“Dead Man’s Wake,” by Paul Doiron Submitted photo

Award-winning Maine author Paul Doiron returns for an author presentation and book signing to celebrate the hotly-anticipated next installment in the Mike Bowditch Mystery series, “Dead Man’s Wake” at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 18, at DDG Booksellers in Farmington.

Paul Doiron Submitted photo

Full of captivating suspense, “Dead Man’s Wake” offers an immersive Maine reading experience to seasoned fans and newcomers alike. Kirkus Reviews lauds “Dead Man’s Wake” as “another well-crafted case beautifully built on a foundation of the local geography Doiron knows so well.”

On the evening of their engagement party, Maine Game Warden Investigator Mike Bowditch and Stacey Stevens witness what seems to be a hit-and-run speedboat crash on a darkened lake in Belgrade. When they arrive at the scene, their spotlight reveals a gruesome sight: a severed arm floating just beneath the surface. As day breaks, the warden dive team recovers not one but two naked corpses: a dismembered man and the married woman with whom he was having an affair. Mike begins to suspect the swimmers’ deaths were not a senseless accident but a coldly calculated murder.

Meanwhile, the hunt is on for the mysterious boater. Suspects abound on the lake, nicknamed “Golden Pond,” including the violent biker husband of the murdered woman who may have taken vengeance on his wife and her paramour; a strange woman who claims to have witnessed the crash, but then changes her story; a very aggressive realtor and his wife who were determined to catch trespassers; and the lake’s earnest young constable whose eagerness to help may hide darker motives.

Alone among his fellow officers, Mike starts to sense the involvement of a trained marksman, smarter and more dangerous than any enemy he has ever faced before. As Mike and Stacey get closer to identifying the killer, their own lives are suddenly on the line as they confront a lethal killer who plans to silence them forever. The finale is a tour de force of drama and suspense.

Paul Doiron is the bestselling author of the Mike Bowditch series. Doiron attended Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in English. “The Poacher’s Son,” the first book in the Mike Bowditch series, won the Barry award, the Strand award for best first novel, and has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity awards in the same category. He is a Registered Maine Guide specializing in fly fishing and lives on a trout stream in coastal Maine with his wife Kristen Lindquist.

DDG Booksellers is located at 193 Broadway, Farmington.