It’s back to Maine and the travels and travails of young game warden Mike Bowditch. His competency at his assigned game warden tasks and his superb detective skills and determination have so far managed to almost balance out his inability to follow orders and keep his nose out of places he’s been told he doesn’t belong. So far. His reputation as an odd duck and a troublemaker always proceeds him, and he’s gone a little too far this time and finds himself exiled to a new post in the uppermost northern region of Maine. Well, the location may have changed but Mike Bowditch is still Mike Bowditch. What starts out as a rescue in a blizzard of course grows to involve murder, drugs, shady characters and more than the already usual large amount of danger Mike finds himself – puts himself? – in.

As always, the storytelling is superb, with great writing, a good mystery often based on actual events, beautiful, harsh, chilling landscapes and characters that are unforgettable. Bad Little Falls is another riveting addition to the Mike Bowditch series. Not to be missed. ( )

Book 3 in Bowditch's life. Frost bite brother, handicapped sister and strange son of McDonald's worker has Mike intrigued ( )

Bad Little Falls is the third book I have read in the Mike Bowditch series, and this is the one book so far that I felt didn't really rock my boat. It was great to go back and read an early book in the series and the story was not that bad. I just found it not very memorable and I kept forgetting who was who. Personally, I found the best part was that this was the first time Mike met Stacey. However, the case was not that riveting although I did find the ending was good and I was even a bit surprised when the full truth was revealed.

All and all, this was an OK book, although it did feel like a let down when compared to Knife Creek and Stay Hidden. ( )

I like Paul Doiron's Mike Bowditch mysteries because I love stories about sparsely inhabited areas and because I get to watch an impulsive, heart-on-his-sleeve, young man solve mysteries and grow up along the way. He is very...very... slowly learning that he doesn't know better than everyone else, and it's an attitude that needs to change before it kills him.

Bad Little Falls, like the other books in the series, gives readers an excellent feel for the wilds of Maine and the independent-minded, insular people who live there. As Doiron states at the end of the book, "No law enforcement organization in Maine has suffered more deaths in the line of duty than the Warden Service." That statement alone gives readers a better perspective on what Doiron's main character has to face.

Reading about an impulsive, know-it-all, looking-for-love, young man could wear a person out, so it's good that the cast also contains folks like veteran bush pilot Charley Stevens, "gimlet-eyed lesbian" county sheriff Roberta Rhine, and Lucas, the strange little boy who fills his notebooks with all the words he will not say and all the thoughts he refuses to share. In many ways, Lucas is my favorite character in Bad Little Falls. He can provide a little light humor when he ponders the subject of "Abnormal [Abominable] Snowmen," and he can also give you the shivers or even break your heart.

Populated with interesting characters, this solid mystery has plenty of misdirection to keep you guessing. It also provides a harrowing portrait of an area in this country that most of us know very little about. I enjoy gaining knowledge with my fiction. That's why I'll keep coming back to Mike Bowditch deep in the Maine woods. ( )

I have read some of the authors newer books, and then book felt like it was phoned in. I did not really care about the characters or which drug dealer murdered who. ( )