Dead By Dark by Paul Doiron

 

Mike Bowditch has been an investigator for the Forestry Department for years.  He's exactly like one would expect; curious, insightful and introverted.  He lives alone with a wolf for a companion.  The wolf had come to him injured and he nursed it back to health but to his surprise, once healed the wolf had chosen to stick around.  Mike doesn't consider it a pet but he must admit he enjoys having him around.

A new case has just come in.  A wealthy professor died on the river several months ago.  The case was ruled an accident but his family doesn't think that is so.  The man's daughter-in-law is a South African who came to this country as a young woman and regarded the professor as her own father.  Yet he left his fortune to her daughter, his granddaughter.  The older woman is sure that the death was a murder rather than an accident and she wants Mike to investigate the death again.  Mike finally agrees to ask around about it.  He talks to some of the local families who don't have anything new to add to the investigation.  

Before Mike can make up his mind, he encounters tragedy.  Driving home in the dark, his vehicle is booby-trapped and before he can react Mike is thrown out into the river, trapped under the ice.  He manages to fight free of the ice and get out but now he is caught in a race against whoever wants him dead.  They are still out in the night, with a working vehicle and a gun they are quick to shoot at him.  Exhausted and injured, it will take everything Mike has to survive...if he can.

This is the twelfth novel in the Mike Bowditch series.  The story is told in chunks between two time periods; the now where Mike is fighting desperately for his life and the past where the reader learns more about Mike and about the case and people he has talked with.  The action is fast and suspenseful and the reader will be caught up in Mike's fight for survival.  Henry Leyva is the narrator and does an admirable job; his voice bringing a vision of the quiet ranger who won't be deterred from the truth.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.