The Precipice by Paul Doiron

by:  Paul Doiron
published by:  Minotaur Books
publish date:  June 16, 2015

When two young female hikers disappear in the Hundred Mile Wilderness—the most remote stretch along the entire two-thousand mile Appalachian Trail—Maine game warden Mike Bowditch joins the search to find them. When two corpses are discovered—the bones picked clean by coyotes—rumors spread that the women were stalked and killed by the increasingly aggressive canines.   His new girlfriend, the brilliant but volatile biologist Stacey Stevens,  insists coyotes merely scavenged the bodies after the women were murdered. When Stacey herself disappears on the outskirts of the Hundred Mile Wilderness, Bowditch realizes that locating her means he must also discover the truth behind what happened to the two hikers. Were the young women really killed by coyotes or, as Stacey insisted, were they murdered by the most dangerous animal in the North Woods?

A few years ago I watched a documentary about the Appalachian Trail, The AT, and the people that hike the entire thing.  It looked so awesome.  There are people that take off for like a year to hike the entire thing from Georgia to Maine.  It's crazy, but people do it all the time.  

Anyway, this book was about that, these two women that were hiking The AT and go missing.  After search teams are formed, their bodies are discovered.  It's theorized that coyotes stalked and killed the women, based on journal entries and the condition of their bodies.  However, Mike Bowditch's girlfriend, Stacey Stevens doesn't believe that.  She knows they were murdered and she's intent on proving that.   Mike, of course, is caught up in investigating the case from his own angle and doesn't realize the trouble that she is in before it's too late.  

I love this series.  Paul Doiron is a great writer.  He does a great job portraying Maine and showing it's not all just lighthouses and lobsters.  I really enjoy all the deep woods descriptions too.   This is a great mystery series and I highly recommend it.