Twenty-five year old Mike Bowditch is a passionate Maine State Ranger. It’s been seven months since the ordeal with his father, Jack Bowditch, at Rum Pond (consider reading Doiron’s award-nominated debut novel, The poacher’s son have a preface to Sin).
Bowditch responds to a dispatcher’s call to investigate a collision between a deer and a car on Parker Point Road. He arrives to find a damaged red rental sedan and deer blood stains in the middle of the road, but there is no driver and no deer.
What happened to the driver and the deer? Who anonymously alerted authorities from the pay phone in Smitty’s garage, two miles away, about the accident?
The car rental agreement found in the glove box indicates the current driver is 23-year-old Ashley Kim of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
State Trooper Curt Hutchins arrives on the scene shortly after Bowditch. He assures her that he will continue to pursue Kim, now that it’s a state police matter. Bowditch is skeptical. Something isn’t right and Bowditch knows it.
Bowditch is forced to do his own investigation into the disappearance of Ashley Kim. He requires the help of the town clerk, MaryBeth Fickett, and the legendary retired Guardian pilot, Charley Stevens. Stevens befriended Bowditch while searching for his father.
Fickett discovers that Hans Westergaard owns a summer house not far from the crash site. Westergaard is also from Cambridge, Massachusetts and a professor at Harvard Business School. The Kim/Westergaard connection is too close to ignore. Bowditch calls Westergaard’s wife, Jill, and learns that Kim was her husband’s research assistant. She also informs him that Hans left for a conference the day before and hasn’t been heard from since.
Bowditch and Stevens explore the spacious Westergaard waterfront house where they discover the mutilated corpse of Ashley Kim. The killer had carved the word BITCH into her body. With no sign of Westergaard, early suspicions center on a romantic relationship between the two gone awry.
Seven years ago, Earland Jefferts, a suave and handsome former lobsterman, was convicted of murdering twenty-year-old Nikki Donatelli. The crime occurred on a hot July night after drinking and seducing at the Harpoon Bar. Curiously, Bowditch learns that Donatelli’s body also had the word WHORE carved into it.
The J-Team, led by Jeffert’s aunt Lou Bates, is determined to win him another test; convinced that the prosecution did a botched job of presenting the evidence. They approach Bowditch to join his mission. He initially refuses. But given the similarities between the murders of Kim and Donatelli, he finds himself drawn into investigating Jeffert’s conviction.
Danica Marshall is the assistant attorney general who helped prosecute Earland Jefferts. Often referred to as a “court sex symbol” and “Black Widow”, she warns Bowditch to stop investigating Ashley Kim’s death and review the details of Jeffert’s conviction.
The Square Deal Diner is the gossip center of the city. Walking in, Bowditch has been the topic of conversation, both during the disappearance of his father and during the murder of Ashley Kim.
adventure accentuates sin, as Bowditch engages in a death-defying ATV chase on an icy and snowy night to lure out local Calvin Barter. Bowditch is certain he is the culprit whose ATV tracks have been marring the property of his neighbor, Hank Varnum: “I downshifted and throttled it, seeking as much momentum as possible and hoping my wheels wouldn’t lose.” ice traction”. surface.”
Bowditch puts his live-in girlfriend, Sarah, through college. Despite her well-to-do upbringing, she was drawn to her pure love of hers for her outdoors. She “recognized something wild beneath my clean exterior and, like many good girls from proper families, she was turned on by the scent of danger.”
Their affinity for danger, both during the search for their father and now in the Ashley Kim murder investigation, has taken a toll on their relationship. Her tolerance for her availability, both physically and emotionally, has reached her peak, especially now that she’s secretly pregnant.
Well-written fiction reflects reality, often featuring insightful dialogue. One of the best lines Sin worth contemplating is “You never really know someone until they’re not in your life anymore.”
If you like reading crime fiction, you’ll appreciate Doiron’s new voice. He is one that is sure to become more recognizable with time.
The 2012 Bouchercon World Mystery Convention will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, October 4-7. For more information on this gathering of some of the world’s best crime novelists, visit: http://bouchercon2012.com/
