I don’t often write about the reasons behind the choices I make in my novels. But I thought readers might find it interesting to learn why I chose to set my forthcoming Mike Bowditch novel, Dead Man’s Wake, on Great Pond in Belgrade. In general I prefer to set the stories in real Maine place, but sometimes that isn’t possible, given the violent content. (I don’t want people freaking out about real seabird islands!)
With Dead Man’s Wake, I needed a real lake with an affluent summer population. Having never written about that corner of Kennebec County, I decided that the time had come for me to visit the historic Belgrade Lakes region. The area is home to some crazy episodes many of which didn’t get into the novel. Elizabeth Arden once ran a destination spa there. Judge Crater famously disappeared on his way back to his cottage in Belgrade.
Some things that did make the novel: The lakes are home to some of Maine’s most storied summer camps. My favorite Maine author (E.B. White) wrote my favorite Maine essay (“Once More to the Lake") about Great Pond. A mailboat still delivers mail to docks along the water in an age when the Postal Service is slashing services to the bone everywhere else. And a very famous play and movie rebranded the lake forever as “Golden Pond” (although the film with the Fondas was made in New Hampshire). Indeed, a friend who is a year-round Belgrade resident introduced me to the concept of “Golden Pond Syndrome” which still entices starry-eyed cottage buyers to purchase property along a pond that bears little resemblance to its fictional ideal.
Writing murder mysteries is an inherently subversive, macabre, and often perverse activity, and I must confess that I couldn’t think of a better place to set my wickedly violent tale than a lake enveloped in such an enduring pink cloud. The Mike Bowditch books are about showing the Maine you find scurrying and wriggling when you lift the log labeled Vacationland and expose the underside to the light. What better place to expose the dirty underside than “Golden Pond”?
