Dead by Dawn: A Novel (Mike Bowditch Mysteries Book 12)

Maine game warden Mike Bowditch is ambushed on a dark winter road and crashes his Jeep into a frozen river. Trapped beneath the ice with no gun or way to signal for help, he fights to the surface. His attacker remains at large and closing in. Hours earlier, Bowditch was called to investigate the suspicious drowning of a wealthy professor, officially ruled an accident. The victim's daughter-in-law insists he was murdered and suspects his companion that day—a reclusive survivalist and conspiracy theorist who joined the professor on a duck-hunting trip. Questions arise about the nature of their relationship and whether the professor's sharp-tongued daughter, who inherited his fortune, was as close to him as she claims. Bowditch's investigation leads to a sinister local family claiming to have information. But when armed assailants on snowmobiles chase him through the wilderness, the case becomes a fight for survival. Through a nightlong battle, Bowditch must determine who wants him dead and why.