard this rumor before, and I agree that the mention of the SERE base being adjacent to the section of the AT where Gerry Largay disappeared was curiously absent from media coverage of the search. There is a lot about what Hutch Brown has written here that I like, and I applaud The Bollard for pointing out the existence of the SERE school and its proximity to the AT. 

Here's my issue, though: Buried in this article is some unstated speculation about what might have happened to Largay. She was killed by someone at the SERE school? (Why?) She died but the Navy was so protective of its privacy that no one cared to look for her body? (Really?) This speculation leads inevitably to some sort of massive government-authorized cover up. I would suggest that the responsible way to put forward this theory would be to admit these implications. I'm not a fan of the "raises questions" school of journalism.

UPDATE: As compelling as conspiracy theories can be, the truth is usually more mundane. One of my readers pointed me to this entry from the Franklin County Sheriff's log the week before Largay disappeared:

"07/06/2013 Deputy Zecher responded to the Appalachian Trail in Wyman Township regarding a complaint from a female hiker. The complainant stated that there was a strange man who goes by the name of Richard (nickname brown blazer) had been acting strange. He has been leaving threatening messages on the AT trail recording logs. No one person has been targeted, however, she wanted to report it to law enforcement. A check of the trail heads did not reveal any vehicles that came close to the alleged offender’s first name. Notification has been made throughout the hiking community."

POSTSCRIPT: In the Bangor Daily News, Michael Kessock, a retired Navy pilot, offers a devastating response to Busby's depiction of SERE school. 

POSTSCRIPT TO THE POSTSCRIPT: Because this post continues to show up on Internet searches, people who find their way here often don't know that Geraldine Largay's body was indeed found and the circumstances of her death established beyond doubt. Kathryn Miles wrote a comprehensive account of what we now know about this tragedy for the Boston Globe. It's worth reading.

AN Audible Recommendation

Audible asked me — and a few authors you may have heard of — to name the book that best prepared me for the read world. What else could I choose but the greatest novel of all time?

"As a novelist, I believe in the power of fiction to transform the way we look at ourselves in relation to the world. Probably no book had a more profound impact on my understanding of how insignificant the ego is than Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, which portrays even Napoleon Bonaparte as helpless before forces he doesn’t understand. Each of us is less important than we would like to believe, but that doesn’t mean our lives are meaningless. Nor does it absolve us of the responsibility to choose love over hate, peace over war. In college I would hear people say, "It’s not always about you." Tolstoy’s point is that it almost never is. In fact, humility can be a great gift. "

If you have never read War and Peace before, or if you haven't read it in a while, you owe it to yourself to take the plunge. And an audiobook is a lot less intimidating than 1,000 pages.

The Precipice is a Library Reads Pick

I got some exciting news over the weekend. The Precipice has been chosen as one of only 10 books on the Library Reads recommended list for June. Library Reads is an incredibly influential organization precisely because it chooses so few books and because the picks come from librarians themselves. Being on the same list as Judy Blume is certainly mind-blowing!

Thank you to Lora Bruggeman of the Indian Prairie Public Library in Darien, Illinois, for the wonderful recommendation!

“When two women go missing while hiking a difficult part of the Appalachian Trail, Maine game warden Mike Bowditch helps in trying to determine where the women were last seen. Mike then discovers there is no shortage of people whose behaviors make them suspicious. With a puzzle that keeps the reader guessing, and a main character that you can’t help but empathize with, The Precipice is another home run for Doiron.” ”